In a compound some two miles square, surrounded
by razor wire and guard towers, on a hillside
three miles north east of the airport and six
from Kabul’s centre, are rows of burnt out cars
and pick-ups. Beneath the vehicles
are solidified pools of molten metal.
Elsewhere in the compound are the ruins
of a mock-up village used to train
operatives to carry out night terror raids.
The recreational block is intact.
Inside are unfinished meals and abandoned
games of chess. The detention block too
is intact. Inmates gave it the soubriquet
‘the dark prison’, the cells having
no natural light – nor electric except
when the torturers came.
By David Selzer