Guantanamo Bay Prison: A Legacy of Shame
Despite Obama’s promises to close it, the prison remains open with no end in sight.
“They used dogs on us, they beat me, sometimes they hung me from the ceiling and didn’t allow me to sleep for six days,” Al Jazeera journalist Sami al-Haj, who spent six years in Guantanamo Bay prison, told Al Jazeera. “Sometimes they wouldn’t allow me to use the restroom, other times they would run the air conditioner very high and leave me in that room for a very long time.”
This was after he’d had his kneecap broken just after being detained by the US military in Pakistan in 2001, when he was on a reporting assignment to cover the US invasion of Afghanistan. Al-Haj was regularly tortured by US military personnel and interrogators throughout his time in the infamous prison.
“Sometimes they brought soldiers in to be sexual in front of me, other times they brought ladies and removed your clothes to perform sexual actions on you,” He continued. “If you had an illness, like a toothache, and requested medical help, the doctor would tell you to first answer the interrogators questions and then he will care for you. I had tooth problems because they didn’t give us toothbrush and paste.”
Brandon Neely, a US Military Policeman and former Guantanamo guard, told Al Jazeera detainees were “treated horribly”. Neely regularly watched detainees being beaten and humiliated, as well as even watching a medic beat an inmate.
Despite having signed non-disclosure forms before he left the prison, Neely said: “I had to talk about what was going on there. I’d rather deal with the risk of repercussions than live without talking about it because people have to know what is happening there.”
Neely isn’t the only member of the US military talking about the reality of Guantanamo.
“In the wake of 9/11, tragedy has visited the Muslim world through the United States’ shortsighted and aggressive policies in pursuing this so-called War On Terror,” Jason Wright, defense counsel with the US military for Khaled Sheikh Mohammed (the so-called mastermind of the 9/11 attacks) told Al Jazeera.
“We’ve had a dark chapter in the nation’s history that has influenced the world,” Wright, whose client is in Guantanamo, “Torture, extraordinary rendition (forced disappearances), secret show trials, and other injustices are now deemed to be the practice of the United States. The US has given a license to the rest of the world to do the same. America, once the standard bearer of hope, freedom, and the rule of law, no longer serves as that shining beacon on the hill. Now it’s synonymous with Guantanamo.”
Broken Promises
When Barack Obama was running for president in 2008, one of his biggest campaign promises was to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay.
As a candidate, he vowed to close the prison so many times he even noted so himself.
In a November 2008 interview, when asked if he would “take early action” after elected to shut down Guantanamo, Obama replied, “Yes.”
“I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo, and I will follow through on that,” he said.
Shortly after being sworn in for his first term, Obama signed an executive order that required that the Guantanamo prison be closed within a year.
“The detention facilities at Guantanamo for individuals covered by this order shall be closed as soon as practicable, and no later than one year from the date of this order,” read the statement he signed on Jan. 22, 2009.
Nearly a year later, with Guantanamo Bay continuing to function, Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize.
In his acceptance speech, Obama proclaimed the US was “a standard bearer in the conduct of war”, and that that was “what makes us different from those whom we fight,” before adding, “That is why I prohibited torture. That is why I ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed.”
The deadline in Obama’s executive order passed without his shutting down the prison, and Guantanamo remains open and operating to this day.
Andy Worthington, an author and filmmaker who has written extensively about Guantanamo Bay prison, reminded Al Jazeera that it was Obama who also signed an executive order that allows for indefinite detention.
“48 men have been designated for indefinite detention without trial under the Obama administration,” Worthington told Al Jazeera.
Worthington believes that Guantanamo, as an institution, is a form of torture, as is indefinite detention without trial.
In 2004, the International Committee for the Red Cross expressed concern about the mental health effects of open-ended detention on prisoners in Guantanamo.
“That hasn’t changed,” added Worthington. “If they were worried bout their mental health eight years ago, what state are they in now?”
Worthington pointed out that hunger strikers in the prison are still being subjected to force-feeding, then had these strong words for President Obama:
“Don’t pretend you are not a vile regime that puts people away forever. Adnan Latif , a Yemeni with mental health issues, died there recently. He’d been approved for transfer over and over and over again, yet at the cost of $700,000 per year, the US has been holding a man for eight years, and eventually he died. How would the American people feel if an American was captured by a foreign power and then told he would be released, then wasn’t, and eventually died? It’s not going to go down well, is it?”
But Obama’s recent re-election campaign was mute on the subject of Guantanamo.
And according to David Nevin, the Lead Counsel on Khaled Sheikh Mohammed’s defense team, the prison isn’t closing anytime soon.
“It’s currently being expanded,” Nevin told Al Jazeera. “They’ve just spent $730,000 on a new soccer field for the detainees, millions are to be spent on upgrading the internet, there is new home construction everywhere. You go down there and walk around and you don’t get any impression that this place is going to close anytime soon. It looks for all the world like a prison that will go on indefinitely.”
The numbers
According to lawyers and researchers affiliated with the Guantanamo Bay story, Al Jazeera is able to provide the following numbers.
There are, at present, 166 men still being held at the prison. Only three dozen of them were allegedly involved in terrorism.
86 of those who remain have already been cleared for release by the Guantanamo Review Task Force, which includes career officials, lawyers and other experts from the governmet, and from US intelligence agencies.
779 people have been held in Guantanamo, and 532 prisoners were released under the Bush Administration.
Thus far, only 70 have been released under the Obama Administration.
The disparity in the figures is attributed to at least 10 men who remain unaccounted for, and there have been deaths in the prison that many attribute to suicide or murder.
Men still being held include Shaker Aamer, who is the last British resident in Guantanamo and has long been cleared for release.
The last two Kuwaiti citizens in the prison, Fawzi Al Odah and Fayiz Al Kandari remain, despite neither having ever had any charges against them. According to what both men told their defense attorneys, they have been threatened with dogs, deprived of sleep, sexually humiliated, placed in stress positions for extended periods of time, and subjected to extreme temperatures and loud music.
Both men filed habeus corpus petitions challenging the basis for their detention without charges, but their petitions were denied, and they have no charges against them.
Several Afghans remain, including Shawali Khan, who said he was sold to US forces ten years ago.
Source: Al Jazeera
- See more at: http://www.punchng.com/feature/guantanamo-a-legacy-of-shame/#sthash.I5TbvGDD.dpuf
“They used dogs on us, they beat me, sometimes they hung me from the ceiling and didn’t allow me to sleep for six days,” Al Jazeera journalist Sami al-Haj, who spent six years in Guantanamo Bay prison, told Al Jazeera. “Sometimes they wouldn’t allow me to use the restroom, other times they would run the air conditioner very high and leave me in that room for a very long time.”
This was after he’d had his kneecap broken just after being detained by the US military in Pakistan in 2001, when he was on a reporting assignment to cover the US invasion of Afghanistan. Al-Haj was regularly tortured by US military personnel and interrogators throughout his time in the infamous prison.
“Sometimes they brought soldiers in to be sexual in front of me, other times they brought ladies and removed your clothes to perform sexual actions on you,” He continued. “If you had an illness, like a toothache, and requested medical help, the doctor would tell you to first answer the interrogators questions and then he will care for you. I had tooth problems because they didn’t give us toothbrush and paste.”
Brandon Neely, a US Military Policeman and former Guantanamo guard, told Al Jazeera detainees were “treated horribly”. Neely regularly watched detainees being beaten and humiliated, as well as even watching a medic beat an inmate.
Despite having signed non-disclosure forms before he left the prison, Neely said: “I had to talk about what was going on there. I’d rather deal with the risk of repercussions than live without talking about it because people have to know what is happening there.”
Neely isn’t the only member of the US military talking about the reality of Guantanamo.
“In the wake of 9/11, tragedy has visited the Muslim world through the United States’ shortsighted and aggressive policies in pursuing this so-called War On Terror,” Jason Wright, defense counsel with the US military for Khaled Sheikh Mohammed (the so-called mastermind of the 9/11 attacks) told Al Jazeera.
“We’ve had a dark chapter in the nation’s history that has influenced the world,” Wright, whose client is in Guantanamo, “Torture, extraordinary rendition (forced disappearances), secret show trials, and other injustices are now deemed to be the practice of the United States. The US has given a license to the rest of the world to do the same. America, once the standard bearer of hope, freedom, and the rule of law, no longer serves as that shining beacon on the hill. Now it’s synonymous with Guantanamo.”
Broken Promises
When Barack Obama was running for president in 2008, one of his biggest campaign promises was to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay.
As a candidate, he vowed to close the prison so many times he even noted so himself.
In a November 2008 interview, when asked if he would “take early action” after elected to shut down Guantanamo, Obama replied, “Yes.”
“I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo, and I will follow through on that,” he said.
Shortly after being sworn in for his first term, Obama signed an executive order that required that the Guantanamo prison be closed within a year.
“The detention facilities at Guantanamo for individuals covered by this order shall be closed as soon as practicable, and no later than one year from the date of this order,” read the statement he signed on Jan. 22, 2009.
Nearly a year later, with Guantanamo Bay continuing to function, Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize.
In his acceptance speech, Obama proclaimed the US was “a standard bearer in the conduct of war”, and that that was “what makes us different from those whom we fight,” before adding, “That is why I prohibited torture. That is why I ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed.”
The deadline in Obama’s executive order passed without his shutting down the prison, and Guantanamo remains open and operating to this day.
Andy Worthington, an author and filmmaker who has written extensively about Guantanamo Bay prison, reminded Al Jazeera that it was Obama who also signed an executive order that allows for indefinite detention.
“48 men have been designated for indefinite detention without trial under the Obama administration,” Worthington told Al Jazeera.
Worthington believes that Guantanamo, as an institution, is a form of torture, as is indefinite detention without trial.
In 2004, the International Committee for the Red Cross expressed concern about the mental health effects of open-ended detention on prisoners in Guantanamo.
“That hasn’t changed,” added Worthington. “If they were worried bout their mental health eight years ago, what state are they in now?”
Worthington pointed out that hunger strikers in the prison are still being subjected to force-feeding, then had these strong words for President Obama:
“Don’t pretend you are not a vile regime that puts people away forever. Adnan Latif , a Yemeni with mental health issues, died there recently. He’d been approved for transfer over and over and over again, yet at the cost of $700,000 per year, the US has been holding a man for eight years, and eventually he died. How would the American people feel if an American was captured by a foreign power and then told he would be released, then wasn’t, and eventually died? It’s not going to go down well, is it?”
But Obama’s recent re-election campaign was mute on the subject of Guantanamo.
And according to David Nevin, the Lead Counsel on Khaled Sheikh Mohammed’s defense team, the prison isn’t closing anytime soon.
“It’s currently being expanded,” Nevin told Al Jazeera. “They’ve just spent $730,000 on a new soccer field for the detainees, millions are to be spent on upgrading the internet, there is new home construction everywhere. You go down there and walk around and you don’t get any impression that this place is going to close anytime soon. It looks for all the world like a prison that will go on indefinitely.”
The numbers
According to lawyers and researchers affiliated with the Guantanamo Bay story, Al Jazeera is able to provide the following numbers.
There are, at present, 166 men still being held at the prison. Only three dozen of them were allegedly involved in terrorism.
86 of those who remain have already been cleared for release by the Guantanamo Review Task Force, which includes career officials, lawyers and other experts from the governmet, and from US intelligence agencies.
779 people have been held in Guantanamo, and 532 prisoners were released under the Bush Administration.
Thus far, only 70 have been released under the Obama Administration.
The disparity in the figures is attributed to at least 10 men who remain unaccounted for, and there have been deaths in the prison that many attribute to suicide or murder.
Men still being held include Shaker Aamer, who is the last British resident in Guantanamo and has long been cleared for release.
The last two Kuwaiti citizens in the prison, Fawzi Al Odah and Fayiz Al Kandari remain, despite neither having ever had any charges against them. According to what both men told their defense attorneys, they have been threatened with dogs, deprived of sleep, sexually humiliated, placed in stress positions for extended periods of time, and subjected to extreme temperatures and loud music.
Both men filed habeus corpus petitions challenging the basis for their detention without charges, but their petitions were denied, and they have no charges against them.
Several Afghans remain, including Shawali Khan, who said he was sold to US forces ten years ago.
Source: Al Jazeera
- See more at: http://www.punchng.com/feature/guantanamo-a-legacy-of-shame/#sthash.I5TbvGDD.dpuf
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