Ghost detainee is a term used in the
executive branch of the United States government
The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fed ...
to designate a person held in a detention center, whose identity has been hidden by keeping them unregistered and therefore anonymous.
[The "Taguba Report" On Treatment Of Abu Ghraib Prisoners In Iraq: ARTICLE 15-6 INVESTIGATION OF THE 800th MILITARY POLICE BRIGADE](_blank)
May 2004, '' Findlaw'' Such uses arose as the Bush administration initiated the
War on Terror
The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing international counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campaign are militant ...
following the
9/11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerci ...
of 2001 in the United States. As documented in the 2004 ''
Taguba Report
The Taguba Report, officially titled ''US Army 15-6 Report of Abuse of Prisoners in Iraq'', is a report published in May 2004 containing the findings from an official military inquiry into the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse. It is named after Major Gene ...
'', it was used in the same manner by United States officials and contractors of the Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Center at the
Abu Ghraib prison in
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
in 2003–2004.
According to the
Swiss senator
Dick Marty
Dick Marty (born 7 January 1945) is a Swiss politician ( FDP.The Liberals) and former state prosecutor of the canton of Ticino. He is a former member of the Swiss Council of States (from 1995 to 2011) and of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Coun ...
's memorandum on "alleged detention in Council of Europe states", the U.S.
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
(CIA) has captured about one hundred persons on European territory and subsequently
rendered them to countries where they may have been
torture
Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. definitions of tortur ...
d. This number of one hundred
extraordinarily rendered persons is in addition to the estimated hundred U.S. ghost detainees.
["Information memorandum II on the alleged secret detentions in Council of Europe states, reported by Dick Marty"](_blank)
, ''BBC'', January 22, 2006
Secret CIA prisons
According to then-
CIA chief Michael Hayden in 2007, the
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
had detained up to 100 people at secret facilities abroad (known as
black sites
In military terminology, a black site is a location at which an unacknowledged black operation or black project is conducted. According to the Associated Press, "Black sites are clandestine jails where prisoners generally are not charged with a ...
) since the 2002 capture of the suspected
Al Qaeda operative
Abu Zubaydah
Abu Zubaydah ( ; , ''Abū Zubaydah''; born March 12, 1971, as Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn) is a Saudi Arabian currently held by the U.S. in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. He is held under the authority of Authorization for Use o ...
.
One example is
Khalid El-Masri
Khaled El-Masri (also Khalid El-Masri and Khaled Masri, Levantine Arabic pronunciation: , ar, خالد المصري) (born 29 June 1963) is a German and Lebanese citizen who was mistakenly abducted by the Macedonian police in 2003, and handed ov ...
, a
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
citizen abducted by the
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
in
Macedonia in January 2004. He was taken to a CIA black site in
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
, known as the
Salt Pit
The Salt Pit and Cobalt are the code names of an isolated clandestine CIA black site prison and interrogation center outside Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. It is located north of Kabul and was the location of a brick factory prior to the Afgh ...
, for questioning under '
enhanced interrogation techniques' before he was determined to be innocent in March and eventually released in May 2004 after some additional delays. His abduction was said to be a case of mistaken identity.
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
initially claimed that it did not know of el-Masri's abduction until his return to the country in May 2004. But, on June 1, 2006, the
BND (German intelligence agency) declared that it had known of El-Masri's seizure 16 months before Germany was officially informed of his arrest.
In a 2007 report,
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
related the claims of an alleged ghost detainee,
Marwan Jabour
Marwan Jabour is a former captive held in the CIA's network of black sites.
He was raised him Saudi Arabia by his Palestinian guest worker parents.
He moved to Pakistan for study, in 1994.
The ''Washington Post'' interviewed Mawrwan Jabour at ...
, a Palestinian who was arrested in
Lahore, Pakistan, in May 2004. He claimed to have been held for more than a month in a secret detention facility operated by Pakistanis and Americans in
Islamabad
Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital ...
. He was flown to a CIA prison in Afghanistan, where he was held in secret, incommunicado detention for more than two years. During his ordeal, he was tortured, beaten, forced to stay awake for days, and kept naked and chained to a wall for more than a month.
At least 39 detainees who were once held by the CIA in secret detention remain "disappeared," according to ''Off the Record,'' a report jointly published June 7, 2007 by six leading human rights groups, including
Amnesty International, the
Center for Constitutional Rights
The Center for Constitutional Rights[The Center for Constitutional Rights](_blank)
(CCR) is a Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
. Spokesmen say that their report:
reveals the extent to which the United States has illegally used "proxy detention" to empty its secret sites and demonstrates that far from targeting the "worst of the worst," the system sweeps up low-level detainees and even involves the detention of the wives and children of the "disappeared," in violation of their human rights. 'Off the Record' also documents allegations concerning the treatment of detainees while in secret detention, including torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Abu Ghraib's ghost detainees
The practice of ''ghosting'' first achieved widespread attention in 2005 when
''The'' ''Washington Post'' broke a story suggesting that the
U.S. Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...
and the CIA were detaining "
unlawful enemy combatants
An unlawful combatant, illegal combatant or unprivileged combatant/belligerent is a person who directly engages in armed conflict in violation of the laws of war and therefore is claimed not to be protected by the Geneva Conventions.
The Internat ...
" at the Abu Ghraib prison in
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
with little or no
due process.
[Josh White, "Army, CIA Agreed on 'Ghost' Prisoners"](_blank)
, ''Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...
'', March 10, 2005 According to the article, the CIA asked military intelligence officials to let them house ghost detainees at Abu Ghraib by September 2003 and proposed a
memorandum of understanding between the agencies on the topic that November. The Army and the
Defense Department have acknowledged that the United States has used ghosting in the past, but have said it was limited to isolated incidents. According to documents obtained by the ''Post'', "unregistered CIA detainees were brought to Abu Ghraib several times a week in late 2003."
The ''Post'' cited as evidence the 2004
report
A report is a document that presents information in an organized format for a specific audience and purpose. Although summaries of reports may be delivered orally, complete reports are almost always in the form of written documents. Usage
In ...
by
Major General
Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of ...
Antonio Taguba
Antonio Mario Taguba (born October 31, 1950) is a retired major general in the United States Army. He was the second American citizen of Philippine birth to be promoted to general officer rank in the United States Army.
Taguba is best known for ...
:
in a report describing abuses of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, eblamed the 800th Military Police Brigade, which guarded the prison, for allowing 'other government agencies' — a euphemism that includes the CIA — to hide 'ghost' detainees at Abu Ghraib. The practice, he wrote, 'was deceptive, contrary to Army doctrine, and in violation of international law'.
When news of a detainee known only as
Triple X became known to the public in late 2003,
U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was questioned about him.
[Pound, Edward T]
"Hiding a Bad Guy Named Triple X"
, '' U.S. News & World Report'', June 21, 2004 Rumsfeld was evasive, and speculated about why someone would want to keep a prisoner hidden from the
Red Cross
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and ...
. This is considered a
war crime under
international law
International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...
.
On September 9, 2004, General
Paul J. Kern testified before the
Senate Armed Services Committee
The Committee on Armed Services (sometimes abbreviated SASC for ''Senate Armed Services Committee'') is a committee of the United States Senate empowered with legislative oversight of the nation's military, including the Department of Def ...
, stating that an inquiry he led found that the Army had cooperated with the CIA in hiding dozens of ghost detainees from the Red Cross.
Kern told the Committee there may have been as many as 100 ghost detainees.
[
In addition to allegations and reports about ghost detainees in Iraq or East Asian countries such as Afghanistan and Pakistan, there have been reports that the U.S. had held prisoners in detention centers in some European states. In 2006 the Swiss senator ]Dick Marty
Dick Marty (born 7 January 1945) is a Swiss politician ( FDP.The Liberals) and former state prosecutor of the canton of Ticino. He is a former member of the Swiss Council of States (from 1995 to 2011) and of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Coun ...
wrote a memorandum on "alleged detention in Council of Europe states." He said the CIA had captured about 100 persons on European territory and subsequently rendered them to countries where they may have been torture
Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. definitions of tortur ...
d. The BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
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persons is in addition to the estimated 100 U.S. ghost detainees.
(NGOs) as improper and illegal; it prevents these prisoners from having contact with inspectors and
". One 2005 report by Amnesty International indicated that more than 100 ghost detainees may have been held in U.S.-operated
s at the time of publication.
In May 2005, Irene Khan of Amnesty International addressed the issue in a speech:
* US Department of State FOIA-declassified document collections
''This collection consists of documents concerning individuals apprehended after September 11, 2001 and held by the U.S. at military bases or detention facilities outside the U.S. and the rendition of detainees and other individuals to foreign powers.''