Bring America Back from the 'Dark Side'

by Curt Goering

Jan. 11 marked the fifth anniversary of the transfer of the first war on terror suspects to the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The world was repeatedly assured by President George W. Bush and others that these were exceedingly dangerous prisoners — “vicious killers … the worst of a very bad lot,” as former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called them. Officials insisted that they were not POWs and therefore not entitled to the protections of the Geneva Conventions; instead, they were declared “unlawful enemy combatants.” They would be vigorously interrogated, charged with war crimes and tried before military commissions. At least that was what we were told. What a difference five years makes. About 775 detainees from 45 countries have been held at various times in Guantanamo. Today, about 430 detainees languish there. Senior administration officials have even said that some men may be held for the rest of their lives. Vice President Dick Cheney meant business when he warned that the United States would be operating “on the dark side.” Instead of being an icon of American values of justice and accountability, Guantanamo Bay has become its antithesis. It needs to be shut down. Little-publicized information about how the detainees were rounded up, let alone their abusive treatment, should raise significant questions. An analysis by Seton Hall University School of Law found that of 517 cases, only 5 percent had been captured by U.S. forces. Nearly 90 percent had been captured by Pakistani or Afghan Northern Alliance forces or tribal warlords and turned over to U.S. custody, often sold for rewards as high as $20,000. Leaflets dropped by the U.S. military appealed to what they could do with that money — “wealth and power beyond your dreams …. enough money to take care of your family, your village, your tribe for the rest of your life.” It is not surprising that random and arbitrary arrest and detention would result. In response to concerns that detainees were held wrongly, the administration set up military tribunals. These tribunals, overseen by panels of three military officers, were allowed to rely on coerced evidence, and detainees had no access to lawyers or secret evidence. Not surprisingly, this appalling process determined that 520 of the 558 detainees who had their status review from August 2004 to March 2005 were “enemy combatants.” Despite these findings, not a single Guantanamo detainee has yet been convicted or even tried. Only 10 have been charged. As part of the administration’s push to pressure Congress to rubber stamp the military commissions after the Supreme Court struck them down in June, another 14 detainees were transferred to Guantanamo in September after being held incommunicado in secret custody by the CIA for up to four and a half years. The transfer, though, has created another problem for the government: It turned them from detainees with allegedly high intelligence value to detainees with information about possible government crimes. The government is now arguing in court that the information these detainees have about secret detention facilities, interrogation techniques and the conditions of confinement should never see the light of day as such disclosure would cause “exceptionally grave damage” to national security. Due process and the rule of law have been among the casualties of the detention regime at Guantanamo. Few Americans could ever have imagined that our own government, even in the pursuit of security, would betray bedrock human rights principles by holding hundreds of detainees indefinitely without charge or trial for years. But what was once unthinkable has now become grim reality. The voices to close the camp are gathering strength and now include many former and current heads of state (including former U.S. presidents) and the former U.N. Secretary General. World-renowned figures of highest moral stature have appealed to the Bush administration to shut Guantanamo down. The tarnished reputation of the United States as a law-abiding and human rights-respecting country suffers further each day the camp remains in operation. There is only one way to fix this mess. All detainees in Guantanamo should be charged immediately with a recognizable criminal offense and given a fair trial or be released unconditionally and not sent anywhere to face torture or ill treatment. Five years is too long. It is time to bring America back from “the dark side” into the community of nations as a country that is recognized globally for upholding human rights and the rule of law. Curt Goering is senior deputy executive director of Amnesty International USA. Mr. Goering has interviewed former detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, after their release in Afghanistan. Founded in 1961, Amnesty International is a Nobel Prize winning grassroots activist organization with over 1 million members worldwide. Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) is the U.S. Section of this international human rights movement. Copyright 2007 Minuteman Media Discuss This Article click here... ###