Extrajudicial prisoners of the United States
Extrajudicial prisoners of the United States, in the context of the early twenty-first century War on Terrorism, refers to foreign nationals the United States detains outside of the legal process required within United States legal jurisdiction. In this context, the U.S. government is maintaining torture centers, called black sites, operated by both known and secret intelligence agencies. Such black sites were later confirmed by reports from journalists, investigations, and from men who had been imprisoned and tortured there, and later released after being tortured until the CIA was comfortable they had done nothing wrong, and had nothing to hide.

Of these prisoners being held by the U.S., some were suspected of being from the senior ranks of al Qaeda, referred to in U.S. military terms as "high value detainees." According to the Swiss senator Dick Marty's reports on "Secret Detentions and Illegal Transfers of Detainees involving Council of Europe Member States", about a hundred persons had been kidnapped by the CIA on European territory and subsequently rendered to countries where they were tortured.

Former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, had described the men detained in Camp Delta at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as "the worst of the worst.", despite concerns about the mental capacity of several of the detainees. But, before September 2006, many of those detainees suspected of having the highest intelligence value were not detained at Guantanamo, but were held at CIA's black sites in Eastern Europe and other countries, including Afghanistan.

In August 2010, it was reported that four high-value detainees: Abu Zubaydah, Abd al-Nashiri, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, had first been transferred to Guantanamo on September 24, 2003. They were held at "Strawberry Fields", a secret camp in the facility constructed for their detention. Worried that a pending Supreme Court decision on habeas corpus rights might go against the Bush administration and compel releasing the men's names and other details, the CIA took back custody of the four men and moved them out of Guantanamo on March 27, 2004.

The United States Supreme Court ruled in "Rasul v. Bush" (2004) that detainees at Guantanamo Bay detention camp had the "habeas corpus" right to challenge their detentions before an impartial tribunal. As a result, the US allegedly continued to hold many ghost detainees outside Guantanamo Bay and the United States in order to avoid any review of their cases.

These four men and other high-value CIA detainees were not transferred again to military custody at Guantanamo until September 2006. At that time, the Bush administration was assured of passage by Congress of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which included provisions preventing detainees from using "habeas corpus" petitions outside the newly authorized system of military tribunals.
Q185729
War on Terrorism
EVE
Q5468420
foreign national
UNK
Q30
United States
LOC
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legal process
Concept
Q471855
jurisdiction
Concept
Q48525
U.S. government
Concept
Q132781
torture
Concept
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black site
Concept
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intelligence agencies
Concept
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CIA
Concept
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al Qaeda
ORG
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military terms
Concept
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Swiss
LOC
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Dick Marty
PER
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rendered
Concept
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Secretary of Defense
PER
Q184650
Donald Rumsfeld
PER
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Camp Delta at Guantánamo Bay
LOC
Q241
Cuba
LOC
Q27468
Eastern Europe
LOC
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Abu Zubaydah
PER
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Abd al-Nashiri
PER
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Ramzi bin al-Shibh
PER
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Mustafa al-Hawsawi
PER
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Strawberry Fields
UNK
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United States Supreme Court
Concept
Q7295336
Rasul v. Bush
EVE
Q357
Guantanamo Bay detention camp
PER
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habeas corpus
Concept
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ghost detainees
Concept
Q634294
Military Commissions Act of 2006
MEDIA
Q5422208
Extrajudicial prisoners of the United States
UNK
2006-09-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
September 2006
DATE
2010-08-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
August 2010
DATE
2003-09-24T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
September 24, 2003
DATE
2004-03-27T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
March 27, 2004
DATE
2006-09-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
September 2006
DATE
2006-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
2006
DATE
+2004^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
2004
NUMBER
participant
country of citizenship
position held
court