50cal

Navy denies prison-ship charge



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Posted : June 16, 2008

LONDON — A British human rights organization claimed June 2 that the U.S. had used military ships to secretly detain and interrogate terrorism suspects. U.S. officials denied using ships as prisons.
The Reprieve organization claims that the U.S. has used ships stationed off the Somali coast and the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia to detain suspects.
“The U.S. administration chooses ships to try to keep their misconduct as far as possible from the prying eyes of the media and lawyers,” Reprieve director Clive Stafford Smith said.
The Navy said that ships have been used to hold a small number of prisoners for short periods — such as American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh, who stayed aboard the amphibious assault ships Peleliu and Bataan. But the Navy denied that vessels were used as long-term floating prisons.
“We do not operate detention facilities on board Navy ships,” Pentagon spokesman Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon said. “Department of Defense detention facilities are in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay [Cuba].”
Reprieve said it based its assessment on evidence from the U.S. military and the Council of Europe, and testimony from a former detainee at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo.
It declined to publish details on its research, saying it plans to issue a report on the use of prison ships later this year. Reprieve has been representing several prisoners at Guantanamo.
Stafford Smith claimed that the U.S. may have used as many as 17 ships as floating prisons. He said the organization believes about 26,000 people are being held by the U.S. in secret prisons — a figure that includes land-based detention centers.
Reprieve identified the Bataan, Peleliu and dock landing ship Ashland as among ships that have been used as prisons.
Gordon said the organization’s claims were “inaccurate and misleading.”
While discussing Lindh’s stay aboard the Bataan and Peleliu, Gordon explained that there were fewer than 10 such detainees.
He said that Lindh — who in 2002 pleaded guilty to offenses of supplying services to the now-defunct Taliban government — and others had been detained there to allow U.S. officials secure access for interviews away from the battlefield.
Gordon did not say exactly how long they were detained aboard Navy ships, only that they were held for “weeks rather than months.”
British lawmaker Andrew Tyrie said he has appealed to Britain’s information commissioner to force the government to release minutes of military talks that could shed light on the allegations.
The Foreign Office has previously said that during a meeting with U.S officials, Americans told the British they were not detaining prisoners on ships off the coast of Diego Garcia, a remote British outpost that hosts a naval support facility.
— The Associated Press

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SmokeEater

So does this mean my next MEU Float is gonna shorter???

Basically these guys are getting the same treatment as any other squid... minus port calls in Australia.

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***Edited for explicit content***

50cal

or Thailand....can't forget Thailand...........LOL!!!!

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"Sweat dries, blood clots, bones heal. Suck it up. Be a Marine"

Wakalapi

My "prison" took me to Alaska, Greenland, Australia, Fiji, Chile, Mexico, Germany and Antarctica --- all in a one year period. Sure I'd go back. I'd have to lose 50lbs first though.

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