Ghost ships?

A British group has claimed that the US military maintained 17 prison ships to hold “terrorism” suspects, and allegedly prisoners were also tortured on the ships. The US Navy said the report was “inaccurate”.

Bureaucrats of all types use weasel words to avoid saying the truth, or having to lie outright, so the navy’s word choice may be important. "We do not operate detention facilities on board Navy ships,” the navy spokesperson said. Does that mean they use non-navy ships, or that others (CIA?) use the navy ships which are, technically speaking, not navy at the time?

The navy spokesperson also called the suggestion that there were 17 ships “misleading”. Why? Were there more? Fewer? In any case, that’s certainly not the same as saying there were none.

The navy has acknowledged holding “fewer than ten” people on ships “in 2001 and 2002”, and has acknowledged two ships were used. But very often when they acknowledge one thing it’s so that people stop asking about other things. The only way to be sure will be for Congressional oversight committees to investigate, even through the Bush-Cheney regime will fight Congress and stonewall all the way to January. Trouble for them is, they can’t hide the truth forever.