Dark prison

The dark prison is the informal name used by some Guantanamo Bay detainees for a secret prison they claim they were detained in near Kabul, Afghanistan. According to an article distributed by Reuters, eight Guantanamo detainees have described the conditions they were held under in "the dark prison".

Detainees claimed that they were detained in complete darkness for weeks on end. They described being deprived of food and water and being fed filthy food and water when they were fed. The prisoners' details have been consistent, saying that the guards did not wear military uniforms — prompting Human Rights Watch to suggest it was run as a black site by the Central Intelligence Agency. One prisoner reported being threatened with rape. In 2011, The Miami Herald reported that the Dark Prison is another name for the Salt Pit. Two Afghan captives died there in 2005 and a Department of Defense investigation finally concluded they had been murdered, as some detainees had claimed.

Detainees who claimed to have been detained in the dark prison

Jamil al-Banna	arrested in Gambia with Bisher al-Rawi and others transported to the black site detained at Guantanamo Bay from March 2003 to December 19, 2007
Abd al-Salam Ali al-Hila	detained in Camp Delta
Bisher al-Rawi	arrested in Gambia with Jamil al-Banna detained in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps until March 2007 released after the British public learned he had been co-operating with MI5 in their surveillance of Abu Qatada
Hassin Bin Attash	claims he was tortured in the black sites 17 when captured detained in Camp Delta brother of Waleed Muhammad bin Attash
Binyam Mohammed	claims he was tortured in the black sites detained in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps until February 2009 US government claimed he was a co-conspirator of Jose Padilla in a bombing plot, but dropped charges
Laid Saidi	Saidi worked for the Al-Haramain Foundation in Tanzania; captured May 10, 2003. Was detained in "Salt Pit" at the same time as Khaled el-Masri, a German resident abducted while on vacation in Macedonia.
Sanad al-Kazimi	Alleges he was beaten with electric cables and attempted suicide three times in the prison.
Hayatullah	Held in "the black prison" for forty days before being transferred to Bagram, Afghanistan in 2007. Reports that the walls of the prison are concrete blocks. Captives who had been held there a long time say they were originally plywood, painted black. Believed the prison was near Bagram base, and was also called "Tor Jail".

See also

• List of Afghan prisons
• Black jail, possibly the same place
• Black site
• Detainees in CIA custody

References

1. ^ "Detainees describe 'dark prison'", Science Daily, December 19, 2005