Afghans Allege U.S. Abuse

Two Afghan teenagers have come forward to say that they were abused while being held in a secretive holding center on Bagram Air Base. Issa Mohammed, 17, and Abdul Rashid, who said he is younger than 16, told The Washington Post that U.S. guards in their detention center—which appears to be different from Bagram's main prison, the Bagram Theater Internment Facility, and consistent with other descriptions of a secret "black" prison—beat them, deprived them of sleep, and took photographs of them naked while interrogating them daily. Two detainees died in 2002 after aggressive beatings by U.S. soldiers in the main Bagram prison, where prisoners are held without charge and denied access to lawyers. The Pentagon issued a statement, saying "Department of Defense policy is and always has been to treat detainees humanely."