Controversy Regarding Use As A Prison Ship
In June, 2008, the UK-based human rights organization Reprieve issued a report that listed the Bataan as one of up to 17 ships where they believed terrorism suspects were being imprisoned. The US Navy denied the allegation.
On 2 June 2008 The Guardian reported that "The US has admitted that the Bataan and Peleliu were used as prison ships between December 2001 and January 2002". The article went on to state: "President George Bush admitted in September 2006 that the CIA operated a secret network of 'black sites' in which terrorist suspects were held and subjected to what he called 'enhanced interrogation techniques', a term described by the Council of Europe as 'essentially a euphemism for some kind of torture'."
It is also known that John Walker Lindh, the "American Taliban", was escorted back to the United States aboard Bataan.
Read more about this topic: USS Bataan (LHD-5)
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