From Gitmo to the gutter, our soul bleeds
THE SOAP BOX
BY BENNET KELLEY No. 12, June 16, 2006
From Gitmo to the gutter, our soul bleeds
Human rights have long been a core element of our foreign policy because, in the words of President Carter, “human rights (are) the very soul of our sense of nationhood.” As part of this commitment, the State Department releases an annual report on the status of human rights in countries worldwide. For example, the reports have condemned countries such as Burma and
North Korea for the disappearance and indefinite detention of political prisoners without trial;
while also condemning Libya, Syria and other countries for engaging in acts of torture that include hooding, stripping detainees naked, sleep deprivation, subjecting detainees to extremes of heat, cold, noise and light, threatening them with dogs, submerging them in water to simulate drowning — which is known as water-boarding —and other acts of physical abuse.
The abuses detailed in the reports warrant global outrage because they violate what President Bush has called “”the nonnegotiable demands of human dignity.” What is especially outrageous, however, is that each of the abuses detailed above have also occurred at the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay (“Gitmo”) and has now led to the suicide of three detainees.
The most recent State Department human rights report was overshadowed by the United Nations Human Rights Commission’s report on its investigation into conditions at Gitmo calling for both the immediate release or prosecution of the detainees and closure of the camp in light of evidence of torture. This was followed by the European Parliament’s report which concluded that the conditions at Gitmo demonstrate “unlawfulness on grounds including the torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees.” The Intentional Red Cross and Amnesty International have reached similar conclusions, with Amnesty referring to Gitmo as a “gulag.”
Vice President Cheney asserts that Gitmo detainees “are people we picked up on the battlefield, primarily in Afghanistan … They’re members of Al Qaeda and the Taliban (and) are serious, deadly threats to the United States.” The administration also would have you believe that any instances of abuse at Gitmo are isolated incidents or a matter of a “few bad apples.”
Independent reports, however, paint a different picture of the detainees who have now been held nearly five years without trial. Nearly nine in 10 detainees were captured by reward-seeking Pakistanis and Afghan warlords and not U.S. forces, while over half the detainees were found not to have committed any hostile acts against the U.S. or its allies. Only 8 percent are considered Al Qaeda fighters, while 60 percent are held merely for being “associated with” alleged terrorist groups including many that are not even on the Department of Homeland Security’s watch list.
Documents also demonstrate approval of controversial interrogation techniques by top administration officials. For example, water-boarding was endorsed in the infamous “torture memos” and authorized by then White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales, ignoring rulings of the post-World War II Japanese war crimes tribunals which found that both the Japanese soldiers
engaging in water-boarding and the officers who approved it were guilty of war crimes.
In addition, there is a direct link between Gitmo and the notorious Abu Ghraib prison as Gitmo’s initial commander, Major General Geoffrey Miller, was sent to Iraq to “Gitmo-ize” Abu Ghraib and other detention facilities. Pentagon reports have since blamed Miller for “abusive” interrogation
techniques at Gitmo and for contributing to the abuses at Abu Ghraib.
The suicide deaths of the three detainees should refocus attention on Gitmo as well as the administration’s use of rendition to hold more than 100 detainees incommunicado in secret detention facilities overseas. It is important that Congress exercise some courage and investigate this matter closely, just as they did in defying the administration by passing the torture ban, which the administration now contends does not apply to Guantanamo detainees.
This is not simply a question of the merits of holding each individual detainee; it is about what type of country we are and what we stand for. Are we a nation governed by laws or fear and expediency? Are human rights “the very soul of our sense of nationhood” or are we now a nation that condones “gulags” and is satisfied with being “not as bad” as the Saddams of the world?
Two years ago The Economist noted that “American ideals have been a beacon of hope to others around the world. In compromising those ideals (however), Mr. Bush is … blunting one of America’s most powerful weapons against terrorism.” Following the Gitmo suicides, England’s conservative Daily Mail stated that the United States has fallen “from the high moral ground to the gutter.”
We must speak out and let our leaders know that we do not condone the abandonment and debasement of this “powerful weapon” and the “very soul of our sense of nationhood” for the fleeting security afforded by torture.
Bennet Kelley ([email protected]) is the former national co-chair of the Democratic National Committee’s young professional arm and a lawyer who has been involved in prior Guantanamo detention matters.
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