By Fran Korotzer
This article originally appeared on Next Left Notes website
NEW YORK — On November 4, at the Revolution Bookstore in NYC, British historian, author, and journalist, Andy Worthington discussed his book, The Guantanamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison. He started doing research for the book 4 years ago by examining the 8000 pages of transcripts from the review tribunals that were released in 2006 after the U.S. Supreme Court granted the prisoners habeas corpus rights.
He also studied the interviews the British prisoners gave who got out in the period 2003 to 2004. Because they spoke English, they were able to provide much information about what had happened to them. In order to avoid the restraints of 2 categories of prisoners, criminal and prisoner of war, Bush created a 3rd category – “enemy combatants”. Bush did not want to use the criminal category, even though the doers of 9/11 were criminals and are viewed as such throughout the world. The Bush Administration preferred to classify it as an act of war.
The tribunal transcripts told remarkably similar stories. Prisoners captured in Pakistan, mostly imprisoned in 2002, were held on dubious evidence and were picked up by Pakistanis. In Afghanistan prisoners were sometimes aid workers doing good deeds, and many were people fleeing danger in the area where they lived. There were random roundups in areas where the U.S. was fighting the Taliban and Al Qaeda. The U.S. offered big bounties averaging $5000, the value in Afghanistan being about $250,000, so many people were turned in for the bounty. Actually, ONLY ABOUT 14% OF THOSE TAKEN PRISONER WERE CAPTURED BY AMERICANS ON THE BATTLEFIELD. The other 86% were arrested under other circumstances.
In 2002 Bush got legal advice from his lawyers that was really political advice because they told him what he wanted to hear, and he stated that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to non-uniformed fighters. Instead of having immediate tribunals determining who the prisoners were, including showing evidence of what they were being accused of, Bush declared that, as enemy combatants, there was no need for proof and no need for tribunals.
Every Arab picked up in Afghanistan was sent to Guantanamo. At Guantanamo the staff didn’t know who the prisoners were or what they were accused of. If a prisoner was tortured and didn’t give any information the conclusion drawn was that he was guilty and had been trained to resist torture, and so was tortured some more.
In 2002 “enhanced interrogation” was introduced after being given a go-ahead by senior officials in the Bush Administration. Government psychologists had worked out ways to teach American military personnel who, should they be tortured, would know how to resist. They also worked out effective methods of abusing prisoners. Most of those tortured were innocent men, like farmers from Afghanistan, who didn’t give any information because they had none to give. The prisoners at Guantanamo were not charged and were given no trials. Their names and the charges against them were not released until 2006 – after being granted habeas corpus rights, contrary to the wishes of the White House. They have to wake up everyday not knowing if they will ever get out of there. It is arbitrary detention and it is illegal. In 2005 there was a hunger strike which was dealt with by using restraint chairs and feeding tubes. The way it was done amounted to another form of torture. There are still many people there on hunger strikes and there have been several suicides.
People at Guantanamo come from 17 countries. 80 people have been cleared for release but in many cases the U.S. doesn’t know where to send them, like the Uighurs from China. Others will remain in permanent detention because Obama fears letting go of a future terrorist.
Andy Worthington’s book was published 2 years ago. Since then he has done everything possible to get the word out about what is happening at America’s illegal prison. He has written countless articles, given speeches, and now he has made an excellent film, Outside the Law : Stories from Guantanamo. This year, in the May 7th edition of Counterpunch, he wrote an article updating the information and explaining what, if any, changes were made by the Obama Administration.
At a news conference noting his 1st 100 days in office, Obama said, “We have rejected the false choice between our security and our ideals by closing the detention center at Guantanamo Bay and banning torture without exception.” 2 executive orders were issued: questioning prisoners must follow the rules of the Army Field Manual – be humane and follow the Geneva Conventions. The CIA must close all secret prisons. A special interagency task force should be established to make sure the Army Field Manual is sufficient to get all necessary intelligence, and the practice of “extraordinary rendition” should be evaluated. Another task force would determine “lawful options” available to the government regarding “apprehension, detention, trial of people apprehended in counter-terrorism operations.”
Worthington points out that there is a part of the Army Field Manual, Appendix M, that states that solitary confinement, sensory deprivation, sleep deprivation, temperature manipulation, and fear induction, can be used on enemy combatants but not prisoners of war. He believes that this may provide a loophole in the anti-torture rules.
Obama’s CIA Director Panetta, said that the CIA no longer has extraordinary rendition but “retains the authority to detain individuals on a short term transitory basis.” Worthington believes that it is, therefore, reasonable to assume that certain black sites are being kept open.
Obama has fought the release of further torture memos and has blocked the release of photographs involving torture. He has also rejected the idea of punishment for the torturers on all levels of the hierarchy, saying that they were just following orders that they thought were legal. Indefinite detention will continue.
At Bagram Prison, located on a U.S. Air Base north of Kabul in Afghanistan there are 650 prisoners whose lives are infinitely worse than for the prisoners at Guantanamo. The prisoners at Guantanamo got certain rights from the Supreme Court in the period between 2006 and 2008. They now have access to lawyers that fight for them and a review process, as inadequate as it might be. 4 habeas corpus cases were filed in U.S. courts on behalf of Bagram prisoners. Worthington notes that the position of the Obama Administration is indistinguishable from that of the Bush Administration regarding Bagram – not to open the prison to outside scrutiny. Bagram is a black hole. There are 3 categories of prisoners there: foreigners captured in other countries and brought there (these are the only ones granted habeas corpus rights), Afghans arrested elsewhere and rendered there, and Afghans captured in Afghanistan. A review process has been started at Bagram but it falls well short of the inadequate reviews at Guantanamo.
In his very informative talk at the Revolution Bookstore, Worthington said that Obama repudiated torture legally but it is still going on. Guantanamo now has an Emergency Response Force (ERF) that pepper sprays the incarcerated and beats them for the slightest rule infraction. He added, if you know people are torturing you can’t have anything to do with them. If you do you are guilty of complicity.
Photo by Bud Kortzer, Next Left Notes