Inside Bagram Prison Our World


Inside Bagram Prison

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headlines. Now it is Our World. Hundred cars a will release hundreds

:00:00.:00:00.

of detainees, in a controversial move.

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Bagram Prison, outside carpel. Some have called it Afghanistan 's

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one-time obey. Last month 65 prisoners were released from here.

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They have been held without trial, some for many years. The Americans

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think they are Taliban insurgents and killers. We will release people

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who are clearly hard-core terrorists. But the Afghan

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authorities say that their men and that the prison has been handed over

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to them. People who have come out of the prison have told me that this is

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a prison where they take innocent Afghans and turn them against their

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own country. The week before their release I was given unprecedented

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access inside Bagram Prison and met some of the detainees. Today we

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investigate how the releases are threatening to derail relations

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between Afghanistan and the United States in a key moment in the

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history of this nation. I am on my way to Bagram Prison on

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the outskirts of couple. -- Kabul. The facility is located just outside

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the massive US military airbase at Bagram. Last year the wings

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containing Afghan born prisoners were given over to Afghanistan but

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the US still overseas cell blocks containing foreign combatants. My

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guide was General Farooq Barakzai, the Afghan army commander in overall

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charge of this place. When I was shown around this prison

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still had 1340 inmates. The guards are all from the Afghan national

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army. This place was only built four years ago and the overall conditions

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were much better than anything I have seen elsewhere in the prison

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system of Afghanistan. I get the guided tour. The first stop is the

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visiting area. Next on the two were the kitchens.

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-- tour. The general was part of the facility but this felt like a public

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relations exercise. But get to meet the inmates and see how they really

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lived? The prisoners were allowed one hour of outside exercise per

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day. There was even a garden for the inmates. There are strict rules

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here. Breaking them is not advisable. Especially not rule

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number seven. Background is also an intrusive facility. CCTV is

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everywhere. The roofs of cells are grids and the guards can look down

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at all times. All external communications are monitored, very

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obviously so. At the medical wing and allowed my first contact with

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the inmates. -- I was allowed. There was also a dental service. All

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of those waiting for treatment in this holding pen were shackled hand

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and foot. It was here that the prisoners showed their anger. This

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man said that he was a journalist and poetry Kandahar and was arrested

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in a night-time raid by US forces. He had been held here for almost six

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months. TRANSLATION: If they have evidence they should show it to me

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and take me to court and imprisoned if a life if that's what they want.

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But how can they just stick media for no reason? -- stick me here.

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Detention without trial was repeated complaint. It is something that the

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authorities in couple are acting on. In this room we met some of the 65

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men about to be released by the Afghan authorities, despite strong

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objections from the US. The US military said that this man was a

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Taliban co-ordinator who conducted bomb attacks. They said he was

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caught with a firearm and propaganda on his phone as well is testing

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positive for four types of explosives. He told us that he was

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16 and a simple shepherd from hell manned province. We have no way of

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knowing if he was telling the truth. But after a year in Bagram

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Prison he certainly hated the Americans. TRANSLATION: I hate them

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because I am here for no reason. Of course I hate them. I want to ask

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them dashboard was my crime? If they gave me the evidence I would not

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mind if they kept me in prison for ten years but nobody is asking about

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that. I have spent a year far from my mother and father. Why? What is

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the reason? Another inmate was described by the Americans as a

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Taliban commander and financier of an Al Qaeda linked insurgent group

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funded by donors in the Gulf states. But this man simply told me that he

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bought himself a second-hand car in Dubai and was the victim of mistaken

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identity. The US forces claimed that a arrested you because you were

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funding a terrorist network. TRANSLATION: I have not helped

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anybody with money. I have used this car for a while and some people who

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have personal problems with me get the US military false information.

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Despite their pleas of innocence, the US military is adamant that

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these are all dangerous man. Just three weeks after we filmed them,

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they were released from Bagram Prison amidst bitter political

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creations. -- recriminations. This is all part of a high-level power

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struggle between Washington and carpel about the future of

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Afghanistan. After 13 years on the ground, US forces are leaving.

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Delicate negotiations are going on about handover of power to the

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Afghans. President Kaiser will leave office soon and he seems determined

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to show his nationalist credentials by standing up to his American

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allies. Getting prisoners out of Bagram Prison is all part of it. Mr

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President, in a recent press conference he described Bagram

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Prison as a Caliban making factory. What did you mean? Exactly that.

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Those words are the words that people who have been released from

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that prison have set themselves. They take innocent Afghans and turn

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them against their own country and government. There is no denying that

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there are elements of Al Qaeda and Taliban in prison. There are also

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criminals, but those people who are criminals, real criminals, are a

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minority. You have been accused of politicising this issue to enhance

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your relationship and reputation with a Caliban. It is a political

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issue. It is not related to the Caliban or the government. It is a

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Afghan people issue. Afghan officials would not comment on

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camera, but in Washington are met to officials who have been involved in

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US Afghan relations in recent years. Is this decision-making

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angry? It makes me angry and sad. Angry that we are going to release

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people back out into the flight who clearly are hard-core terrorists.

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Many of them were caught red-handed. The tests on their fingers showed

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explosives. It is not as if this was questionable. These are the hard

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core, literally over 1000 that we have released. He is corrupting the

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Afghan rule of law, he is putting its population and our soldiers at

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risk and there will be a price to be paid. There is a legal process to

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decide which prisoners should stay in jail and which should go free. It

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is a body called the Afghan Review Board. They have said that the

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Americans have not been providing them with all of the intelligence

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material that they need. TRANSLATION: If they could show us

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intelligence files with these details, that this person was caught

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at this location, detained at this time and he had this weapon and here

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are his biometrics with the ballistics and the forensics, we

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would accept this as significant. We have not seen this in any of the 764

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files that we have had. But the American military were saying the

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exact opposite. I went to an off-camera briefing with senior US

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personnel. They told me that the Afghan review board were wilfully

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ignoring forensics evidence. They cited examples. The board had said

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that explosive residue was inadmissible as evidence because it

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was floating in the wind all over Afghanistan. They said that the

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board had also dismissed a fingerprinted confession, obtained

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from a legend Taliban commander, as having been generated by American

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computers. But the Americans admitted to rejecting the names of

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intelligence sources from files they had shared with the Board. Trust, it

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seemed, was in short supply on both sides of this argument between

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suppose it allies. The sources and methods that we used to gather

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intelligence on insurgents will remain classified. We do not want to

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give away to the enemy how we are able to detect what they are too. We

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are declassifying is what is possible but most of these cases are

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not dealing with classified information. Numerous cases involve

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fingerprints found on explosives, by a metrically identified. When I

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returned to Bagram Prison it was visiting time. Many of these

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civilian visitors would have spent days crossing the country in order

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to have less than an hour of time with incarcerated male relatives.

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Once at Bagram Prison, they had to pass through several hours of

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searches, checks, and biometric scans. Before being let in under the

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watchful eye of heavily armed Afghan and American troops. Security at

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visiting time was very tight. This was the visiting area where the

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prisoners got to spend some time with their relatives. Although in

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most cases, they were separated by a pane of toughened glass. None of the

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prisoners are disabled. The wheelchairs are used because the leg

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irons worn by the inmates mean that they cannot walk at speed. It is a

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reminder of the security threat which of these men are said to pose.

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After the visit is finished, I met one prisoner's mother. TRANSLATION:

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I feel very bad because of all of this worrying about him. They are

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all suffering from psychological problems now. This is life. His

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father Brothers and sisters come to see him and they all leave, crying.

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It is very difficult to see our son like this. They are lots of others

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like my son here. For gods sake, they should think them. He only had

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one court hearing in 1.5 years. The high security courtroom for trying

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the detainees was just outside the prison walls. We had permission to

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film here from the Attorney General's office in the capital and

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we had a letter to prove it. -- Kabul. We were approached by men

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from the Afghan and US intelligence services, suddenly. We are getting

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blocked from accessing the judge's area. They tell us that we don't

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have permission to go there and film. In the end, an American in

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civilian clothes told us to stop filming altogether. It raises

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questions about just how much control the Afghan side really has

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over this place after last year's Candover from the Americans. Bagram

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has a long history. When you look at what it symbolises now, do you find

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that disturbing? Terrible. Ugly. Extremely disturbing. One of the

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reasons our relation is not good with America. One of the important

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reasons. At least the fate of the prisoner there, the DK me that, --

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of the DK me there, is now more than ever before in our hands than in

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American hands. -- detainee there. No doubt, the Americans are trying

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to retain some control. That is why they had been resisting it all

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along. It is now a way where we decide to act and we can, as we have

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shown. Towards the end of May visit, the general organiser group Mill

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Force am of the long-term inmates. -- my visit. -- organised a group

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meal. It was something he organised just for our cameras. One of the

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guards told me that the food was better than usual and these

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prisoners were normally shackled. After lunch, the general then

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organised a public meeting for the prisoners to speak their minds to

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our cameras. They certainly did that.

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This man is said that he had been arrested four years ago and being

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tortured by Americans for 70 days in a nearby facility that he called the

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Black Jail. Claims about secret prisons in

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Afghanistan are not you -- are not new but they have never been proved.

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Senior US monetary figures later told me that they had been informed

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of this man's allegations and were investigating. Shortly afterwards,

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they e-mailed me, saying that the prisoner had never previously

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complained about being tortured. They added that they had information

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which suggested that some inmates may have been coached by a member of

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the staff at the Bagram complex to make false claims about abuse to the

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BBC. Although we explained that several other inmates had also

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referred to abuse in a black jail, they denied that the Department of

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Defence had ever operated any black sites or secret prisons.

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As my visit to the jail came to an end, it struck me how the place was

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a symbol of a much wider misunderstanding between? Cultures

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and two different visions of what had happen in this country. --

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between two cultures. All the men who were praying in this room were

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among those I had met on May one day in Bagram prison. -- on May one day.

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They included the 16-year-old Mohibullah who told me that he now

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hated the Americans. Was he a farmer as he claimed or a dangerous

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insurgent as the US had told me? Either way, within two weeks of my

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visit, he and 64 other inmates would be freed. You mentioned of these

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prisoners that are about to be released and the review board has

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declared an innocent but they say that they have Afghan blood on their

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hands. They are criminals? They always say that. How else would they

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have an excuse to keep someone in prison? Except to accuse them of

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something. How were judicial bodies, our judiciary, our

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intelligence had nothing on them. When the Americans brought their

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concerns to me, I personally conducted a review of the issue.

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Believe it or not, after 12 years, he will not admit that there is an

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insurgency in his country. He is reluctant to admit that there are

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people trying to overthrow his government. He looks at these people

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as we would Brothers. Most Afghans look at the Taliban remnants as

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people trying to destroy their lives. Afghan TV ran these pictures

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on pedigree 13 as the detainees were released. Whether they were all

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innocent as the Afghans say or heading back to the battlefields of

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the Americans fear, it remains to be seen. The Afghan decision to set

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them free in the face of such strong American objections is a further

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example of just how sour the relationship between these supposed

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allies has become. It has come at a time when levels of

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Taliban violence have been growing and the targets are not just a

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military forces in the provinces. This is all that is left of an

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upmarket Kabul restaurant. On January 18, it was the sight of the

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deadliest ever attack on foreign civilians in this country. The

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suicide bomber took out the armed guards at the entrance and then two

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gunmen opened fire on the customers and staff inside.

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21 civilians were killed here, 13 foreigners and eight at hands. Some

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were just trying to earn a living and others are trying to have a

:23:00.:23:04.

night out. -- eight Afghans. The walls are still scarred with bullet

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holes from the gun battle that followed and worse. There is blood

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right here. It is a gruesome reminder of the brutality of the

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conflict here. The heated environment into which the disputed

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prisoner releases have taken place. While the Americans are handing over

:23:25.:23:27.

power to the Afghans and pulling out most of their forces, they want to

:23:28.:23:31.

keep some military bases here along with about 10,000 troops. That will

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not happen unless the treaty called the bilateral security agreement or

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BSA is signed and to date, president cars I has refused to put pen to

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paper. If I want to give the Americans a basis, I don't have the

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right to ask something in return? -- President Karzai. They have promised

:23:56.:24:01.

me money in return. I don't care about money. I want to bring peace

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and stability to Afghanistan. I don't care about... In my view,

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these are the two countries which can launch of the peace process with

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the Taliban. Who are in charge of it one way or another. There are

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accusations that you are refusing to sign the agreement because you are

:24:25.:24:27.

more concerned about your own legacy than the future of Afghanistan. Of

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course I'm concerned with my legacy. I don't want to sign something that

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I don't think is good for Afghanistan. Under the

:24:39.:24:42.

circumstances. But no, immediately, it is not my legacy. It is what I

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want from this agreement with the Americans to bring to the Afghan

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people. You have always heard me speak of peace. The Taliban killed

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my brother. The next day, I went to say that they are our brothers. They

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are Afghan people and I want peace. The only thing that will bring the

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Taliban to the table is if they believe that they are not winning.

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Right now, I greatly fear that we will be withdrawing and we will see

:25:13.:25:17.

another Iraq which is now deteriorated into chaos. That was an

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abject failure. We are seeing that same movie again in Afghanistan.

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Every Friday evening, football games are played out in the shadows of the

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battle scarred palace in Kabul. The young men he hoped for better days

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to come but the shell shattered building is a stark reminder of

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Afghanistan's brutal recent history. As foreign forces pull out after 13

:25:53.:25:57.

years of fighting, and the peaceful future for this long-suffering

:25:58.:25:58.

country looks as far away as ever. Meteorologists refer to the start of

:25:59.:26:31.

March as the start of spring.

:26:32.:26:33.

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