Allegedly upset by allegations of abused Afghans at the prison, President Hamid Karzai has demanded that the U.S. turn over control of its most important detention facility in Afghanistan, adding that any prisoners held without supporting evidence should be released. An Afghan commission claimed that American officials told them that many of the almost 3,000 prisoners being held at Bagram Air Base were seized based on intelligence and evidence that could not be used in an Afghan court.

 

American officials were reportedly taken aback by the demand, especially after they learned that the commission had informed Karzai that a section of Bagram prison with documented abuses was one containing 300 prisoners who are under the control of Karzai’s government.

 

Regardless of who committed the abuses, the Karzai regime has grown increasingly distrustful of the U.S. and its military. The same can be said on the U.S. side about the Afghan security forces, some of whom have been accused of attacking American soldiers.

 

Last week, a man in an Afghan army uniform opened fire on a U.S. base in the south of the country, killing an American soldier and wounding another. An investigation was underway to determine if the gunman was a soldier or an insurgent in disguise.

 

The shooting followed another in late December, when an Afghan soldier shot and killed two members of France’s elite parachute regiment. And before that another Afghan soldier opened fire on coalition troops inside an outpost in western Herat province, wounding several troops.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Afghan Commission: U.S. Abuses Bagram Detainees (by Kay Johnson and Rahim Faiez, Associated Press)

Karzai’s Ultimatum Complicates U.S. Exit Strategy (by Matthew Rosenberg, New York Times)