Afghanistan Analysts Network: US holds inmates in Bagram’s secret jail

The Afghanistan Analysts Network says it has found that the U.S. is running a secret jail at Bagram Airbase in which Afghan inmates are being tortured.

In March 2013, the U.S. military said it handed over the control of Bagram detention facility – now called the Afghan National Detention Facility (ANDF), to the Afghan Ministry of Defense. The contents of this agreement between the two governments have never been published, although the Afghan officials say it is not classified.

But now interviews with detainees and Afghan officials have revealed that inmates are still being secretly taken, interrogated, and tortured by U.S. military forces on a secret site on Bagram Airbase known as Tor Jail meaning black prison.

Former detainees have told AAN that even after the handover, the U.S. military has kept its authority to access detainees for interrogation.

The ANN has described the Tor Jail as another Guantanamo.

Before arriving at the ANDF, some detainees are taken to a U.S.-controlled site known as Tor jail, where sleep deprivation is practiced, according to reports by Senior AAN analyst, Kate Clark.

Afghanistan Analysts Network is an independent non-profit Research Organization.

Reports of a secret torture site on Bagram come as General Joseph Dunford, head of the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, four months ago called the long overdue Bagram handover to Afghanistan a highlight to “an increasingly confident, capable and sovereign Afghanistan.”

In November 2012, Karzai ordered Afghan forces to take control of the prison and accused U.S. officials of failing to fully comply with the terms of the memorandum of understanding on detentions.