U.S.: Detained al-Qaeda Suspects "Disappeared". Kept in Secret Prisons

At least 11 al-Qaeda suspects have "disappeared" in U.S. custody, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. U.S. officials are holding the detainees in undisclosed locations, where some have reportedly been tortured. The 46-page report, "The United States' ?Disappeared': The CIA's Long-Term ?Ghost Detainees,'" describes how the Central Intelligence Agency is holding al-Qaeda suspects in "secret locations," reportedly outside the United States, with no notification to their families, no access to the International Committee of the Red Cross or oversight of any sort of their treatment, and in some cases, no acknowledgement that they are even being held.   "Disappearances' were a trademark abuse of Latin American military dictatorships in their ?dirty war' on alleged subversion," said Reed Brody, special counsel with Human Rights Watch. "Now they have become a United States tactic in its conflict with al-Qaeda."  Under international law, enforced disappearances occur when persons are deprived of their liberty and the detaining authority refuses to disclose their fate or whereabouts or refuses to acknowledge their detention, which places the detainees outside the protection of the law. [more ] and [more ]