Guantánamo

[islamirama]

Who's Pulling the Strings?

The Dark Heart of the Guantánamo Trials

By ANDY WORTHINGTON
On September 24, Col. Lawrence Morris, the chief prosecutor of Guantánamo’s Military Commission trial system, announced that Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld, the prosecutor in the case of Mohamed Jawad (an Afghan -- and a teenager at the time of his capture -- who is accused of throwing a grenade at a jeep containing two US soldiers and an Afghan translator), had asked to quit his assignment before his one-year contract expired.

Although Col. Morris attempted to explain that Lt. Col. Vandeveld was leaving “for personal reasons,” the real reasons were spelled out in a statement issued by Vandeveld (PDF), in which he expressed his frustration and disappointment that “potentially exculpatory evidence” had “not been provided” to Jawad’s defense team:

My ethical qualms about continuing to serve as a prosecutor relate primarily to the procedures for affording defense counsel discovery. I am highly concerned, to the point that I believe I can no longer serve as a prosecutor at the Commissions, about the slipshod, uncertain “procedure” for affording defense counsel discovery. One would have thought … six years since the Commissions had their fitful start, that a functioning law office would have been set up and procedures and policies not only put into effect, but refined.

Instead, what I found, and what I still find, is that discovery in even the simplest of cases is incomplete or unreliable. To take the Jawad case as only one example -- a case where no intelligence agency had any significant involvement -- I discovered just yesterday that something as basic as agents’ interrogation notes had been entered into a database, to which I do not have personal access … These and other examples too legion to list are not only appalling, they deprive the accused of basic due process and subject the well-intentioned prosecutor to claims of ethical misconduct.

Vandeveld also stated, “My view of the case has evolved over time,” and proceeded to explain how he had come to suspect that Jawad, who has always denied throwing the grenade, was duped into joining a militant group, and was drugged before the attack. Michael Berrigan, the Commissions’ deputy chief defense counsel, added that prosecutors also knew that the Afghan Interior Ministry said that two other men had confessed to the same crime, although Vandeveld did not mention this in his statement.

Vandeveld added, “Based on my view of the case, I have advocated a pre-trial agreement under which Mr. Jawad would serve some relatively brief additional period in custody while he receives rehabilitation services and skills that will allow him to reintegrate into either Afghan or Pakistani society.” This, however, was turned down by his commanding officers. He continued: “One of my motivations in seeking a reasonable resolution of the case is that, as a juvenile at the time of capture, Jawad should have been segregated from the adult detainees, and some serious attempt made to rehabilitate him. I am bothered by the fact that this was not done.”
On October 26, as Jawad’s defense lawyer, Maj. David Frakt, sought to have the case dismissed due to “gross government misconduct,” Lt. Col. Vandeveld testified for the defense by video link from Washington D.C., explaining, as the Associated Press described it, that “the embattled military tribunal system may not be capable of delivering justice for Jawad or the victims.” “They are not served by having someone who may be innocent be convicted of the crime,” Vandeveld said, reiterating that, even after six years, “it is impossible for anyone in good conscience to stand up and say he or she is provided all the discovery in a case.”

Explaining more of his reasons for quitting his job, Vandeveld told the court that he “reached a turning point” when he chanced upon “key evidence among material scattered throughout the prosecutors’ office.” In another case file, he said he “saw for the first time a statement Jawad made to a military investigator probing prisoner abuse in Afghanistan,” and described it as “an episode that helped convert him from a ‘true believer to someone who felt truly deceived.’” He added that he had “even developed sympathy” for Jawad. “My views changed,” he said. “I am a father, and it's not an exercise in self-pity to ask oneself how you would feel if your own son was treated in this fashion.”

More @ http://counterpunch.com/worthington10032008.html

 

[islamirama]

Observing Another Guantánamo Show Trial

This week, while the eyes of the American public and the world focus on the final leg of the presidential race, a new trial commenced at Guantánamo. The trial of Ali Hamza al Bahlul, al Qaeda's alleged media secretary, is only the second full trial to take place at the naval base since the first group of detainees was transferred there from Afghanistan in January 2002.

"Clearly something is fundamentally wrong with a system that admits evidence obtained through torture, employs ad hoc rules that are made up on the fly and lacks meaningful constitutional protections," said Jamil Dakwar, Director of the ACLU Human Rights Program who is observing al-Bahlul's proceedings. "America deserves better than a system that is incompatible with universal notions of fairness and justice."

Currently, 253 detainees classified as "alien unlawful enemy combatants" remain in U.S. custody, and only 25 have been charged before this flawed military commission system.

The ACLU has been present as an independent observer at nearly every military commission hearing since 2004 and continues to see no indication that the proceedings are fair, impartial or in accordance with constitutional principles.

>>Read Jamil Dakwar's blog series containing his comments and observations from the hearings.

http://blog.aclu.org/2008/10/28/observing-another-guantnamo-show-trial/

 

[islamirama]

The Horrors of U.S.A. Torture

MULLAH ABDUS SALAAM DHAEEF --U.S.A. TORTURE & BRUTALITY


Mullah Abdus Salaam Dhaeef was Afghanistan’s Ambassador to Pakistan in 2001. On 1st June 2002 the government of Pakistan treacherously handed him over to the U.S.A.. He spent 3 years and 10 months in horrendous suffering in the torture Camps of America in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. Of this period, one month was spent in different torture centres in Afghanistan and the rest of the period of detention and torture was in Guantanamo Bay. After this long period of detention and torture, America handed him over to the current U.S.A. Kerzai puppet government. On his release, Mullah Abdus Salaam wrote a book describing in vivid detail the savagery and barbarism of the American soldiers and his torturers. The book written in the Pushto language was translated into Urdu. We present here extracts from the Urdu version.

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MULLAH ABDUS SALAAM DHAEEF, during the reign of the Taliban was Afghanistan’s ambassador in Pakistan. After Pakistan treacherously handed him over to the blood thirsty U.S. torturers, Mullah Abdus Salaam spent three years and ten months at Guantanamo Bay and other U.S. torture centres where he was subjected to horrendous acts of torture. Only a sub-Satan species can be capable of the unimaginable acts of brutality which human beings cannot imagine inflicting on even animals.

Mullah Abdus Salaam says: “I never dreamt that the Pakistani rulers would betray me for a few coins and hand me over as a gift to America……I was blindfolded and driven to a helicopter where I was handed over to the Americans. Before being bundled into the aircraft I heard several persons speaking in English. I was now convinced of being in the custody of the Americans. I was made to stand near to the helicopter. Within a few moments those who were conversing in English attacked me like a pack of wild wolves, raining blows and kicking me relentlessly. This happened right in the presence of the Pakistanis who had just handed me over. I was completely dazed by the suddenness of the attack. During the wild assault they sometimes threw me onto my face; sometimes made me stand, tearing my clothes, pushing, hitting and kicking me. They tore my clothes with he aid of knives. While this brutal assault was taking place, the cloth fell from my eyes. I saw standing one side a row of Pakistani soldiers and officers speculating the scene.

While the Americans continued their merciless assault on me, and denuding me of my clothes, these supposed ‘defenders of Islam’ (the Pakistani officers and soldiers) and former ‘friends’ looked on silently. The savage and blood thirsty Americans threw me to the ground while I was completely naked. I was then harshly pushed and shoved into the helicopter where my hands and feet were shackled with chains. I was again blindfolded. Then a hood was pulled down over my face. I was thereafter tied with rope from head to feet.

The helicopter took off. Whenever I tried to slightly move, a hard kick would land on me. I was convinced that I would die within few moments. I cannot remember how long I remained in that cauldron of brutality. After having been airborne for some time, the helicopter landed. I was harshly dragged and thrown out. A new set of barbaric Americans took over and reduced me to such a state which is beyond description. They even laid me flat while four or five of the savages sat on me. My very breathing stopped. I was tortured at this place for about two hours.

I was then loaded into another helicopter and shackled to a steel chair………….….. I was repeatedly attacked by the American savages with fists and kicks. While I was hooded I was totally naked. In this state of nudity, they threw me onto ice. While all this was taking place, American male and female soldiers would sing, mock and jeer at me. When I uncontrollably shivered of the cold they shouted at me to stop my ‘movement’. I finally lost conscious……….

Once when they laid me down flat on the ground, the interrogator took a pocket-size Qur’aan Shareef and began tearing it page by page. He scattered the pages all over the show to cause maximum grief to me. Then the American soldiers brought their dogs which took the pages of the Qur’aan Shareef into their mouths and tramped on the scattered pages.………. A common practice of these barbarians was to keep a copy of the Qur’aan Majeed at their feet while interrogating us. Then followed the fist blows and the kicks…. In extreme cold weather, prisoners were made to sit on the ground outside and ice cold water was poured over their heads. Like wild beasts, they would even bite prisoners. This brutal treatment did not fully gratiate them. They would also beat us with sticks……..

Two soldiers pulled me out from a sandpit (wherein they were torturing him) and began kicking me under the ribs with their heavy boots. I was then thrown onto the ground face downwards, and four American savages jumped all over my body. Cameras would repeatedly flash. They revelled in taking pictures of us while we were being tortured, and in the state of nudity. For the American male and female soldiers, our deplorable and lamentable plight was fun and mirth-provoking.

When taking a group of prisoners for interrogation, they were ordered to crawl on their knees to the place of interrogation while dogs were let loose from behind to hasten the crawling prisoners. The skin would peel from my knees and blood flowed. My head would be bashed against the wall…….

Once a group of seven prisoners were tied and taken out. All their clothes were removed. All were exposed with their nudity to the gazes of all and sundry. Male and female American soldiers would gather around and mockingly view the scene. There was nothing more humiliating than this barbaric treatment.”

 

[islamirama]

Lost Years in Guantanamo

By Ismail Kamal Kushkush, IOL Correspondent


KHARTOUM — When Pakistani intelligence stormed Salim Mahmud Adam's Peshawar residence on May 27, 2002, the Sudanese teacher had no idea this would lead to six hellish years in America's notorious Guantanamo detention.
"When I opened the door, they immediately handcuffed me," Adam, 44, told IslamOnline.net from his home in Sudan, 70 days after his release.

Adam, 44, still vividly remembers the screams and tears of his wife and three children that dreadful night.

"At 1:00 AM they came to my house from all sides. My wife was pregnant at the time. They showed no mercy."

Adam, then principal of a Peshawar orphanage school run by a Kuwaiti NGO, was blindfolded and taken into custody.

He was interrogated for twelve fore being sent to Bagram, another notorious US detention camp and airbase in Afghanistan.

Adam's agonizing torture ordeal began early on in Bagram.

"We were all left nude in front of each other," he remembers an insulting practice for Muslims.

"Interrogations would sometimes last for three to four hours."

After two months, it was the time to move to another pit of hell thousands of miles away.

Adam painfully describes Guantanamo as a place "in contrast with humanity."

He recalls the harsh interrogations, beatings, the cries and screams of fellow detainees and loud music played at the time of prayer.

"Some (interrogators) would tell me we know you are innocent but this is a political game."

The Bush administration has been holding hundreds of detainees in Guantanamo since 2002.

The camp has for years been criticized by international watchdogs and rights icons for operating outside the law.

Many at the camp, where some 275 detainees are still being held, have committed suicide, attempted to and gone on extensive hunger strikes.

Secret Charges

Like Adam, compatriot Adel Hasan Hamad will always remember the day he was arrested in Pakistan on July 18, 2002.

Hamad was working as a hospital administrator in Peshawar.

"When the [US] war started in Afghanistan, all foreigners left to Pakistan," he remembers.

Hamad, married and the father of four girls, went on vacation to Sudan with his family in the summer of 2002.

Leaving the family back home, he returned to Pakistan on July 16, 2002.

"I only wanted to help refugees in Afghanistan and Pakistan."

Two days after his arrival, he was arrested.

"I was woken up by Pakistani intelligence officers who told me not to move and asked for my papers."

Stunned Hamad watched as one officer approached an accompanying American official with the question that changed his life for ever.

"He told him my papers were OK, should we arrest him?" he remembers. "The American said 'yes.'"

Hamad was taken to a Pakistani prison where he remained for six months and fifteen days, questioned by intelligence officers.

He and three others, who were all hand-cuffed and hooded, were then flown on an American military plane to Bagram, now known to have always been a stopover for most of the people shipped to Guantanamo no matter where they were first detained.

"There, they started beating us once we arrived."

US soldiers and officials there, Hamad explains, subjected him to constant interrogation, often associated with either beatings, cursing or threats.

"They would not let us sleep."

After two months of constant "interrogation and punishment", Hamad explains, he and others were shipped to Guantanamo.

"We were taken in a cargo plane, tied to the floor," he recalls.

"It took nearly twenty hours to get there."

In Guantanamo, Hamad again was interrogated daily; sometimes twice a day, but never officially charged.

"They 'accused' me of helping Taliban and al-Qaeda," he said.

"I asked how so? They said that was secret information.

"I was accused of being an enemy combatant but I never carried weapons."

Washington had declared all Guantanamo detainees as "unlawful enemy combatants" to deny them legal rights under American legal system.

Only three of some 750 people sent to Guant?namo since 2002 have faced formal charges.

Some 400 prisoners have been discharged over the past two years without explanation for years behind bars.

Lost Years

In 2004, Hamad appeared before a Combatant Status Review Tribunal that cleared him of the charge of being an enemy combatant.

In September, 2007, he was finally cleared by a military court of posing a threat to the United States.

Three months later, he breathed a sigh of relief while being taken away from hellish Guantanamo.

Flying home together on December 13, Hamdan and Adam had no idea more agony was in store.

Heart-broken Hamad, 50, was told his youngest daughter, Fida, had passed away while he was languishing at Guantanamo.

The family, which lost its source of income by his detention, could not afford to treat Fida when the young angel was struck by illness.

Adam, meanwhile, is still trying to reunite with his Pakistani wife and three children, still living in Peshawar.

One daughter, 5-year-old Amina, was born after his detention and has never known a father.

With the help of human rights groups, the two men are planning to sue the US for an apology and compensations after long years behind Guantanamo's high-walls.

"Guantanamo is place where human rights are abused," said Adam, fighting back tears.

"It needs to be shut down immediately."

 

[islamirama]

Guantanamo detainee Sami al-Hajj to receive international press freedom award


http://freedetainees.org/2187


After a plight largely ignored by the international media, Sami al-Hajj, the Al Jazeera cameraman held in Guantanamo Bay, is to receive an international press freedom award.


Al-Hajj (left, photo courtesy of William Edward Graham/ GIJC-2008 Lillehammer, Norway), an assistant cameraman for the Arabic channel, was captured by Pakistani intelligence close to the Afghan border and spent six years at the detention camp until his release in May 2008.


In an interview at last weekend’s Global Investigative Journalism Conference (GIJC) in Norway, he was invited to Toronto in October to receive the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) International Press Freedom Award.


“I saw myself as a reporter. Not working against the US, but to document what was happening in Guantanamo,” al-Hajj told delegates.



Deborah Manning, from Swiss NGO Alkarama for Human Rights, told the GIJC audience that al-Hajj’s lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, had said he had lost his best ally after Al-Hajj was released.


“Sami acted as a reporter while he was in Guantanamo and survived through his professionalism,” she said.


During his detention al-Hajj received ‘very little’ interest from western media, Ezzeddine Abdelmoula, from Al Jazeera English’s media relations department, told the conference.


While Al Jazeera channels ran a banner on al-Hajj every day during his captivity, other mainstream media channels did not give his imprisonment much attention.


“We think this is also part of why he was held there so long,” said Abdelmoula.


Haakon Haugsbö from Skup, a Norwegian foundation for investigative journalism, asked if Abdelmoula blamed western media.


“We think journalists have a responsibility to support each other, and I think this case could have been highlighted more,” he answered.


It was difficult to highlight the case when it happened somewhere unexpected, like the US, said Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) Benoît Hervieu, who also blamed the parochial nature of the general media.


Al-Hajj is currently working on a series of programmes for AlJazeera on human rights issues.

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[FONT=georgia,serif][FONT=comic sans ms,sans-serif]Read:[/FONT][/FONT][FONT=georgia,serif][FONT=comic sans ms,sans-serif]Held Hostage For Six Years In Guantanamo

Sami El Haj, Al Jazeera Journalist, Tells His Story[/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=georgia,serif]By Silvia Cattori

http://www.informat ionclearinghouse .info/article204 09.htm[/FONT]

 

[islamirama]

First Guantanamo video released

The video was filmed secretly through an air duct

A videotape of a detainee being questioned at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay has been released for the first time.


It shows 16-year-old Omar Khadr being asked by Canadian officials in 2003 about events leading up to his capture by US forces, Canadian media have said.


The Canadian citizen is accused of throwing a grenade that killed a US soldier in Afghanistan in 2002.


He is seen in a distressed state and complaining about the medical care.


The footage was made public by Mr Khadr's lawyers following a Supreme Court ruling in May that the Canadian authorities had to hand over key evidence against him to allow a full defence of the charges he is facing.


'Help me'

Mr Khadr, the only Westerner still held at the jail, was 15 when he was captured by US forces during a gun battle at a suspected al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan.


During the 10-minute video of his questioning in Guantanamo a year later, he can be seen crying, his face buried in his hands, and pulling at his hair. He can be heard repeatedly chanting: "Help me."

More @ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7507216.stm

=====================================================


Mother of Omar Khadr on Gitmo video

Mother of Omar Khadr on Gitmo video: 'I don't know if he hears me crying'

TORONTO — The mother of Omar Khadr could only sit helplessly and watch Tuesday as her "tiny boy," accused in the death of a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan, cried out to her in a 2003 recording of a marathon Guantanamo Bay interrogation - her first glimpse of him in more than six years.

In an exclusive interview at the family's east-end Toronto home, Maha Elsamnah told The Canadian Press she felt powerless to intervene as she watched the video of Khadr, then just 16, weeping for his mother during an interview with a Canadian intelligence agent.

"My son is calling for me and I'm sitting here," said Elsamnah, by turns stoic and distraught as she described seeing Khadr for the first time since he was taken into U.S. military custody following a deadly firefight in Afghanistan in 2002.

"I cried. I said, 'O God, please answer his call. I can't answer.' I wish I can tell him. What can I do? I'm here. I wish he can hear me answering back."

Part of the video, recorded in February 2003, shows Khadr sobbing uncontrollably. At one point, he whimpers a mantra that sounds like "Help me," but which Elsamnah said were in fact an Arabic expression meaning, "Oh, mother."

"I always heard his call in my dreams," she said. "But I don't know if he hears me crying."

Sitting in her living room, Elsamnah said "the baby face" and "tiny boy" she saw in the grainy, out-of-focus video looked exactly the way he did when she last saw him.

That was a week or two before the clash in Afghanistan that left the 15-year-old badly wounded and near death. It was during that skirmish, U.S. authorities allege, that Khadr threw the grenade that killed an Amer ican medic, Sgt. Christopher Speer.

At another point during in the interrogation, Khadr pleads for the chance to go back to Canada .

"There's not anything I can do about that," says the agent, whose identity is concealed from view. "I want to stay in Cuba with you. The weather is nice - no snow."

Both Elsamnah and Khadr's older sister, Zaynab, 28, expressed dismay at the response.

"He's sitting in a cell, in a cage, suffering from the heat. I don't think he sees that as a very nice thing. He's not there on a vacation. He's there because he's in jail," said Zaynab.

"It's just ridiculous to compare your vacation in Cuba to his stay in Cuba ."

"Mockery!" Elsamnah interjected. "He's mocking him. He's mocking a kid. A grownup with freedom and free will is mocking a kid."

The Khadrs were once personal friends of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, a relationship fostered by the family patriarch Ahmed Said Khadr, who was killed in a gun battle with Pakistan forces in October 2003.

Omar's brother Karim, who suffered injuries in that same fight that left him paralyzed from the waist down, said he found it difficult to watch the video.

"I was very angry on the inside when I saw it - about what they made him go through for nothing," Karim said as he sat on the living room carpet.

"Why did they even want to interrogate him? He's only 16. They even make him feel worse. I'm pretty sure if there was any information inside him, the Americans had it already."

Elsamnah said she realizes that many Canadians blame her and her late husband for Khadr's plight. But she insisted that taking their outrage out on a child is unacceptable.

"I know they will say . . . it was a stupid family who took him there (but) Omar never went (to Afghanistan ) to fight. We never went there to fight. We went there to help," she said.

"War is not fun - it will never bring happiness to anybody. War is miserable."

 

[islamirama]

Torture Documentary Wins Oscar

IslamOnline.net & News Agencies


HOLLYWOOD — A film exposing the US military's torture of terror suspects at its facilities in Afghanistan has received the coveted Oscar for best documentary .

"This is dedicated to two people who are no longer with us, Dilawar, a young Afghan driver and my father a Navy interrogator who urged me to make this film because of his fury at what was being done to the rule of law," filmmaker Alex Gibney told the much-coveted awarding ceremony.

The "Taxi to the Dark Side" features the death of Dilawar,22, at the US Bagram base in 2002 after being tortured by US military interrogators.

It shows how Dilawar was repeatedly kicked, punched and chained to the ceiling of his cell for days even after his interrogators reached the conclusion he was not guilty.

Gibney persuaded several high-ranking officials to talk in his film about the use of torture in US detention centers.

"I think they were motivated to speak out because they felt their voices weren't being heard in the corridors of power," he said.

Movies about war, torture and sickness competed for the coveted Oscar for best documentary.

"No End in Sight" documents how the military strategy of a few powerful men led to a deepening conflict, while "Operation Homecoming" puts soldiers' poignant writings about combat and loss on film.

The Academy Awards, known as the Oscars, are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry worldwide.

The 1st Academy Awards ceremony was held on Thursday, May 16, 1929, at the Hotel Roosevelt in Hollywood.

Self-defeating

Gibney said he was motivated by a series of US military torture scandals uncovered by the American media.

"My wife Anne was hoping I'd make a romantic comedy, but honestly, after Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, extraordinary rendition that simply wasn't possible."

In 2004, American newspapers published shocking photos taken on mobile and digital cameras by US soldiers of tortured Iraqi prisoners in notorious Abu Ghraib.

Some of the photos showed detainees piled up naked on the floor, cowering in front of snarling military dogs, chained to beds in stress positions, with women's underwear put over their heads, and forced to stand naked in front of female guards.

The US press also revealed that since 9/11 terror attacks, the CIA has repeatedly kidnapped and illegally transferred terror suspects to countries notorious for using torture in interrogations.

Gibney hopes his movie would push the US to abandon such brutal techniques.

"Let's hope we can turn this country around, move away from the dark side and go back to the light."

He maintains that democracy not detention centers would undermine extremism worldwide.

In a study published last October, the Oxford Research Group (ORG) concluded that US interrogation techniques have fueled not undermined extremism.

It noted that the mass detentions without trial of tens of thousands of people, widespread torture, prisoner abuse and extraordinary rendition have played into the hands of extremists and their propaganda war.

"If you study Osama Bin Laden's words, if you study other terrorist groups throughout history, the goal is to get liberal democratic societies to publicly undermine their own principles," said Gibney.

"Well, in this case? Mission accomplished."

Source
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Comment posted on the web site:
http://www.kansascity.com/entertainm...ml#recent_comm

It takes brave men like Alex Gibney to stand up to tyranny and expose the hypocritical fascist regime in the making since 9/11. Under the pretext of national security and playing the fear card on the mostly naive and unsuspecting American public, the Republican neo-cons, in alliance with the major media networks, have hijacked the country and the system. This regime has been in the planning for years before 9/11. The neo-cons made sure they controlled the major news networks before making their move. With the media watchdog on their side, the public lost access to fair reporting and independent news analysis. The neo-cons started to dismantle the Constitution and the system that was built by visionary forefathers and has worked for the past 200+ years, stripping Americans from their most basic rights to privacy, free speech, expression and fair trial. "Innocent until proven guilty" became "guilty until proven innocent" in practice, convictions are based on secret witnesses and secret evidence, telephone calls and emails are intercepted and private homes could be broken into and searched without court warrants.. !

BMS

 

[islamirama]

Red Cross Says Detainees Reported Abusive Treatment In CIA Custody

Terror detainees once held in the CIA's secret prisons were kept and questioned under highly abusive conditions, the International Committee of the Red Cross says in a confidential report based on interviews with high-value terror suspects.

The Red Cross said the techniques reported by the 14 prisoners, including sleep deprivation and the use of forced standing and other so-called "stress positions," were particularly harsh when used together. The prisoners were transferred from CIA custody to a military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in September. The CIA's detention methods were designed to soften detainees and make them more likely to talk during interrogation. Human rights organizations say the CIA's extreme conditions of detention and the coercive questioning techniques constitute torture.

The report is the first independent accounting of the detainees' allegations against the CIA since its detention and interrogation program began in 2002. U.S. officials familiar with the report, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because the highly sensitive document has not been released, said it is based entirely on accounts from interviews with detainees and has not been verified. One official cautioned that the claims were made by terror suspects who could be charged in the deaths of innocent civilians.

Red Cross spokesman Simon Schorno said that the committee's visits with the 14 detainees served two purposes: to assess their current conditions in detention and to give them an opportunity to talk about past detentions. "We do not comment on our findings publicly. The report is a confidential document," Schorno said Monday. CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield declined to comment on any ICRC reports, citing the organization's practice of keeping its findings confidential. Speaking generally of CIA interrogation program, Mansfield said the United States does not practice or condone torture.

"CIA's terrorist interrogation program has been conducted lawfully, with great care and close review, producing vital information that has helped disrupt plots and save lives," he added.House Intelligence Chairman Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, said he has gotten a general briefing on the ICRC report but has not read it. "There are allegations that are made by these 14, and they are vehemently denied by General Hayden and the intelligence folks," he said, referring to CIA Director Michael Hayden.

Not long after the March 2002 capture of top al-Qaida operative Abu Zubaydah, the CIA began formalizing its detention and interrogation program. The CIA decided it would need to hold high-value terrorists such as Zubaydah for extended periods in an effort to extract information. They began using some "enhanced interrogation techniques" -- or "EITs" in CIA-speak -- with success. Those widely reported practices include openhanded slapping, induced hypothermia, sleep deprivation and -- perhaps most controversially -- waterboarding. In that technique, a detainee is made to believe he is drowning. Buttressed by at least one classified legal opinion from the Justice Department, the CIA believed it was operating lawfully in detaining and interrogating roughly 100 suspected terrorists at locations from Southeast Asia to Europe.

"The (interrogation) procedures were tough, and they were safe, and lawful, and necessary," President Bush said in September when he announced that all the CIA's remaining detainees had been moved to military custody at Guantanamo Bay. Asked last month if the prisons were still empty, a CIA official declined to comment. The military held a hearing this month to review the detention status of one of the 14 prisoners: the CIA's most prized capture, alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. He confessed involvement in 31 plots since the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He also said he was tortured.

Two senators present for Mohammed's March 10 hearing -- Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. -- confirmed the tribunal was presented with a written statement from Mohammed alleging mistreatment before his arrival at Guantanamo, which was made part of the classified record. The senators said the military panel will submit the allegations to the appropriate authorities. "Allegations of prisoner mistreatment must be taken seriously and properly investigated," Levin and Graham said in their statement. "To do otherwise would reflect poorly on our nation." A U.S. official said the allegations raised by Mohammed were forwarded to the CIA's inspector general, which has been monitoring the agency's interrogation program for years.

In an interview Tuesday, Levin said he'll also be investigating Mohammed's claims of abuse, starting with his classified statement. Asked if the review by the CIA's top watchdog would be enough, Levin said he wasn't sure it would be sufficient. "They have a responsibility to look at it. That doesn't mean that no one else does," he said. Levin said he has given a summary of the ICRC report, but he declined to comment on its contents. Many of the techniques that detainees reported to the ICRC are consistent with published reports about the CIA's interrogation program and its enhanced interrogation techniques.

Yet U.S. counterterrorism officials have long cautioned that al-Qaida members are likely to lie about conditions during captivity and they cite a jihadist training manual obtained by British authorities during a raid on an al-Qaida member's home. The Justice Department made portions of the document public in December 2001, including a lesson on prisons and detention centers that encourages claims of mistreatment. The ICRC has a policy of not releasing reports on its visits with prisoners. The Geneva-based organization believes that allows its officials to get repeated and unrestricted access to prisoners. When necessary, the organization urges the detaining authorities to make improvements.

"The price of this is a policy of confidentiality, taking up the problems only with the people directly concerned," according to a policy statement on its Web site. The ICRC says it will only break its silence in extreme cases, such as when the condition of prisoners hasn't improved. A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, declined to comment on details of the ICRC report. He said the 14 high-value detainees now in military custody receive food, shelter, clothing and medical care, among other provisions.

Source: http://www.yorkdispatch.com/nationworld/ci_5487021

 

[islamirama]

Public At Last

Guantánamo's SERE Standard Operating Procedures

By STEPHEN SOLDZ
One of the most important documents of the U.S. torture program has just become publicly available for the first time. This is the JTF GTMO “SERE” Interrogation Standard Operating Procedure, now posted on the website of the new documentary, Torturing Democracy. This document clearly specifies that the abusive interrogation techniques to be used at Guantamo [JTF GTMO] are based upon the military’s Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape [SERE] program. The document is notable for its documentation of the extent to which abuse was bureaucratically standardized for routine use.


Both Katherine Eban and Jane Mayer referred to and described the SERE SOP back in the summer of 2007. A bit of it was included in documents released by the Senate Armed Services Committee June 17, 2008. But the bulk of the text remained classified and unavailable until today. An FBI commentary on the SERE SOP has been available since February 2006 at least, in heavily redacted form which obscured the content, but not the existence of the SOP.


Here is the document. It is also available in pdf. [as this was a draft, the formatting was inconsistent. I have corrected some formatting. I have not corrected any typos. For example, there is likely a "NOT" missing after the "DO" in "IT IS CRITICAL THAT INIERROGATORS DO “CROSS THE LINE” WHEN UTILIZING THE TACTICS DESCRIBED BELOW." Obviously, despite my best efforts at accuracy, this text should be checked against the pdf before citing.]

“FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY”
JTF GTMO SERE SOP
10 DECEMBER 2002


JTF GTMO “SERE” INTERROGATION STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE
Subj: GUIDELINES FOR EMPLOYING “SERE” TECHNIQUES DIRING DETAINEE INTERROGATIONS


Ref: (a) FASO DETACHMENT BRUNSWICK INSTRUCTION 3305.3D


1. Purpose. This SOP document promulgates procedures to be followed by I I P-GTMO personnel engaged in interrogation operations on detained persons. The premise behind this is that the interrogation tactics used at U.S. military SERE schools are appropriate for use in real-world interrogations. These tactics and techniques are used at SERE school to “break” SERE detainees. The same tactics and techniques can be used to break real detainees during interrogation operations.


The basis for this document is the SOP used at the U.S. Navy SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape) school in Brunswick, Maine and is defined by reference (a).
Note that all tactics are strictly non-lethal.


STRICT COMPLIANCE WITH THE GUIDELINES LAID OUT IN THIS DOCUMENT IS MADATORY!


2. Training. All interrogators will undergo training by certified SERE instructors prior to being approved for use of any of the techniques described in this document.


3. Scope. Applicable to military and civilian interrogators assigned to JTF-GTMO, Cuba.
TED K. MOSS
LtCol, USAF

INTERROGATION TACTICS


1. GENERAL STATEMENT


a. This document describes in detail the interrogation tactics authorized for use in detainee interrogation operations at JTF_GTMO and the safety precautions that must be used to prevent injuries. The tactics are the same as those used in U.S. military SERE schools.


b. ANY PHYSICAL CONTACT NOT EXPRESSLY AUTHORIZED HEREIN IS PROHIBIIED.


c. INTERROGATION TACTICS FOLLOWED BY: ******* MAY ONLY BE USED BY THOSE INITERROGATORS DESIGNATED IN WRITING BY THE ICE CHIEF.


2. INTERROGATION SAFETY



a. Approved interrogation tactics are found in Sections 3-6.


b. Additional safeguards are as follows:


1. Detainee behavior and reactions are continuously observed and evaluated by the interrogator.


2. Both the detainee’s and the interrogators behavior are monitored by the Watch Officer.


3. IT IS CRITICAL THAT INIERROGATORS DO “CROSS THE LINE” WHEN UTILIZING THE TACTICS DESCRIBED BELOW. Therefore, verbal coded messages or nonverbal signals will be used by the Watch Officer (or other interrogators) when giving instructions to adjust interrogation procedure. For example, two kicks on the door indicated the interrogator should discontinue the current approach and move on to another approach. The statement, “Stop wasting time with this pig,” means to discontinue the current training tactic and take a break.

3. DEGRADATION TACTICS


a. SHOULDER SLAP. The shoulder slap is a moderate to hard, glancing blow to the back of the shoulder with an open hand. It is used as an irritant.


b. INSULT SLAP. *****
(1) The insult slap is used to shock and intimidate the detainee. The slap is aimed at the detainee’s cheek only. Contact will be made only with the fingers in the open hand position and the fingers will be slightly spread and relaxed. The slap will be initiated no more than 12-14 inches (or one shoulder width) from the detainee’s face.
To ensure this distance is not exceeded and to preclude any tendency to wind up or uppercut, the slap will be initiated with the slap hand contacting the detainee’s body on the top of the shoulder. The target area is slightly below the cheekbone, away from the eyes and ears. Extreme care must be taken not to strike the lower jaw. Slaps aimed at the ears, mouth, nose eyes or throat are prohibited.


(2) Uninterrupted or consecutive slaps are prohibited because the detainee will duck or dodge the slap, creating possibility for an injury. Experience has shown that after a second slap, the effectiveness of the slap tactic is significantly reduced. Interrogators will cease using the slap if detainee begins ducking. At this point, a threatened slap with the hand will achieve the same purpose as a slap. Blows with the back of the hand, fists, elbows, feet and knees are prohibited. Insult slaps are only to be used by those interrogators designated in writing by the ICE CHIEF.


C. STOMACH SLAP. ******

(1) As with the insult slap, the stomach slap is used to shock and intimidate the detainee. The tactic is delivered with the back of the bare hand. The slap will be directed towards the center of the abdomen. The detainee will not be struck in the solar plexus, ribs, sides, and kidneys or below the navel. The slap will not be performed against the bare skin. Slaps will be initiated with the interrogator’s upper arm parallel to his/her body, extending the striking hand in a swinging motion to the target area. Detainees will be either facing or to the side of the interrogator when the slap is administered.


(2) Uninterrupted or consecutive slaps are prohibited. Blows to the stomach with the palm of the hand fist, knees or elbows are prohibited.

D. STRIPPING


(1) Stripping consists of forceful removal of detainees’ clothing. In addition to degradation of the detainee, shipping can be used to demonstrate the omnipotence of the captor or to debilitate the detainee. Interrogator personnel tear clothing from detainees by firmly pulling downward against buttoned buttons and seams. Tearing motions shall be downward to prevent pulling the detainee off balance.

4. PHYSICAL DEBILITATION TACTICS


a. STRESS POSITIONS. Stress positions are used to punish detainees. ALL STRESS POSITIONS ARE -RESTRICTED TO A MAXIMUM TIME OF TEN MINUTES AND A LOGBOOK ENTRY IS REQURED. An interrogator/guard will remain with detainees during use of stress positions. The authorized positions are:


(1) Head Rest/Index Finger position - Detainee is placed with forehead or fingers against the wall, then the detainee’s legs are backed out to the point that the detainee’s leaning weight is brought to bear on fingers or head.


(2) Kneeling position - Administered by placing detainee on knees and having him lean backward on heels and hold hands extended to the sides or front, palms upward. Light weights such as small rocks, may be placed in the detainee’ s upturned palms. The detainee will not be placed in a position facing the sun or floodlights.


(3) Worship-the-Gods - The detainee is placed on knees with head and torso arched back, with arms either folded across the chest or extended to the side or front. The detainee will not be placed in a position facing the sun or floodlights.


(4) Sitting Position - the detainee is placed with his back against a wall, tree or post; thighs are horizontal, lower legs are vertical with feet flat on floor or ground as though sitting in a chair. Arms may be extended to sides horizontally, palms up and boots on.


(5) Standing position - While standing, the detainee is required to extend arms either to the sides or front with palms up. Light weights such as small rocks may be placed in upturned palms.

5. ISOLATION AND MONOPOLIZATION OF PERCEPTION TACTICS


a. HOODING
(1) Hoods are lightweight fabric sacks large enough to fit loosely over a detainee’s head and permit unrestricted breathing.


(2) Flooding us used to isolate detainees. Individually hooded detainees may be moved provided an interrogator/guard leads the detainee. Detainees may not be left standing alone with the hood on. They must be placed either on their stomachs, kneeling, or sitting. Detainee medical limitations must be considered.

6. DEMONSTRATED OMNIPOTENCE TACTICS


a. MANHANDLING.

Manhandling consists of pulling or pushing a detainee. It is used as an irritant and to direct the detainee to specific locations. Detainees must be handcuffed and must grasp their trousers near mid-thigh with both hands. The interrogator firmly grasps detainee’s clothing and then moves the detainee at a walking pace. The interrogator must maintain positive control of the detainee The detainee is not released until the interrogator is positive the detainee has regained balance.


b. WALLING. ***** Walling consists of placing a detainee forcibly against a specially constructed wall. Walling will only be performed in designated areas where specially constructed walls have been built. Walling is used to physically intimidate a detainee. The interrogator must ensure the wall is smooth, firm, and free of any projections. If conducted outside, footing area must be solid and free of objects that could cause detainee or interrogator to lose their balance. A detainee can be taken to tfio wall a maximum of three,times per.shift. Walling is done by firmly grasping the front of the detainee’s clothing high on each side of the collar„ ensuring the top of the clothing is open. Care should be taken to ensure detainees with long hair do not get their hair tangled into the folds of clothes being grasped by the interrogator. To avoid bruising the detainee, roll hands under folds of clothing material and ensure only the backs of the hands contact detainee’s chest. Maintain this grip throughout, never allowing the detainee to be propelled uncontrollably. Ensure only the broad part of the shoulders contact the surface of the wall. Grip the detainee’s clothing firmly enough so the collar acts as a restrictive constraint to preclude the detainee’s head from contacting the wall does this. If the detainee’s head inadvertently touches the wall, walling will be ceased immediately.



Walling is to be used by those interrogators designated in writing by the ICE CHIEF.
Stephen Soldz is a psychoanalyst, psychologist, public health researcher, and faculty member at the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis. He maintains the Psychoanalysts for Peace and Justice web site and the Psyche, Science, and Society blog. He is a founder of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology, one of the organizations leading the struggle to change American Psychological Association policy on participation in abusive interrogations.

http://counterpunch.com/soldz10132008.html​

 

[Zarmina]

I pray to God, Obama shuts this gulag down.

 

[islamirama]

Torturing Democracy


"Torturing Democracy" is a new documentary which details how the government set aside the rule of law in its pursuit of harsh interrogations of suspected terrorists.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/torturingdemocracy/program/
​

 

[Izyan]

Ok you close Gitmo now what do you so with the prisoners?

 

[aamirsaab]

Ok you close Gitmo now what do you so with the prisoners?

Give them back to their country of origin or last residence; let the law deal with the criminals like it usually does.

 

[Izyan]

Give them back to their country of origin or last residence; let the law deal with the criminals like it usually does.

We've tried that and they either won't go or the country won't take them. What then?

 

[islamirama]

We've tried that and they either won't go or the country won't take them. What then?

They won't go, not to any muslim land. they love to stay in that hell, away from their families. yea ok :rollseyes

 

[Izyan]

They won't go, not to any muslim land. they love to stay in that hell, away from their families. yea ok :rollseyes

With Other Nations Refusing Detainees' Return, 'We Are Stuck' With Guantanamo, Gates Says

By Walter Pincus
Monday, May 26, 2008; A15



Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who last year said he would look for ways to close the Guantanamo Bay military prison, has told the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee that his inter-agency effort has been brought to a "standstill" by what he called "a serious not-in-my-back-yard problem."

Gates said there are "about 70" detainees whom the United States is prepared to send back to home countries. But those governments "either won't accept them or we are concerned that the home government will let them loose once we return them."

Making that prospect more real was the U.S. military's announcement that one of the people who set a suicide bomb in Mosul, Iraq, this month was identified as Abdallah Salih al-Ajmi, a Kuwaiti who was captured in Afghanistan, sent to Guantanamo and released in 2005 after three years there. Al-Ajmi was released when he returned home.

"What do you do with that irreducible 70 or 80, or whatever the number is, who cannot be let loose but will not be charged and will not be sent home?" Gates asked.

Seeking that answer, he said he had talked to members of Congress, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey and other Bush administration officials. "I haven't found anybody who wants these terrorists to be placed in a prison in their home state," he said.

The result, he said, "is that we are stuck" with Guantanamo Bay.

Gates and Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also discussed the fiscal 2009 Defense Department budget in their appearance before the subcommittee.

In response to a question from Chairman Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii), Mullen acknowledged that the "continuous escalation" of the $180 billion in costs associated with pay, benefits and health care for the all-volunteer active-duty and reserve armed forces "does not bode well for a military of this size."

"There are limits which we will hit which will, in the constraints that exist, force us to a smaller military or force us away from any kind of modernization or programs that we need for the future, or curtail operations," Mullen said.

Gates called the rising cost of health care "one area that not only concerns us but where we believe we have to get under control." He said the Defense Department's health-care costs went from $19.5 billion in 2001 to the projected $42.8 billion sought for next year. Within that figure, he said, are military retirees, who are eligible, along with family members, for Tricare medical and dental programs.

Gates said that by fiscal 2011, "65 percent of the people being served by [the Pentagon's health-care] budget will be retirees."

When it was begun in 1995, Tricare Prime had annual enrollment fees of $230 for a single retiree or $460 for a family. Many retirees are in good health and are often working in other jobs, and premiums have not increased since the program started.

Gates said there is a $1 billion shortage in the Pentagon's proposed fiscal 2009 health-care budget that it hopes to fill with a small increase in premiums for younger retirees.

Veterans groups and others so far have succeeded in persuading Congress not to approve the price hike. Gates said a Tricare premium increase for retirees could help slow rising health costs "without impinging on those who are in the service today."

Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-S.D.) asked Gates why the United States will still be paying $2.5 billion to train and equip Iraqi security forces next year, when the Baghdad government will earn $70 billion from oil exports this year. Gates replied that U.S. support has dropped each year as the Iraqis have paid more. But he added that by paying something, the United States can continue to keep an eye on the progress of Iraqi security forces.

"We need to scale this gradually . . . so we can keep an oar in, in terms of the quality and in terms of making sure that the training is of the kind that we'd want," he said.

He added that although the Pentagon continues to provide Iraq with U.S. weapons and equipment, it is gradually moving Iraq to buy those same arms from American suppliers.

National security and intelligence reporter Walter Pincus pores over the speeches, reports, transcripts and other documents that flood Washington and every week uncovers the fine print that rarely makes headlines -- but should. If you have any items that fit the bill, please send them to [email protected].

 

[islamirama]

Gates said there are "about 70" detainees whom the United States is prepared to send back to home countries. But those governments "either won't accept them or we are concerned that the home government will let them loose once we return them."

Innocents should be let loose. It's not that they won't take them back but US wants them to charge these victims and put them away forever. Even US has nothing on these victims, whatever they do have is done through their torture methods.

and what about the other 500 or so innocent victims of US terrorism and torture?

 

[Izyan]

Innocents should be let loose. It's not that they won't take them back but US wants them to charge these victims and put them away forever. Even US has nothing on these victims, whatever they do have is done through their torture methods.

and what about the other 500 or so innocent victims of US terrorism and torture?

I say their outlook is better than Nick Berg's and Daniel Pearls but that's not the point. Let's say we let every single person go back to their home countries. If we catch them in the battlefield again we can summarily execute them right?

 

[islamirama]

I say their outlook is better than Nick Berg's and Daniel Pearls but that's not the point. Let's say we let every single person go back to their home countries. If we catch them in the battlefield again we can summarily execute them right?

Let's not kid our selves, lot of those people are innocent victims of bush's 'war on terror', their gov'ts sold them for money so Bush has some numbers to show his people. Why you think Musharaf was so scared to put Chief Justice Choudary back on the seat, he gave musharaf 30 days to give the wear about hundreds of men, women, and children that were taken away by ISI and gone missing. The Northern Alliance that Bush helped into power were nothing more than corrupt warlords who would do anything for money.

Researched and written by law professor Mark Denbeaux; his son, Joshua (counsel to two Guantanamo detainees); and law students at Seton Hall, the reports demonstrate that:



"Only 8 percent of the detainees were characterized (in the Defense Department data) as Al Qaeda fighters. Of the remaining detainees, 40 percent have no definitive connection with Al Qaeda at all." As for those picked up in Afghanistan, "86 percent were arrested by either Pakistan or the Northern Alliance and turned over to United States custody."


And there is this revealing information: "This 86 percent of the detainees captured by Pakistan or the Northern Alliance were handed over to the United States at a time when the U.S. offered large bounties for capture of suspected terrorists." The captives in these mass roundups were hardly screened carefully for their terrorist connections by the bounty hunters -- nor were they carefully screened, according to international law criteria, by our armed forces.



Once at Guantanamo, to what extent were these prisoners given the due-process rights ordered by the Supreme Court in Rasul v. Bush (2004) and Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006)?


At these hearings -- to determine whether the detainees were unlawful enemy combatants -- they were not allowed to have a lawyer. "Instead of a lawyer," the Seton Hall reports show, "the detainee was designated a personal representative... who was not his advocate, and whose role, both in theory and practice, was minimal... At the end of the hearings, the personal representative failed to exercise his right to comment in 98 percent of the cases."


http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2007/jan/07/20070107-095331-6262r/

and also....

The Supreme Court rejected an appeal Monday from two Chinese Muslims who were mistakenly captured as enemy combatants more than four years ago and are still being held at the U.S. prison in Cuba.

*And they are not the only ones.*


Of the 500 men still held at Gitmo, 300 have filed to say that they are innocent.


Lawyers for more than 300 of the men filed a brief in Monday’s case, saying that Qassim and al-Hakim “are far from the only innocent non-combatants languishing at Guantanamo.”

Think about that number. That'd mean that *SIXTY PERCENT* of the prisoners would be innocent men.

But here's what the defense attorney's are saying:

“Guantanamo is at the precipice,” Boston lawyer Sabin Willett wrote in the appeal. “Only prompt intervention by this court to vindicate its own mandate can prevent the rule of law itself from being drowned in this intensifying whirlpool of desperation.”

http://www.texaskaos.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=40​

 

[Izyan]

Let's not kid our selves, lot of those people are innocent victims of bush's 'war on terror', their gov'ts sold them for money so Bush has some numbers to show his people. Why you think Musharaf was so scared to put Chief Justice Choudary back on the seat, he gave musharaf 30 days to give the wear about hundreds of men, women, and children that were taken away by ISI and gone missing. The Northern Alliance that Bush helped into power were nothing more than corrupt warlords who would do anything for money.


and also....

And a lot were released but that didn't answer my question.