Ghost Detainees

According to a report on CBC tonight there are at least 39 US-held detainees for which there is no accounting. These are people that were taken into custody by the CIA and who have simply vanished. Considering what we know is happening to prisoners we know about, what is happening to the ghosts? On what basis were these people snatched off the street?

Think about what happened to Maher Arar, a man whose friend's brother had signed a lease for some guys that were suspect, or something like that, he was sent to Syria. What is the utility of ghost detainees. I mean I'm sure that Al Qaeda or whoever they allegedly work for has noticed that they don't show up to meetings or call or write much any more. I'm sure that they can surmise that the CIA is one of the likeliest groups to have picked up their people. So it's not like this is some kind of security issue with protecting info from the bad guys.

And what about the people who are not bad guys, just in the wrong place at the wrong time? What legal protection do they have? None.

Disappearing people is a very dangerous sign and threat to any free society.

More Dirty Wars

There's a lot you can say to criticize the current government in Iran. Murdering journalists, arresting academics, executing homosexuals, giving a platform to Holocaust deniers, all of these are legitimate reasons to take a dim view of Iran's leaders.

Just don't call them nuts for wanting a nuke and more influence in Iraq's affairs. Is there any other sane reaction when you read that the CIA is authorizing a series of actions designed to destabilize the country? Someone should force those that run the CIA to read a little of the agency's own history. This is an organization that seems to pretty much feel it has the unilateral right to overthrow any government that it dislikes. In virtually every case, the results are a disaster.

The Iranians must have been anticipating this as the CIA did the same with Mossadeq in 1953. The CIA sucks at playing king maker, they should realize that.

The CIA Retirement Plan

I suppose that's a very black-humour way of describing what happened to Saddam this morning. Juan Cole has a detailed post that contextualizes Saddam's rise to power. Surprise, surpirse, Western agents enabled him. Go read the whole thing!