Originally published December 7 2005
Officials release figures on the number of prisoners detained by the U.S. military abroad
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
According to breitbart.com, the U.S. military has detained some 83,000 prisoners of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and currently, the U.S. holds around 14,500 prisoners in the war on terror.
The administration defends the practice of holding detainees in prisons from Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay as a critical tool to stop the insurgency in Iraq, maintain stability in Afghanistan and get known and suspected terrorists off the streets.
The number has steadily grown since the first CIA paramilitary officers touched down in Afghanistan in the fall of 2001, setting up more than 20 facilities including the "Salt Pit," an abandoned factory outside Kabul used for CIA detention and interrogation.
In Iraq, the number in military custody hit a peak on Nov. 1, according to military figures.
Nearly 13,900 suspects were in U.S. custody there that day _ partly because U.S. offensives in western Iraq put pressure on insurgents before the October constitutional referendum and December parliamentary elections.
International law and treaty obligations forbid torture and inhumane treatment.
Classified memos have given the government ways to extract intelligence from detainees "consistent with the law," administration officials often say.
Some 82,400 people have been detained by the military alone in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to figures from officials in Baghdad and Washington.
Through the CIA, a much smaller prison population is maintained secretly by the agency and friendly governments.
The governments of Thailand and a number of Eastern Europe countries have denied the CIA operated prisons within their borders.
Before Goss took over the agency, its inspector general completed a report on the treatment of detainees, following investigations into at least four prisoner deaths that may have involved CIA personnel.
Former intelligence officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the practices are classified, say some interrogation techniques are well-known: exposing prisoners to cold, depriving them of sleep or forcing them to stand in stressful positions.
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