"The black jail was the most dangerous and fearful place," said Hamidullah, a spare-parts dealer in Kandahar who said he was detained there in June. "They don't let the I.C.R.C. officials or any other civilians see or communicate with the people they keep there. Because I did not know what time it was, I did not know when to pray."

The jail's operation highlights a tension between President Obama's goal to improve detention conditions that had drawn condemnation under the Bush administration and his stated desire to give military commanders leeway to operate. While Mr. Obama signed an order to eliminate so-called black sites run by the Central Intelligence Agency in January, it did not also close this jail, which is run by military Special Operations forces.

Military officials said as recently as this summer that the Afghanistan jail and another like it at the Balad Air Base in Iraq were being used to interrogate high-value detainees. And officials said recently that there were no plans to close the jails.

...All three detainees were later released without charges. None said they had been tortured, though they said they heard sounds of abuse going on and certainly felt humiliated and roughly used. "They beat up other people in the black jail, but not me," Hamidullah said. "But the problem was that they didn't let me sleep. There was shouting noise so you couldn’t sleep."

Others, however, have given accounts of abuse at the site, including two Afghan teenagers who told The Washington Post that they had been subjected to beatings and humiliation by American guards.

...All three former detainees interviewed by The New York Times complained of being held for months after the intensive interrogations were over without being told why. One detainee said he remained at the Bagram prison complex for two years and four months; another was held for 10 months total.

Human rights officials said the existence of a jail where prisoners were denied contact with the Red Cross or their families contradicted the Obama administration's drive to improve detention conditions.

...All three detainees said the hardest part of their detention was that their families did not know whether they were alive.

"For my whole family it was disastrous," said Hayatullah, a Kandahar resident who said he was working in his pharmacy when he was arrested. "Because they knew the Americans were sometimes killing people, and they thought they had killed me because for two to three months they didn't know where I was."

More at:
www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/world/asia/29bagram.html

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

EMERGENCY RESPONSE ACTIONS AGAINST THE
ESCALATION OF U.S. WAR IN AFGHANISTAN

5 PM, Wednesday, December 2nd
Federal Plaza (corner of Adams & Dearborn Streets)
In response to the President’s "surge" announcement the night before

…and a follow-up action:

12 Noon, Saturday, December 5th
Federal Plaza (corner of Adams and Dearborn Streets)

Bring all the troops home now!
Funding for human needs, not war!

Please help spread the word by joining our Facebook event group for the actions:
www.facebook.com/inbox/readmessage.php

More info: CCAWR [at] aol.com

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++