:00:00. > :00:00.headlines. Now it is Our World. Hundred cars a will release hundreds
:00:00. > :00:12.of detainees, in a controversial move.
:00:13. > :00:19.Bagram Prison, outside carpel. Some have called it Afghanistan 's
:00:20. > :00:24.one-time obey. Last month 65 prisoners were released from here.
:00:25. > :00:29.They have been held without trial, some for many years. The Americans
:00:30. > :00:35.think they are Taliban insurgents and killers. We will release people
:00:36. > :00:41.who are clearly hard-core terrorists. But the Afghan
:00:42. > :00:46.authorities say that their men and that the prison has been handed over
:00:47. > :00:50.to them. People who have come out of the prison have told me that this is
:00:51. > :00:55.a prison where they take innocent Afghans and turn them against their
:00:56. > :01:00.own country. The week before their release I was given unprecedented
:01:01. > :01:06.access inside Bagram Prison and met some of the detainees. Today we
:01:07. > :01:14.investigate how the releases are threatening to derail relations
:01:15. > :01:15.between Afghanistan and the United States in a key moment in the
:01:16. > :01:54.history of this nation. I am on my way to Bagram Prison on
:01:55. > :01:58.the outskirts of couple. -- Kabul. The facility is located just outside
:01:59. > :02:07.the massive US military airbase at Bagram. Last year the wings
:02:08. > :02:12.containing Afghan born prisoners were given over to Afghanistan but
:02:13. > :02:17.the US still overseas cell blocks containing foreign combatants. My
:02:18. > :02:19.guide was General Farooq Barakzai, the Afghan army commander in overall
:02:20. > :02:43.charge of this place. When I was shown around this prison
:02:44. > :02:49.still had 1340 inmates. The guards are all from the Afghan national
:02:50. > :02:52.army. This place was only built four years ago and the overall conditions
:02:53. > :03:00.were much better than anything I have seen elsewhere in the prison
:03:01. > :03:01.system of Afghanistan. I get the guided tour. The first stop is the
:03:02. > :03:47.visiting area. Next on the two were the kitchens.
:03:48. > :03:51.-- tour. The general was part of the facility but this felt like a public
:03:52. > :03:55.relations exercise. But get to meet the inmates and see how they really
:03:56. > :04:02.lived? The prisoners were allowed one hour of outside exercise per
:04:03. > :04:13.day. There was even a garden for the inmates. There are strict rules
:04:14. > :04:25.here. Breaking them is not advisable. Especially not rule
:04:26. > :04:35.number seven. Background is also an intrusive facility. CCTV is
:04:36. > :04:38.everywhere. The roofs of cells are grids and the guards can look down
:04:39. > :04:45.at all times. All external communications are monitored, very
:04:46. > :04:46.obviously so. At the medical wing and allowed my first contact with
:04:47. > :05:12.the inmates. -- I was allowed. There was also a dental service. All
:05:13. > :05:17.of those waiting for treatment in this holding pen were shackled hand
:05:18. > :05:25.and foot. It was here that the prisoners showed their anger. This
:05:26. > :05:29.man said that he was a journalist and poetry Kandahar and was arrested
:05:30. > :05:36.in a night-time raid by US forces. He had been held here for almost six
:05:37. > :05:41.months. TRANSLATION: If they have evidence they should show it to me
:05:42. > :05:44.and take me to court and imprisoned if a life if that's what they want.
:05:45. > :05:54.But how can they just stick media for no reason? -- stick me here.
:05:55. > :05:59.Detention without trial was repeated complaint. It is something that the
:06:00. > :06:03.authorities in couple are acting on. In this room we met some of the 65
:06:04. > :06:09.men about to be released by the Afghan authorities, despite strong
:06:10. > :06:14.objections from the US. The US military said that this man was a
:06:15. > :06:18.Taliban co-ordinator who conducted bomb attacks. They said he was
:06:19. > :06:21.caught with a firearm and propaganda on his phone as well is testing
:06:22. > :06:28.positive for four types of explosives. He told us that he was
:06:29. > :06:31.16 and a simple shepherd from hell manned province. We have no way of
:06:32. > :06:35.knowing if he was telling the truth. But after a year in Bagram
:06:36. > :06:42.Prison he certainly hated the Americans. TRANSLATION: I hate them
:06:43. > :06:47.because I am here for no reason. Of course I hate them. I want to ask
:06:48. > :06:50.them dashboard was my crime? If they gave me the evidence I would not
:06:51. > :06:54.mind if they kept me in prison for ten years but nobody is asking about
:06:55. > :07:02.that. I have spent a year far from my mother and father. Why? What is
:07:03. > :07:10.the reason? Another inmate was described by the Americans as a
:07:11. > :07:16.Taliban commander and financier of an Al Qaeda linked insurgent group
:07:17. > :07:20.funded by donors in the Gulf states. But this man simply told me that he
:07:21. > :07:25.bought himself a second-hand car in Dubai and was the victim of mistaken
:07:26. > :07:30.identity. The US forces claimed that a arrested you because you were
:07:31. > :07:36.funding a terrorist network. TRANSLATION: I have not helped
:07:37. > :07:39.anybody with money. I have used this car for a while and some people who
:07:40. > :07:46.have personal problems with me get the US military false information.
:07:47. > :07:50.Despite their pleas of innocence, the US military is adamant that
:07:51. > :07:55.these are all dangerous man. Just three weeks after we filmed them,
:07:56. > :08:04.they were released from Bagram Prison amidst bitter political
:08:05. > :08:08.creations. -- recriminations. This is all part of a high-level power
:08:09. > :08:12.struggle between Washington and carpel about the future of
:08:13. > :08:18.Afghanistan. After 13 years on the ground, US forces are leaving.
:08:19. > :08:24.Delicate negotiations are going on about handover of power to the
:08:25. > :08:27.Afghans. President Kaiser will leave office soon and he seems determined
:08:28. > :08:33.to show his nationalist credentials by standing up to his American
:08:34. > :08:39.allies. Getting prisoners out of Bagram Prison is all part of it. Mr
:08:40. > :08:43.President, in a recent press conference he described Bagram
:08:44. > :08:53.Prison as a Caliban making factory. What did you mean? Exactly that.
:08:54. > :09:01.Those words are the words that people who have been released from
:09:02. > :09:04.that prison have set themselves. They take innocent Afghans and turn
:09:05. > :09:08.them against their own country and government. There is no denying that
:09:09. > :09:19.there are elements of Al Qaeda and Taliban in prison. There are also
:09:20. > :09:25.criminals, but those people who are criminals, real criminals, are a
:09:26. > :09:28.minority. You have been accused of politicising this issue to enhance
:09:29. > :09:38.your relationship and reputation with a Caliban. It is a political
:09:39. > :09:55.issue. It is not related to the Caliban or the government. It is a
:09:56. > :09:58.Afghan people issue. Afghan officials would not comment on
:09:59. > :10:03.camera, but in Washington are met to officials who have been involved in
:10:04. > :10:09.US Afghan relations in recent years. Is this decision-making
:10:10. > :10:14.angry? It makes me angry and sad. Angry that we are going to release
:10:15. > :10:21.people back out into the flight who clearly are hard-core terrorists.
:10:22. > :10:27.Many of them were caught red-handed. The tests on their fingers showed
:10:28. > :10:35.explosives. It is not as if this was questionable. These are the hard
:10:36. > :10:41.core, literally over 1000 that we have released. He is corrupting the
:10:42. > :10:45.Afghan rule of law, he is putting its population and our soldiers at
:10:46. > :10:50.risk and there will be a price to be paid. There is a legal process to
:10:51. > :10:55.decide which prisoners should stay in jail and which should go free. It
:10:56. > :11:01.is a body called the Afghan Review Board. They have said that the
:11:02. > :11:05.Americans have not been providing them with all of the intelligence
:11:06. > :11:14.material that they need. TRANSLATION: If they could show us
:11:15. > :11:18.intelligence files with these details, that this person was caught
:11:19. > :11:22.at this location, detained at this time and he had this weapon and here
:11:23. > :11:26.are his biometrics with the ballistics and the forensics, we
:11:27. > :11:36.would accept this as significant. We have not seen this in any of the 764
:11:37. > :11:41.files that we have had. But the American military were saying the
:11:42. > :11:45.exact opposite. I went to an off-camera briefing with senior US
:11:46. > :11:52.personnel. They told me that the Afghan review board were wilfully
:11:53. > :11:58.ignoring forensics evidence. They cited examples. The board had said
:11:59. > :12:02.that explosive residue was inadmissible as evidence because it
:12:03. > :12:06.was floating in the wind all over Afghanistan. They said that the
:12:07. > :12:11.board had also dismissed a fingerprinted confession, obtained
:12:12. > :12:15.from a legend Taliban commander, as having been generated by American
:12:16. > :12:18.computers. But the Americans admitted to rejecting the names of
:12:19. > :12:26.intelligence sources from files they had shared with the Board. Trust, it
:12:27. > :12:32.seemed, was in short supply on both sides of this argument between
:12:33. > :12:36.suppose it allies. The sources and methods that we used to gather
:12:37. > :12:43.intelligence on insurgents will remain classified. We do not want to
:12:44. > :12:48.give away to the enemy how we are able to detect what they are too. We
:12:49. > :12:52.are declassifying is what is possible but most of these cases are
:12:53. > :13:01.not dealing with classified information. Numerous cases involve
:13:02. > :13:10.fingerprints found on explosives, by a metrically identified. When I
:13:11. > :13:16.returned to Bagram Prison it was visiting time. Many of these
:13:17. > :13:21.civilian visitors would have spent days crossing the country in order
:13:22. > :13:27.to have less than an hour of time with incarcerated male relatives.
:13:28. > :13:31.Once at Bagram Prison, they had to pass through several hours of
:13:32. > :13:37.searches, checks, and biometric scans. Before being let in under the
:13:38. > :13:42.watchful eye of heavily armed Afghan and American troops. Security at
:13:43. > :13:57.visiting time was very tight. This was the visiting area where the
:13:58. > :14:00.prisoners got to spend some time with their relatives. Although in
:14:01. > :14:10.most cases, they were separated by a pane of toughened glass. None of the
:14:11. > :14:15.prisoners are disabled. The wheelchairs are used because the leg
:14:16. > :14:20.irons worn by the inmates mean that they cannot walk at speed. It is a
:14:21. > :14:28.reminder of the security threat which of these men are said to pose.
:14:29. > :14:36.After the visit is finished, I met one prisoner's mother. TRANSLATION:
:14:37. > :14:39.I feel very bad because of all of this worrying about him. They are
:14:40. > :14:44.all suffering from psychological problems now. This is life. His
:14:45. > :14:51.father Brothers and sisters come to see him and they all leave, crying.
:14:52. > :14:56.It is very difficult to see our son like this. They are lots of others
:14:57. > :15:04.like my son here. For gods sake, they should think them. He only had
:15:05. > :15:07.one court hearing in 1.5 years. The high security courtroom for trying
:15:08. > :15:11.the detainees was just outside the prison walls. We had permission to
:15:12. > :15:17.film here from the Attorney General's office in the capital and
:15:18. > :15:20.we had a letter to prove it. -- Kabul. We were approached by men
:15:21. > :15:33.from the Afghan and US intelligence services, suddenly. We are getting
:15:34. > :15:38.blocked from accessing the judge's area. They tell us that we don't
:15:39. > :15:43.have permission to go there and film. In the end, an American in
:15:44. > :15:45.civilian clothes told us to stop filming altogether. It raises
:15:46. > :15:49.questions about just how much control the Afghan side really has
:15:50. > :15:56.over this place after last year's Candover from the Americans. Bagram
:15:57. > :16:06.has a long history. When you look at what it symbolises now, do you find
:16:07. > :16:16.that disturbing? Terrible. Ugly. Extremely disturbing. One of the
:16:17. > :16:25.reasons our relation is not good with America. One of the important
:16:26. > :16:32.reasons. At least the fate of the prisoner there, the DK me that, --
:16:33. > :16:41.of the DK me there, is now more than ever before in our hands than in
:16:42. > :16:45.American hands. -- detainee there. No doubt, the Americans are trying
:16:46. > :16:49.to retain some control. That is why they had been resisting it all
:16:50. > :16:59.along. It is now a way where we decide to act and we can, as we have
:17:00. > :17:02.shown. Towards the end of May visit, the general organiser group Mill
:17:03. > :17:11.Force am of the long-term inmates. -- my visit. -- organised a group
:17:12. > :17:15.meal. It was something he organised just for our cameras. One of the
:17:16. > :17:21.guards told me that the food was better than usual and these
:17:22. > :17:26.prisoners were normally shackled. After lunch, the general then
:17:27. > :17:30.organised a public meeting for the prisoners to speak their minds to
:17:31. > :17:53.our cameras. They certainly did that.
:17:54. > :17:59.This man is said that he had been arrested four years ago and being
:18:00. > :18:01.tortured by Americans for 70 days in a nearby facility that he called the
:18:02. > :19:16.Black Jail. Claims about secret prisons in
:19:17. > :19:20.Afghanistan are not you -- are not new but they have never been proved.
:19:21. > :19:22.Senior US monetary figures later told me that they had been informed
:19:23. > :19:27.of this man's allegations and were investigating. Shortly afterwards,
:19:28. > :19:30.they e-mailed me, saying that the prisoner had never previously
:19:31. > :19:33.complained about being tortured. They added that they had information
:19:34. > :19:39.which suggested that some inmates may have been coached by a member of
:19:40. > :19:43.the staff at the Bagram complex to make false claims about abuse to the
:19:44. > :19:47.BBC. Although we explained that several other inmates had also
:19:48. > :19:52.referred to abuse in a black jail, they denied that the Department of
:19:53. > :19:58.Defence had ever operated any black sites or secret prisons.
:19:59. > :20:05.As my visit to the jail came to an end, it struck me how the place was
:20:06. > :20:08.a symbol of a much wider misunderstanding between? Cultures
:20:09. > :20:15.and two different visions of what had happen in this country. --
:20:16. > :20:20.between two cultures. All the men who were praying in this room were
:20:21. > :20:31.among those I had met on May one day in Bagram prison. -- on May one day.
:20:32. > :20:34.They included the 16-year-old Mohibullah who told me that he now
:20:35. > :20:39.hated the Americans. Was he a farmer as he claimed or a dangerous
:20:40. > :20:43.insurgent as the US had told me? Either way, within two weeks of my
:20:44. > :20:48.visit, he and 64 other inmates would be freed. You mentioned of these
:20:49. > :20:54.prisoners that are about to be released and the review board has
:20:55. > :20:57.declared an innocent but they say that they have Afghan blood on their
:20:58. > :21:02.hands. They are criminals? They always say that. How else would they
:21:03. > :21:08.have an excuse to keep someone in prison? Except to accuse them of
:21:09. > :21:16.something. How were judicial bodies, our judiciary, our
:21:17. > :21:23.intelligence had nothing on them. When the Americans brought their
:21:24. > :21:27.concerns to me, I personally conducted a review of the issue.
:21:28. > :21:32.Believe it or not, after 12 years, he will not admit that there is an
:21:33. > :21:36.insurgency in his country. He is reluctant to admit that there are
:21:37. > :21:39.people trying to overthrow his government. He looks at these people
:21:40. > :21:43.as we would Brothers. Most Afghans look at the Taliban remnants as
:21:44. > :21:54.people trying to destroy their lives. Afghan TV ran these pictures
:21:55. > :21:58.on pedigree 13 as the detainees were released. Whether they were all
:21:59. > :22:01.innocent as the Afghans say or heading back to the battlefields of
:22:02. > :22:06.the Americans fear, it remains to be seen. The Afghan decision to set
:22:07. > :22:11.them free in the face of such strong American objections is a further
:22:12. > :22:12.example of just how sour the relationship between these supposed
:22:13. > :22:22.allies has become. It has come at a time when levels of
:22:23. > :22:26.Taliban violence have been growing and the targets are not just a
:22:27. > :22:35.military forces in the provinces. This is all that is left of an
:22:36. > :22:39.upmarket Kabul restaurant. On January 18, it was the sight of the
:22:40. > :22:42.deadliest ever attack on foreign civilians in this country. The
:22:43. > :22:47.suicide bomber took out the armed guards at the entrance and then two
:22:48. > :22:53.gunmen opened fire on the customers and staff inside.
:22:54. > :22:59.21 civilians were killed here, 13 foreigners and eight at hands. Some
:23:00. > :23:04.were just trying to earn a living and others are trying to have a
:23:05. > :23:09.night out. -- eight Afghans. The walls are still scarred with bullet
:23:10. > :23:14.holes from the gun battle that followed and worse. There is blood
:23:15. > :23:18.right here. It is a gruesome reminder of the brutality of the
:23:19. > :23:24.conflict here. The heated environment into which the disputed
:23:25. > :23:27.prisoner releases have taken place. While the Americans are handing over
:23:28. > :23:31.power to the Afghans and pulling out most of their forces, they want to
:23:32. > :23:36.keep some military bases here along with about 10,000 troops. That will
:23:37. > :23:44.not happen unless the treaty called the bilateral security agreement or
:23:45. > :23:49.BSA is signed and to date, president cars I has refused to put pen to
:23:50. > :23:55.paper. If I want to give the Americans a basis, I don't have the
:23:56. > :24:01.right to ask something in return? -- President Karzai. They have promised
:24:02. > :24:06.me money in return. I don't care about money. I want to bring peace
:24:07. > :24:14.and stability to Afghanistan. I don't care about... In my view,
:24:15. > :24:21.these are the two countries which can launch of the peace process with
:24:22. > :24:24.the Taliban. Who are in charge of it one way or another. There are
:24:25. > :24:27.accusations that you are refusing to sign the agreement because you are
:24:28. > :24:36.more concerned about your own legacy than the future of Afghanistan. Of
:24:37. > :24:38.course I'm concerned with my legacy. I don't want to sign something that
:24:39. > :24:42.I don't think is good for Afghanistan. Under the
:24:43. > :24:50.circumstances. But no, immediately, it is not my legacy. It is what I
:24:51. > :24:54.want from this agreement with the Americans to bring to the Afghan
:24:55. > :24:59.people. You have always heard me speak of peace. The Taliban killed
:25:00. > :25:05.my brother. The next day, I went to say that they are our brothers. They
:25:06. > :25:08.are Afghan people and I want peace. The only thing that will bring the
:25:09. > :25:12.Taliban to the table is if they believe that they are not winning.
:25:13. > :25:17.Right now, I greatly fear that we will be withdrawing and we will see
:25:18. > :25:25.another Iraq which is now deteriorated into chaos. That was an
:25:26. > :25:32.abject failure. We are seeing that same movie again in Afghanistan.
:25:33. > :25:42.Every Friday evening, football games are played out in the shadows of the
:25:43. > :25:46.battle scarred palace in Kabul. The young men he hoped for better days
:25:47. > :25:52.to come but the shell shattered building is a stark reminder of
:25:53. > :25:57.Afghanistan's brutal recent history. As foreign forces pull out after 13
:25:58. > :25:58.years of fighting, and the peaceful future for this long-suffering
:25:59. > :26:31.country looks as far away as ever. Meteorologists refer to the start of
:26:32. > :26:33.March as the start of spring.