KABUL: The United States closed the Bagram detention facility on Dec 10 and no longer has custody of any detainees in Afghanistan, the US Defense Department said, closing a controversial chapter of Washington's long “war on terror”

The US released last three detainees from the notorious Bagram prison renamed as Parwan Detention Center in Afghanistan, ending its prisons operations.

Two of the detainees, including Redha al-Najar, were transferred into Afghan custody for possible prosecution, while the third wasn't considered a threat and is seeking resettlement in another country. In 2002, al-Najar was the subject of “enhanced interrogation” techniques by the CIA, according to the newly released Senate Intelligence Committee report.

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One of the “black sites” mentioned in the damning 500-page Senate report, where measures such as “rectal feeding” were meted out, was a facility known as the “Salt Pit,” located outside the Bagram Air Base.

The report said al-Najar, a former bodyguard of Osama bin Laden, was held at the prison where his interrogation included “isolation in total darkness; lowering the quality of his food; keeping him at an uncomfortable (cold) temperature, playing music 24 hours a day and keeping him shackled and hooded.”

It also said he was left hanging, with his wrists handcuffed to an overhead bar for 22 hours a day for two days, had to wear a diaper and had no access to toilet facilities.

After a month, the Senate report said, al-Najar was “clearly a broken man” and “on the verge of complete breakdown.”

The Senate report cited a CIA cable saying al-Najar was willing to do whatever the CIA officer asked.

US military participation in his interrogation was forbidden because it was seen as a risk to military personnel. US officials had worked to transfer all remaining detainees before the end of this year, when the US combat mission ends.

In a statement, on Wednesday, Lt. Col. Myles Caggins, a Pentagon spokesman, said that after careful review, the US has transferred the last of the third-country nationals held in U.S. custody in Afghanistan.

“The Defense Department no longer operates detention facilities in Afghanistan nor maintains custody of any detainees,” he said, adding that the government of Afghanistan will be responsible for any detention facilities.

In March 2013, Afghan forces took full control from the US of the notorious Bagram prison, renamed Parwan, and located on the sprawling US military airbase.

But the US had remained in charge of foreign prisoners.

US management of the Bagram jail, some 25 miles (40 kilometers) outside Kabul, had been especially controversial.

Rights groups have accused US authorities of carrying out prisoner abuse at the facility, and a US army report found that two inmates were beaten to death in 2002.

Nine Pakistani prisoners were sent home from Bagram in August. And US troops in Afghanistan said on Sunday they had handed over another three Pakistani detainees to Islamabad.

A Pakistani security official said one of them was Latif Mehsud, a close aide to the former chief of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Hakimullah Mehsud.

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After 2001, when the US invaded Afghanistan in response to the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, about 30,000 foreign soldiers and civilians were housed at the former Soviet base at Bagram.

But the number has been falling and will be cut to 6,000 US troops next year.

By the end of 2016, the only US military presence in Afghanistan will be at the embassy in Kabul as President Barack Obama winds down the US combat presence in the country.

Nato's combat mission will end on December 31 this year, although some troops will remain to support the Afghan army and police, who have taken on responsibility for suppressing worsening Islamist violence nationwide.

Source: CloseGuntanamo.org — AFP