A10 Thursday, July 16, 2009

The World

At Jail in Bagram,

A Detainee Protest

Indefinite Incarceration by U.S. at Issue

By Greg Jaffe and Julie Tate

Washington Post Staff Writers

The prisoners at the largest U.S. detention facility in Af- ghanistan have refused to leave their cells for at least the past two weeks to protest their indef- inite imprisonment, according to lawyers and the families of detainees.

BY TSAFRIR ABAYOV — ASSOCIATED PRESS

Israeli soldiers stand atop and next to a tank near their country’s border with Gaza. The Islamist group Hamas has controlled Gaza since June 2007.

Ex-U.S. Diplomat Talks With Hamas

Officials of Islamist Group See an Opening, but Washington Says Nothing’s Changed

By Howard Schneider and Glenn Kessler

Washington Post Foreign Service

JERUSALEM, July 15 — To Ha- mas officials Bassem Naim and Mah- moud al-Zahar, a recent meeting in Switzerland with a former senior U.S. diplomat represented an open- ing in relations with the Obama ad- ministration, and a path to easing the Islamist group’s isolation. “I hope it will be the beginning of addressing some of the mistakes of the last three years,” Naim said of his talks with Thomas R. Pickering, a former undersecretary of state and U.S. ambassador to the United Na- tions. “This was a first meeting to in- vestigate the positions in general terms of both parties without any commitment on any side.” U.S. officials say they see the pre- viously undisclosed June meeting between Pickering and the two sen- ior Hamas officials differently. They said Pickering had not been asked to approach Hamas and had no official standing; U.S. officials learned of the meeting only afterward. Policy toward the Islamist group, they said, remains what it was under President George W. Bush: that Hamas is a ter- rorist organization with which the United States will not even sanction ameeting.

Before Hamas can participate in peace talks, “we have made it clear, both publicly and privately, through all kinds of pronouncements, that we would expect Hamas to recognize Is- rael and renounce violence and agree to abide by prior agreements,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday in Washing- ton.

Still, the Pickering meeting took place in the context of Obama ad- ministration efforts to reach out to forces in the Middle East that were shunned under Bush. It was held in between President Obama’s June 4

West Bank. Even as Obama pushes for a re-

newal of talks between Abbas and Is- raeli Prime Minister Binyamin Ne- tanyahu, there is no clear plan for how to address the presence of an organization that won 2006 Palestin- ian legislative elections but does not recognize Israel and remains com- mitted to armed insurrection against the Jewish state. Israeli officials say that since their

BY ASMAA WAGUIH — REUTERS

The meeting came just before a conciliatory June 25 speech by Hamas leader Khaled Meshal.

speech in Cairo, in which he ac- knowledged popular support for Ha- mas among Palestinians, and a June 25 speech by Hamas leader Khaled Meshal, in which Meshal said the armed movement was ready to deal with the international community in order to reach an agreement with Is- rael. Pickering, co-chair of the non- profit International Crisis Group, would not comment.

As the Obama administration’s Middle East diplomacy intensifies —with U.S. officials jetting to cap- itals such as Damascus that were off limits at the end of the Bush admin- istration, and offering dialogue with Iran — Hamas remains one of the most significant outliers.

Hamas is, at once, a political par-

ty, a paramilitary group that targets Israeli civilians and troops, a provid- er of charitable services, and a reli- gious organization. The group seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007 in a clash with the Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The au- thority continues to hold sway in the

offensive in Gaza ended earlier this year, they have been focused on pre- venting Hamas from rearming itself with smuggled or homemade weap- ons. Beyond that, U.S. and Israeli strategy rests on a hope that improv- ing the economy and security in the West Bank will undercut popular support for Hamas and strengthen Palestinian moderates. “If we can energize that process, it will do more to delegitimize Hamas than anything else,” said Netanyahu spokesman Mark Regev. The International Monetary Fund reported Wednesday that recent changes in Israel’s network of check- points, as well as improvements in security, have put the West Bank economy on track for growth of as much as 7 percent this year. Gaza’s economy remains under an Israeli blockade, with unemployment esti- mated at 40 percent or more. In an interview after touring the

West Bank this week, special Middle East envoy Tony Blair said that, if current trends continue, Hamas would soon “have a choice” as Gaza’s 1.5 million residents slip fur- ther behind Palestinians in the West Bank. Arecent lull in rocket fire and oth- er attacks, coupled with Meshal’s speech and a visit to Gaza by former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, has led to speculation that Hamas is trying to earn a place at the negotiating ta- ble. Others argue that the group is simply pausing to rearm and will

never accept the conditions laid out by the United States and others — including a renunciation of violence and acceptance of earlier Palestinian agreements acknowledging Israel. Yuval Diskin, head of Israel’s in- ternal security organization, Shin Bet, said at a closed briefing in May that he saw practically no chance of a political compromise and that Israel would ultimately have to overthrow Hamas in Gaza, according to an ac- count of his comments provided by someone who attended the briefing. Meshal’s speech, delivered from Damascus, the Syrian capital, was considered an overture to Obama. “The purpose of the speech was to convince the West that Hamas is a partner for dialogue,” retired Israeli Brig. Gen. Shlomo Brom, director of the Israeli-Palestinian Relations Pro- gram at Tel Aviv University, wrote in a recent paper. “The speech will make it easier for elements in West- ern Europe and within Obama’s ad- ministration that support dialogue with Hamas to advance their posi- tion.”

But U.S. and Israeli officials say they see little substantive change in Meshal’s position. Meshal and other Hamas officials have said that hostil- ities might end for a decade or more through an extended truce, but that they are not interested in reconcil- ing with Israel over the long term. “There is a recognition that Israel exists,” said Omar Abdel-Razeq, who was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council from Hamas in 2006 and was recently released from Israeli prison. “The recognition of its right to exist is another matter. I don’t think time lies on the Israeli side. What if the balance of power shifts?”

Kessler reported from Washington. Special correspondent Samuel Sockol in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

The prison-wide protest, which has been going on since at least July 1, offers a rare glimpse inside a facility that is even more closed off to the pub- lic than the U.S. detention facil- ity at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Information about the protest came to light when the Interna- tional Committee of the Red Cross informed the families of several detainees that sched- uled video teleconferences and family visits were being can- celed.

Representatives of the ICRC, which monitors the treatment of detainees and arranges the calls, last visited the Bagram prison on July 5, but inmates were unwilling to meet with them. “We have suspended our vid- eo telephone conference and family visit programs because the detainees have informed us they do not wish to participate in the programs for the time be- ing,” said Bernard Barrett, a spokesman for the organization. Although the prisoners are refusing to leave their cells to shower or exercise, they are not engaging in hunger strikes or violence. Ramzi Kassem, an at- torney for Yemeni national Amin al-Bakri, said detainees are protesting being held indefi- nitely without trial or legal re- course. “We don’t want to hold de- tainees longer than necessary,” said a U.S. military official who spoke on the condition of ano- nymity. “We engage in regular releases and transfers when we feel a detainee’s threat can be sufficiently mitigated to war- rant being released or trans- ferred. Of course, there will con-

tinue to be some detainees whose high threat level can only be successfully mitigated via de- tention, but we review their sta- tus regularly to assess whether other options are available.” Unlike at Guantanamo Bay, where detainees have access to lawyers, the 620 prisoners at Ba- gram are not permitted to visit with their attorneys. Afghan government representatives are generally not allowed to visit or inspect the Bagram facility. President Obama signed an executive order in January to re- view detention policy options. The Justice Department is lead- ing an interagency task force ex- amining the issue and is set to deliver a report to the president on Tuesday. In recent years, Bagram be- came the destination for many terrorism suspects as Guanta- namo Bay came under more scrutiny through legal challeng- es. The last significant group transfer from the battlefield to the prison in Cuba occurred in September 2004, when 10 de- tainees were moved there; in September 2006, 14 high-value detainees were transferred to Guantanamo Bay from secret CIA prisons. Since then, six de- tainees have been moved there. The Bagram prison popula- tion, meanwhile, has ballooned. U.S. officials are building a big- ger facility there that will hold nearly 1,000.

The Bagram facility includes

inmates from Afghanistan as well as those arrested by U.S. au- thorities in other countries as part of counterterrorism efforts. The prison now holds close to 40 detainees who are not Afghan citizens, many of whom were not captured in Afghanistan. In April, a D.C. district judge ruled that the Supreme Court decision that extended habeas corpus rights to detainees at Guantanamo Bay also applied to a certain set of detainees held at Bagram — those who were not arrested in Afghanistan and who are not Afghan citizens. The Jus- tice Department has appealed the decision.

S

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The Washington Post

Afghanistan War Deaths

Total number of U.S. military deaths since 2001 and names of the U.S. troops killed recently in the Afghanistan war, as announced by the Pentagon:

733

Fatalities

In

hostile actions:

In

non-hostile actions:

500 233

Tallies may be incomplete because of lags in reporting.

CIA Program Was Nearing Training Phase

CIA , From Page A1

by Panetta, say then-Vice President Richard B. Cheney personally or- dered the CIA not to tell Congress about the initiative, which involved a series of intermittent plans to kill or capture Osama bin Laden and other top al-Qaeda leaders using small teams of assassins.

Congressional Democrats this

week formally requested docu- ments about the program, and some have called for an investigation into whether the CIA improperly with- held information from oversight committees. Sen. Russell Feingold (Wis.), a member of the Senate in- telligence committee, was among several prominent Democrats who have accused the CIA of violating the law.

He said he had “deep concerns about the program” and had con- veyed them to President Obama in a classified letter. Republicans say the allegations of CIA wrongdoing are false and harmful, and some accused Demo- crats of raising the issue to deflect attention from recent controversies surrounding House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), who was heavily crit- icized after accusing the agency of lying to Congress about its use of waterboarding and other harsh in- terrogation techniques. “We have lost valuable opportuni-

ties to improve oversight of the in- telligence community because they got caught playing silly games,” said Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.). The plan to deploy small teams of assassins grew out of the CIA’s ear- ly efforts to battle al-Qaeda after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. A secret document known as a “presi- dential finding” was signed by President George W. Bush that same month, granting the agency broad authority to use deadly force against bin Laden as well as other senior members of al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups.

The finding imposed no geo- graphical limitations on the agen- cy’s actions, and intelligence offi- cials have said that they were not obliged to notify Congress of each operation envisaged under the di- rective.

The CIA declined to reveal spe- cifics of the terminated program. But agency spokesman George Lit- tle said it was “never fully opera- tional and never took a single ter- rorist off the battlefield.” Since his appointment, Panetta has been “ag- gressively using the vast tools and tactics at our disposal — those that actually work — to take terrorists off the streets,” Little said. Some U.S. officials familiar with the program say it never progressed beyond concepts and feasibility studies, but others described more

advanced preparations, including selection of teams and limited train- ing. All of the attempts ultimately had to be scrapped, often because of logistical difficulties or because the risks were deemed too great, said several officials who served in coun- terterrorism units or had access to top-secret files. The program was active in fits and starts, and it was essentially killed in 2004 because it was deemed ineffective, former and cur- rent intelligence officials said. It re- emerged briefly in 2005 but re- mained largely dormant until this year. Two U.S. officials with de- tailed knowledge of current CIA op- erations said the agency presented Panetta last month with new plans for moving forward with training for potential members of the assas- sination teams — activities that would have involved “crossing international boundaries,” in the words of a former counterterrorism official briefed on the matter. “When a CIA unit brought the program to Panetta’s attention, it came with a recommendation to brief Congress since there was some thought being given to mov- ing toward a somewhat more opera- tional phase — that is, a little train- ing,” said an intelligence official with direct knowledge of the events.

Despite the new activity sur-

rounding the program, there were “concerns about its feasibility,” the official said. “If the country ever needs a capability like this going for- ward, smart minds will figure out a better way to do it.” Blair said that Panetta told him in

advance of the decision to terminate the program and that he supported the action as well as the decision to inform Congress. Panetta “felt it was urgent and ap- propriate to brief the Hill,” Blair said. “You can make a judgment call on whether a briefing was neces- sary. We were on the side of ‘Let’s do it.’ We’re trying to reset our rela- tions with Congress.”

Blair also asserted that killing the program did not diminish U.S. op- tions for battling al-Qaeda, includ- ing the possible use of insertion teams that could kill or capture ter- rorist leaders.

“This particular program didn’t

make the cut,” he said. “But it is ab- solutely not true that we are doing less against al-Qaeda. Our primary criterion is effectiveness, and we will continue to do things that we think are effective to make terrorist lives miserable, and hopefully, short.”

Staff writers R. Jeffrey Smith, Karen DeYoung and Ben Pershing and staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.

K Spec. Jonathan C. O’Neill, 22, of

Zephyrhills, Fla.; 549th Military Po- lice Company, 385th Military Police Battalion, 16th Military Police Bri- gade (Airborne), based at Fort Stew- art, Ga. Died June 15 at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio of wounds suffered June 2 in Paktia.

K Sgt. 1st Class Kevin A. Dupont,

52, of Templeton, Mass.; 79th Troop Command, based in Rehoboth, Mass. Died June 17 at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio of wounds suffered March 8 in Kandau.

K Staff Sgt. Joshua A. Melton, 26,

of Carlyle, Ill.; 2nd Battalion, 130th Infantry, based in Marion, Ill.

K Staff Sgt. Paul G. Smith, 43, of

East Peoria, Ill.; 2nd Squadron, 106th Cavalry, based Aurora, Ill. The two Illinois Army National Guardsmen were killed June 19 in Kandahar.

K Command Master Chief Jeffrey J.

Garber, 43, of Hemingford, Neb.; USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the North Arabian Sea. Died June 20 aboard ship of noncombat causes.

K 1st Lt. Brian N. Bradshaw, 24, of

Steilacoom, Wash.; 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Airborne Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, based at Fort Richardson, Alaska. Killed June 25 in Kheyl.

K Lance Cpl. Charles S. Sharp, 20,

of Adairsville, Ga.; 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C. Killed July 2 in Helmand province.

K Pfc. Justin A. Casillas, 19, of Dun-

nigan, Calif.

K Pfc. Aaron E. Fairbairn, 20, of Ab-

erdeen, Wash. The two soldiers were assigned to 3rd Battalion, 509th Parachute In- fantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Com- bat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, based at Fort Richardson, Alaska. They were killed July 4 at Combat Outpost Zerok.

K Petty Officer 2nd Class Tony Mi-

chael Randolph, 22, of Henryetta, Okla.; individual augmentee as- signed to Combined Security Transi- tion Command-Afghanistan. Killed July 6 in northern Afghanistan.

K Sgt. Brock H. Chavers, 25, of Bul-

loch, Ga.; 2nd Battalion, 121st In- fantry Regiment, based in Americus, Ga.

K Spec. Chester W. Hosford, 35, of

Hastings, Minn.; 2nd Battalion, 106th Cavalry Regiment, based in Dixon, Ill.

K Spec. Issac L. Johnson, 24, of Co-

lumbus, Ga.; 1st Battalion, 108th Reconnaissance, Surveillance and Target Acquisition Squadron, based in Rome, Ga.

K 2nd Lt. Derwin I. Williams, 41, of

Glenwood, Ill.; 2nd Battalion, 106th Cavalry Regiment, based in Dixon, Ill.

The four soldiers were killed July 6 in Kunduz.

All troops were killed in action in Afghanistan unless otherwise indicated.

Total fatalities include one civilian employee of the Defense Department. They also include service members killed in other locations involved in Operation Enduring Freedom, including Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; Djibouti; Eritrea; Ethiopia; Jordan; Kenya; Kyrgyzstan; Pakistan; Philippines; Seychelles; Sudan; Tajikistan; Turkey; Uzbekistan; and Yemen.

A full list of casualties is available online at www.washingtonpost.com/nation.

SOURCE: Defense Department’s www

.defenselink.mil/news

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