Afghans to Release Detainees Over US Objections

Afghanistan has given approval for the release of 80 or more detainees that were formerly held in the U.S. detention center in Bagram. The detainees are now under the control of the Afghans and may be released due to "lack of evidence". The underlying issue is the lack of an Afghan willingness to adopt an option for non-criminal military detention; relying instead on prosecution under criminal law. The Afghans, of course, are doing exactly what we have been advising them to do over the past several years - to conduct warrant-based arrests and prosecutions of insurgents in the criminal court system utilizing a "Rule of Law" approach to defeating an insurgency. Of course, it should be mentioned that the Afghan justice system is incredibly corrupt, not very well established, and terribly inefficient. And then . . . there is also the Afghan police which is problematic at best. So on one hand the U.S. wants to instill within the Afghans a "Rule of Law" approach to fighting the insurgency and insurgents (treating them as criminals) but on the other hand we want to keep some detainees in confinement and subject to "a law of war detention" environment. Read a more detailed account of this situation in "Afghanistan on Verge of Releasing 88 Former US-Held Detainees, Over US Objections", Lawfare Blog, January 2, 2014.