John Knefel reminds us that the US is still holding 60 men without charge in a prison near Bagram Airfield. Because they are neither Afghan nor American, they face an uncertain future:
Pentagon spokesperson Todd Breasseale says in an email that the third-country nationals held by the US “at the small part of Parwan [Detention Facility] that we still use are all [Law of War] detainees”–the same authority that applies to nearly every detainee at Guantánamo. (There are currently 166 detainees held at Guantánamo, 86 of whom have been deemed transferrable because they are not threats to US national security.) That legal rationale allows the US to hold prisoners until the end of hostilities in the war against al Qaeda, which Pentagon officials have suggested could last as much as another 20 years.
It remains unclear what the future holds for the prison at Bagram, though Belhadi, the attorney in Pakistan, is not optimistic. “Our impression is that Bagram will remain open even after US combat operations cease in December 2014,” he says. The way forward for his individual clients and the rest of the detainees is also unclear.
(Photo: Aerial view of Parwan Detention Facility in 2009 via Wikimedia)
The Dish 
