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<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2> <B>Five Years of Infamy:
Close Guantanamo!</B><BR> By Colonel Ann Wright,
Retired<BR> t r u t h o u t | Guest
Contributor</FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2> Saturday 23
December 2006</FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2> On January
11, 2002, the first detainees from Afghanistan arrived at the prison in the US
Naval Base, Guantanamo, Cuba. In the succeeding five years, Guantanamo has
symbolized to the world the Bush administration's abandonment of international
and domestic law, and the development of a policy of inhumane treatment and use
of torture. These claims have been linked to military and CIA operations in
Afghanistan, Iraq and in an unknown number of secret prisons. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2> More than 775
detainees have been held in Guantanamo since January 11, 2002. After five years,
no Guantanamo detainee has been convicted of a criminal offense. According to an
American Forces Information Service News article dated October 17, 2006, "Bush
Says Military Commissions Act Will Bring Justice," the majority of the detainees
held in Guantanamo will not face military commissions. "Only detainees who will
be charged with law-of-war violations and other grave offenses - about 75
detainees, officials estimated - will be subject to the commissions."
</FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2> So what has
happened to the other 700 detainees during these five years - those who will not
be prosecuted by military commissions? </FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2> Finally,
after more than two years of detention, between August 2004 and March 2005,
Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRT), composed of three US military
officers, reviewed the cases of 558 detainees. However, the detainees had no
access to lawyers or to secret evidence used by the CSRT. The CSRT could use
coerced evidence. The CSRTs judged 520 detainees to be "enemy combatants."
</FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2> What is an
enemy combatant? The general definition of an enemy combatant is "a person
engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners
during an armed conflict." But a September 5, 2006, Department of Defense
directive on the Detainee Program added another sentence to the definition of
unlawful combatant: "For the purposes of the war on terrorism, the term Unlawful
Enemy Combatant is defined to include, but is not limited to, an individual who
is or was part of or supporting Taliban or al Qaeda forces or associated forces
that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition
partners." </FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2> According to
Amnesty International, in an analysis of 500 detainees, a remarkably low number,
only 5 percent, or about 25 detainees, were captured by US forces. Eighty-six
percent, or about 430 detainees, were arrested by Pakistani forces or the Afghan
Northern Alliance and turned over to US custody - often for a reward of
thousands of dollars. The other 9 percent are not discussed in the Amnesty
report. Many were sold to the United States to even scores or just for the
money. Anyone living in Afghanistan - young or old - was fair game for sale to
US forces. The oldest detainee shipped to Guantanamo was 75 and the youngest 10.
</FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2> It is an
understatement to say that the majority of those sent to Guantanamo were sent
due to poor interrogation and investigation by US forces and the CIA during
their detention in Afghanistan. Once at Guantanamo, they remained for years
because of pressure for interrogation "results" from the civilian political
leadership at the Department of Defense, the Central Intelligence Agency and the
White House.</FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2> As of
December 18, 2006, almost half - about 379 of the 775 detainees - have been
released after years in prison. They were sent home without being charged with a
crime or being told why they had been detained. About 396 detainees from 35
countries are still held at Guantanamo; this includes 14 detainees who were
transferred there in September 2006 after being held incommunicado in secret CIA
prisons for up to four and a half years. (When President Bush signed the
Military Commissions Act (MCA) into law, he said that the MCA authorizes the CIA
secret-prison program to continue. He also said that the 14 cannot reveal to
their lawyers or the International Committee of the Red Cross the location of
the detention facilities, conditions of confinement, and interrogation
techniques.)</FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2> Sixteen
detainees from Saudi Arabia were released on December 14, 2006, after King
Abdullah summoned Vice President Cheney to Saudi Arabia and took him to the
woodshed over the plight of Sunnis if the United States withdraws from Iraq.
Another 75 Saudis remain in Guantanamo. More detainees were released on December
17, according to a Department of Defense news release with the same date: Seven
detainees were transferred to Afghanistan; six were returned to Yemen; three
went to Kazakhstan; one went to Libya, and one to Bangladesh. This resulted in
thirty-four detainees being released in three days. The news release said that
114 detainees have been released in 2006 and 85 detainees, whom the US
government has determined are eligible for transfer or release, are still being
held at Guantanamo.</FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2> Seventeen
detainees were under 18 years old when they were taken to Guantanamo. The
youngest were 10, 12, and 13 when they were "captured." At the end of 2006, four
of these juveniles still are detained. They have spent one-fourth of their lives
in Guantanamo. There was a fifth, but he was one of three detainees who
committed suicide in June 2006. More than 40 detainees have attempted suicide,
and up to 200 detainees have staged hunger strikes to protest the conditions of
detention.</FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2> Incredibly,
at the end of five years of being in the world's human-rights doghouse, the US
Congress in October 2006 again trusted and complied with President Bush's wishes
and passed the Military Commissions Act (MCA). The MCA denies detainees habeas
corpus (the right to challenge the lawfulness or conditions of detention);
denies the presumption of innocence; denies the right to trial within a
reasonable time; denies the right to a lawyer of choice, and denies the right to
challenge and present evidence. The MCA allows the admission of evidence coerced
by cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.</FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2> While
co-authoring memos on torture, presidential legal advisor Alberto Gonzales, now
attorney general, advised President Bush in January 2002 that a benefit of not
applying the Geneva Conventions to detainees coming from Afghanistan, and
imprisoning the detainees outside the United States, would be to make it more
difficult to prosecute US personnel under the US War Crimes Act. The
administration's "gloves off" attitude toward interrogations resulted in
inhumane treatment in Bagram, Kandahar, and other prisons in Afghanistan, and
later in Guantanamo. That abusive environment led to painful incidents at Abu
Ghraib, Iraq, as Guantanamo prison commander Major General Geoffrey Miller went
to Iraq to teach more-aggressive techniques to the interrogators. Gonzalez
continued to make it harder to prosecute US personnel for prisoner abuse under
the War Crimes Act by convincing Congress - through the Military Commissions Act
- to provide a free pass for criminal acts dealing with detainees if the acts
were committed before December 31, 2005. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2> As a retired
US Army colonel with 29 years of service on active duty and in the US Army
Reserves, and as a US diplomat for 16 years, I firmly believe that there must be
accountability and responsibility for criminal actions that we know have
occurred - whether the perpetrators are in the Pentagon, the CIA, the Justice
Department, or the White House. Speaking as a military officer, I believe our
military is not served well by escaping responsibility for criminal acts. Our
soldiers and officers are taught what behavior is legal and what is not. I would
think that the same distinction also is taught to CIA personnel. When the Bush
administration and Congress retroactively protect those who knowing commit
criminal acts, they undermine the "order and discipline" of the military and of
the CIA. Ultimately this undercuts the foundations of our rule of
law.</FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2> I firmly
believe that to regain some respect in the international community, for the sake
of our national spirit and soul, and for the integrity of the US military, the
prison in Guantanamo must be closed. The US military must be removed from
adjudicating "enemy combatants" cases. Instead, I believe the federal courts
must administer the laws of the United States against persons charged with
"terrorist" crimes, as the courts have done in the past. For the United States
to ever hope to salvage some modicum of its stature in the area of human rights,
the legal process for those accused of criminal terrorist acts must be
transparent and fair. The "Guantanamo process" is neither. I call on the new
Congress to acknowledge the capabilities and history of our civilian legal
system, to abolish the Military Commissions Act, to designate the federal courts
to hear the cases, and to close Guantanamo. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2> On January
11, 2007, the fifth year that detainees from Afghanistan have been in
Guantanamo, organizations all over the world will call for Guantanamo to be
closed. For the sake of our integrity and conscience, each one of us must take
action: Organize vigils, show the movie "The Road to Guantanamo" or have
readings of <I>"Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom"</I> (<A
href="http://www.bordc.org/" target=_blank>www.bordc.org</A>).
</FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2> Act on
January 11 to end torture, stop violations of international law, and CLOSE
GUANTANAMO! (Check <A href="http://www.witnesstorture.org/"
target=_blank>www.witnesstorture.org</A> for events.)</FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"
size=2> --------</FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2> <I>Colonel
Ann Wright, retired, spent 29 years in the Army and Army Reserves and 16 years
as a US diplomat serving in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan,
Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan, and Mongolia. She resigned from the US
Department of State in March 2003 in opposition to the war on Iraq.</I>
</FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"
size=2> -------</FONT></FONT></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>