Talk:Ghost detainee

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[edit] Is ghost detainee an "official" term?

The article asserts that the term "ghost detainee" was an official term. Earlier today an anonymous user, with no previous posting history, made a number of unsubstantiated edits that I believe show a biased point of view. Among their changes was the unsubstantiated assertion that the term was invented by "critics". The guards were using this term long before critics had ever heard that prisoners were being kept sequestered, in clear-cut violations of the Geneva Conventions. I changed it back to the original wording. -- Geo Swan 16:27, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

The introductory material to this article has gone through a lot of revisions. I think some parts of the wording from an earlier revision is more neutral than what we currently have, which does not substantiate the assertion that it is an official term. I am not sure what "official" means, given that this practice was secret. If the term was used on a secret memo, does that make it "official"? Being used by enlisted GIs and their officers, does that make it official? Does the inclusion of the term in the Taguba Report make it "official"? IMO, not if he was only repeating the enlisted GI slang. -- Geo Swan 18:20, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

I couldn't find any evidence that it is an official term of the Bush administration or that it was ever used by anyone in the Bush administration. The provided citation actually says it was used by a particular unit of the Army at Abu Ghraib prison, so I've changed the lead sentence to that effect. --Lee Hunter 15:34, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Timeline of statements on ghost prisoners

Timeline of statements on ghost prisoners

May 4, 2004	Secret World of U.S. Interrogation: Long History of Tactics in Overseas Prisons Is Coming to Light
June 4, 2004	Tenet Resignation (transcript)
June 16, 2004	Pentagon: Iraqi held secretly at CIA request
June 17, 2004	Detainee Reportedly Was Lost in System: CIA Criticized for Hiding Some Prisoners
June 18, 2004	Rumsfeld Authorized Secret Detention of Prisoner
June 18, 2004	Rumsfeld ordered secret detention of Iraqi suspect
June 21, 2004	Torture Policy (cont'd) (editorial)
June 24, 2004	U.S. Struggled Over How Far to Push Tactics: Documents Show Back-and-Forth on Interrogation Policy
October 24, 2004	Memo Lets CIA Take Detainees Out of Iraq: Practice Is Called Serious Breach of Geneva Conventions
August 25, 2004	Analysis: Schlesinger Report (transcript)
October 16, 2005	A Future Investigation (editorial)

[edit] Bush administration policy? Or US Government policy?

The US Government has three branches. They have overlapping powers and responsibilities. They are supposed to provide a system of checks and balances on one another.

• The judicial branch has been considering, and has already over-ruled some aspects of the Bush administration's detainee policy.
• The legislative branch has also weighed in, with, for example, the Detainee Treatment Act.
• When the other two branches are amending and over-ruling the executive branch a policy should not be described as a "US Government policy".

I have seen many instances where references to the "Bush administration" were changed to references to the "US Government". Sometimes the contributors put edit summaries like, "correcting blatant POV". But, I would argue, attributing the policy to the US government is what appears more POV. It gives the appearance of trying to present the policy as without controversy, when it is highly controversial. I am sure everyone who makes this "correction" does so in good faith. But I find it frustrating to keep on being called to explain how the US government works when I am not an American myself. -- Geo Swan 10:15, 10 April 2006 (UTC)