International Outlaws

From Reuters,

The United States kept up to 100 "ghost detainees" in Iraq off the books to conceal them from Red Cross observers, a far higher number than previously reported, Army generals told Congress on Thursday.

At a Senate committee hearing on abuses of Iraqi prisoners, Gen. Paul Kern, commander of the U.S. Army Materiel Command, said he believed the number of ghost detainees held in violation of Geneva Convention protections was "in the dozens to perhaps up to 100," far surpassing the eight people identified in an Army report.

But Kern and Maj. Gen. George Fay, deputy commander at the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command, said the CIA (news - web sites) did not give Army investigators information for a more precise estimate.

"We were not able to get documentation from the Central Intelligence Agency (news - web sites) to answer those types of questions. So we really don't know the volume. But I believe it's probably in the dozens," Fay said.

The Geneva Conventions require countries to disclose information on prisoners to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which monitors their treatment.

Lovely.

The reports depicted far more widespread and systematic mistreatment of detainees than the acts of a handful of soldiers accused when the images of horrific sexual and physical humiliation and torture at the Abu Ghraib prison first came to light last spring...

"The situation with the CIA and ghost soldiers is beginning to look like a bad movie," said Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), an Arizona Republican.

Yes, it certainly is. A cross between Paths of Glory & Reservoir Dogs.