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In April 2009, the ÀÏ°ÄÃÅ¿ª½±½á¹û filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for records relating to the detention and treatment of prisoners held at the Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan. The ÀÏ°ÄÃÅ¿ª½±½á¹û is asking the Obama administration to make public records pertaining to the number of people currently detained at Bagram, their names, citizenship, place of capture and length of detention, as well as records pertaining to the process afforded those prisoners to challenge their detention and designation as "enemy combatants."

Document Lists Criteria for Detaining Prisoners Indefinitely at Bagram Prison FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org NEW YORK – In response to an ÀÏ°ÄÃÅ¿ª½±½á¹û Freedom of Information Act request, the Defense Department disclosed to the ÀÏ°ÄÃÅ¿ª½±½á¹û a document that contains criteria for holding detainees at the Bagram detention center in Afghanistan. Now, the government contends the document is properly classified and is asking a federal court to order its return. The ÀÏ°ÄÃÅ¿ª½±½á¹û says the document should never have been classified and should be made public under the Freedom of Information Act. It contains the criteria for labeling detainees an "enduring security threat," which results in prolonged and possibly indefinite detention. "The U.S. military should not be detaining people indefinitely, based on secret criteria, in a war with no foreseeable end," said Hina Shamsi, director of the ÀÏ°ÄÃÅ¿ª½±½á¹û's National Security Project. "Having seen the enduring security threat criteria, we can say without a doubt that nothing about them is properly classifiable or could pose any threat to national security if disclosed. People may disagree whether the criteria are legally valid, and that's all the more reason they should be publicly debated. While we have concerns about the criteria themselves, there is nothing about them that would be a surprise to anyone who has followed the U.S. government's positions on detention and terrorism prosecution in the last ten years." The government had withheld the detention criteria document from the ÀÏ°ÄÃÅ¿ª½±½á¹û even as it disclosed other detention-related documents in response to the ÀÏ°ÄÃÅ¿ª½±½á¹û's FOIA request. When the ÀÏ°ÄÃÅ¿ª½±½á¹û realized that the document was received as part of a May 2011 document production, it promptly notified the government and requested that the document be immediately declassified, but the government refused. "The government should never have classified this document in the first place, and it is simply indefensible that it continues to seek suppression of the document now," said Shamsi. The ÀÏ°ÄÃÅ¿ª½±½á¹û's FOIA request on the prison at Bagram was made in April 2009, when there were approximately 600 people being held there without a meaningful process to challenge their detention. That number has now nearly tripled, and Bagram detainees still do not have access to a court or independent and impartial tribunal to determine the legality of their detention. Under policies issued in 2009, a military review board decides whether Bagram detainees meet detention criteria established by the Obama administration, including a recommendation of whether the enduring security threat criteria are met. Bagram detainees who are found to be an enduring security threat may be kept in U.S. custody, even after other detention operations are transferred to Afghan authorities. The other attorneys on the case are Jonathan Manes of the ÀÏ°ÄÃÅ¿ª½±½á¹û and Art Eisenberg and Chris Dunn of the New York Civil Liberties Union. Additional information about the ÀÏ°ÄÃÅ¿ª½±½á¹û's Bagram FOIA request is available at: www.aclu.org/national-security/bagram-foia Information about the ÀÏ°ÄÃÅ¿ª½±½á¹û's challenge to indefinite detention at Bagram is available at:www.aclu.org/national-security/unlawful-detention-bagram-air-base

In February 2010, the ÀÏ°ÄÃÅ¿ª½±½á¹û filed two habeas corpus petitions challenging the illegal detention of four men who have been held — some for nearly two years — at the notorious Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. The men — who have never engaged in hostilities against the United States and are not members of groups that have engaged in hostilities against the United States — have never been told why they are being detained, been permitted to speak with a lawyer, or given a meaningful opportunity to challenge their detention before a court or a fair and impartial administrative board.