Category Archives: Guantanamo

JURIST – Paper Chase: Gitmo tapes 'as explosive as anything from Abu Ghraib': A former lawyer for Australian terror suspect David Hicks [defense advocacy website] told a major law conference in Australia Monday that US military videotapes from the terror detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, would be “as explosive as anything from Abu Ghraib” if they were ever released. In his address to LawAsia Downunder 2005 [conference website] Stephen Kenny said that there are some 500 hours of video of actions by the Immediate Reaction Force (IRF) at the camp who were responsible for prisoner control, and that the ACLU was pressing for release of the tapes …

According to the Boston Globe, Navy interrogators threatened to withdraw from the entire set of Guantanamo interrogations due to their disgust at the tactics being used by other interrogators — and actually withdrew in at least once case:

A top Navy psychologist reported to his supervisor in December 2002 that interrogators at Guantanamo were starting to use “abusive techniques.” In a separate incident that same month, the Defense Department's joint investigative service, which includes Navy investigators, formally “disassociated” itself from the interrogation of a detainee, after learning that he had been subjected to particularly abusive and degrading treatment.

The two events prompted Navy law enforcement officials to debate pulling out of the Guantanamo operation entirely unless the interrogation techniques were restricted. The Navy's general counsel, Alberto Mora, told colleagues that the techniques were “unlawful and unworthy of the military services.”

One again, the military lawyers stand out as the (only?) heroes of this sordid affair.

But don't give me any of this “few bad apples” stuff… it's just not at all credible.

New York Daily News – World : Military lawyers at the Guantanamo Bay terrorist prison tried to stop inhumane interrogations, but were ignored by senior Pentagon officials, the Daily News has learned.

Judge advocates – uniformed legal advisers known as JAGs who were assigned to a secret war crimes task force – repeatedly objected to aggressive interrogations by a separate intelligence unit at Camp Delta, where Taliban and Al Qaeda suspects have been jailed since January 2002.

But Pentagon officials “didn't think this was a big deal, so they just ignored the JAGs,” a senior military source said.

The military lawyers' actions had never been disclosed and are the first known cases of lower-level officers resisting interrogations at the Cuban camp that might constitute torture. Some officials called them “unsung heroes” for risking their careers by crossing senior officials who approved the techniques.

(via Balkinization)

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Holden at First Draft, Pentagon Confirms Detainee Allegations:

A forthcoming report of a Pentagon investigation of the treatment of detainees in GITMO confirms allegations that defense department interrogators used sexual humiliation tactics during interrogations. When detainees previously complained of routine torture at GITMO Don Rumsfeld insisted that they were treated “humanely,” and Pentagon officials said terrorists were trained to fabricate torture allegations. We can now assume that such assertions are no longer opperative.

…

Church's report found that interrogators used sexually oriented tactics and harassment to shock or offend Muslim prisoners, the senior Pentagon official said. The official said that the military would not condone “sexual activity” during interrogation, but that good interrogators “take initiative and are a little creative.”

“They are trying to find the key that will get someone to talk to them. Using things that are culturally repulsive is okay as long as it doesn't extend to something prohibited by the Geneva Conventions.”

I've got some news for that “senior Pentagon official”. The Geneva Conventions specifically prohibit “Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment.”

Canadian Was Abused at Guantánamo, Lawyers Say

Lawyers for a Canadian detainee at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, who was captured in Afghanistan when he was 15 years old asserted in a document released Wednesday that he was repeatedly abused by his American jailers.

…

Mr. Khadr spent three years in a small cell in Guantánamo, and his lawyers have previously asserted that the United States government has violated the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The treaty, to which the United States is a signatory, condemns the recruitment of child fighters by groups like Al Qaeda and obliges nations to help children who become involved in armed conflict.

Where's the outrage? Very strong, but insufficiently broadly based, I'd say.