By now, most of you are probably aware that the majority of prisoners the US is holding are in secret prisons. While Guantanamo Bay prison is the most well-known, it only represents around 1 percent of the total population of those illegally held around the world.

Additionally, due to a complete lack of public knowledge of these secret prisons, those held are given even worse treatment than the abuses we’ve learned are taking place in Gitmo. What could be worse than being waterboarded and having your genitals electrocuted? Are they forced to watch a Two and a Half Men marathon? We may never know, especially since the people who could potentially inform us about these situations are being locked up by the US military themselves.

This is mafia-style intimidation. Can you imagine if another nation were to forcibly kidnap and imprison any journalist in any country indefinitely for daring to report its methods?

The US military is holding Jawad Ahmad, who has worked with Canadian Television (CTV), at its detention facility at Bagram north of Kabul on allegations he is an “unlawful enemy combatant.”

Ahmad is among 650 people being held at Bagram without trial, US-based International Justice Network executive director Tina Monshipour Foster told reporters.

“Many people in Afghanistan and in Iraq that have been targeted for detention are local journalists covering the conflict in their own country,” said another prominent US human rights lawyer, Barbara J. Olshansky.

“When the United States detains reporters, photographers, camera operators and holds them for long period without charge for any offense and without trials and without any evidence, we know that part of the goal is to just shut people up,” she said.

The intention was to “make sure that the people of those countries and the United States do not know what is going on,” she alleged.

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