according to the amnesty international report the u.s. holds about 70,000 prisoners in detention facilities outside the u.s in connection with the war on terror. that strikes me as extremely high, and given the practices of interrogation as described by a hundred reports, why should we hesitate to call this a "gulag," for example? obviously it's not on the scale of the soviet gulag, but it is a worldwide system of secret detention and torture facilities, many of them perhaps built by halliburton . the u.s. gov evidently regards even a raw number as a security secret, or perhaps merely as a massive embarassment, but i have also not heard any official denial of the ai numbers. and it's not clear whether, for example, it includes prisoners rendered to (other) torture-friendly governments. it certainly encompasses many secret facilities.

USA’s “war on terror” detainees, April 2005 (approximate totals/estimates)(11)
USA: Naval Brig, Charleston, South Carolina	2 “enemy combatants”
Cuba: Guantánamo Bay naval base	520 (234 releases/transfers)
Afghanistan: Bagram air base	300
Afghanistan: Kandahar air base	250
Afghanistan: other US facilities (forward operating bases)	Unknown: estimated at scores of detainees
Iraq: Camp Bucca	6,300
Iraq: Abu Ghraib prison	3,500
Iraq: Camp Cropper	110
Iraq: Other US facilities	1,300
Worldwide: CIA facilities, undisclosed locations	Unknown: estimated at 40 detainees
Worldwide: In custody of other governments at behest of USA	Unknown: estimated at several thousand detainees
Worldwide: Secret  transfers of detainees to third countries	Unknown: estimated at 100 to 150 detainees
Foreign nationals held outside the USA and charged for trial	4
Trials of foreign nationals held in US custody outside the USA	0
Total number of detainees held outside the USA by the US during “war on terror”	70,000