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February 23, 2009

Obama Backs Bush Policy on Bagram Detainees
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The Obama administration has embraced another key argument of former
President Bush’s counterterrorism policy. In a court filing on Friday,
the Justice Department told a federal judge that prisoners held at the
US Air Force base at Bagram in Afghanistan have no legal rights to
challenge their imprisonment. Human rights groups say they are becoming
increasingly concerned that the use of extra-judicial methods in
Afghanistan could be extended under the new US administration. Bagram
Air Base is about to undergo a $60 million expansion to provide enough
space to house five times as many prisoners as remain at Guantanamo.



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