Tim Golden

U.S. Planning Big New Prison In Afghanistan

Ron Tang — Sat, 17 May 2008 10:19:00 -0400

The Pentagon is moving forward with plans to build a new, 40-acre detention complex on the main American military base in Afghanistan, officials said, in a stark acknowledgment that the United States is likely to continue to hold prisoners overseas for years to come.

The proposed detention center would replace the cavernous, makeshift American prison on the Bagram military base north of Kabul, which is now typically packed with about 630 prisoners, compared with the 270 held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Until now, the Bush administration had signaled that it intended to scale back American involvement in detention operations in Afghanistan. It… more

Afghans Hold Secret Trials For Men That U.S. Detained

Ron Tang — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 05:24:00 -0400

Kabul, Afghanistan -- Dozens of Afghan men who were previously held by the United States at Bagram Air Base and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, are now being tried here in secretive Afghan criminal proceedings based mainly on allegations forwarded by the American military.

The prisoners are being convicted and sentenced to as much as 20 years’ confinement in trials that typically run between half an hour and an hour, said human rights investigators who have observed them. One early trial was reported to have lasted barely 10 minutes, an investigator said.

The prosecutions are based in part on a security law promulgated in… more

Tim Golden

Operations — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 08:17:00 -0400

Senior FellowTim Golden is an investigative journalist who writes about legal policy in the fight against terrorism and other issues related to the treatment of terror suspects. He is on leave from The New York Times, where he is a senior writer and a contributor to The New York Times Magazine. He has spent much of his journalistic career as a foreign correspondent, covering civil wars in Central America, political and economic changes in South America, and the upheaval of the 1990s in Mexico and Cuba. As an investigative reporter, he has focused on national security, terrorism, and international organized crime.… more