Disappearances in the War on Terror have formed an integral part of the Bush administration’s programme of secret detention.
This latest report by Cageprisoners: Beyond the Law: The War on Terror’s Secret Network of Global Detentions, highlights the wide-reaching extent of those countries that house these detainees, generally at the behest of the US government. The report shows that out of the 120 prisons identified worldwide, 72 have been, or are currently being used by the US to interrogate detainees.
By piecing together statements of released detainees, work of investigative journalists and human rights organisations, we provide the most definitive and up to date list of prisons used in the “War on Terror”.
Commenting on the findings of the report, Manfred Nowak, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, wrote, “… Cageprisoners publishes a comprehensive report which reveals the systematic practice of enforced disappearances in a global network of secret places of detention.”
Further the Chair of the British Institute of Human Rights, Geoffrey Bindman, states that in the policies of the War on Terror, “This report is directed at one glaringly disgraceful element in that strategy: the detention without charge or trial and the physical abuse of those suspected of involvement in terrorism.”