In Afghanistan the New York Times is reporting the U.S. military is now indefinitely holding 500 detainees in wire cages at the Bagram air base in primitive conditions described as worse than at Guantanamo. The U.S. has been expanding the jail at Bagram at a time that international pressure is growing to close Guantanamo. Unlike detainees at Guantánamo, individuals held at the site in Afghanistan have no access to lawyers and no right to hear the allegations against them. The U.S. military has barred any outside visitors except for the International Red Cross. The prison may not even be photographed. Comparing the prison with Guantánamo, one Pentagon official said, “Anyone who has been to Bagram would tell you it’s worse.”

Meanwhile four people have died inside another Afghan jail after prisoners connected to the Taliban and al Qaeda took control of part of the jail. Police said at least 1,500 prisoners have barricaded themselves inside the prison.