Expansion Of Bagram Prison

Bagram is an American-controlled military base, 40 miles north of Kabul in Afghanistan. It remains a key site in the US military's international network of secret prisons where "combatants" are held without charge.

The "Bagram Theater Internment Facility" now holds 2 1/2 times as many prisoners as Guantanamo Bay -- 630 prisoners, up from barely 100 in early 2004.

The New York Times:

Military personnel who know both Bagram and Guantánamo describe the Afghan site as far more spartan. Bagram prisoners have fewer privileges, less ability to contest their detention and no access to lawyers. Some detainees have been held without charge for more than five years, officials said.

The Red Cross has said that prisoners have been kept from its inspectors and sometimes subjected to cruel treatment in violation of the Geneva Conventions.

This is a link to an interview with Tina Wilson, the executive director of the New York-based International Justice Network, which has filed the first habeas corpus petition for people detained at Bagram.