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Smoke, Mirrors and American Justice
Six key Guantánamo detainees are to undergo trial by military commission. But having been tortured, how can they expect a fair trial?
The announcement by the Pentagon of trials by military commission for six of the big-name prisoners in Guantánamo Bay, is the latest in the series of smoke-and-mirror tricks used by the Bush administration to cover the inhuman illegality of the regime in the prison.The issue is straightforward: the men cannot receive fair trials.
In these first cases linked to 9/11, prosecutors will seek the death penalty for the six men, who include the self-declared mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, and of other al-Qaida attacks such as the east African US embassy bombings and the murder of journalist Daniel Pearl, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
The best-known of the other five defendants are Ramzi bin al-Shibh, a Yemeni, said to have been the intermediary between the hijackers and al-Qaida, and Mohammed al-Qahtani, believed originally to have been the 20th hijacker for 9/11, although he failed to make it into the US.
The immediate problem for the holding of any successful trial of these men is that they are known to have been severely tortured by the CIA and contractors working for them. No evidence obtained by torture is admissible in any court, and senior US lawyers are lining up to make all necessary legal challenges to the government.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, for instance, is one of three men (the others are Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri) who the CIA has recently admitted were tortured with "waterboarding" by their operatives.
The descriptions of this technique of simulated drowning, carried out in secret prisons halfway round the world, are the stuff of nightmares. It is torture, and that is outlawed under international law. No words of excuse from the powerful can change that. And to see the CIA chief, Michael Hayden, in Congress openly justify waterboarding, is to see how far the war on terror has degraded the American government and its complicit allies here.
In the case of al-Qahtani, Time magazine published the secret log of his 49 days of 20-hour-per-day interrogation. The log described how the prisoner was forcibly administered intravenous fluids and drugs and forcibly given enemas, in order to keep his body functioning well enough for the interrogations to go on.
The log, titled Secret Orcon Interrogation Log Detainee 063 (pdf), offered a daily, detailed view of the interrogation techniques used to get confessions from him from November 2002 to January 2003. These included:
• Restraint on a swivel chair for long periods;
• Deprivation of sleep for long periods;
• Loud music and white noise played to prevent him from sleeping;
• Various humiliations, such as training him to act as a dog and wrapping him in an Israeli flag;
• Lowering the temperature in the room, then throwing water into his face;
• Forcing him to pray to Osama bin Laden.
Under this torture, not surprisingly, al-Qahtani made many false confessions, and implicated other prisoners. Later he withdrew all this, according to his lawyer.
Besides the issue of torture, the very system of military commissions has had a credibility problem from the start. The commissions have been beset by legal challenges, which went right to the supreme court, as well as by criticism from the military lawyers meant to work in them. Although officials have spoken of charging 80 or more detainees with war crimes, so far only one case has been completed, that of David Hicks, an Australian and the only non-Muslim in Guantánamo. That ended with a plea bargain, which included a gagging order.
Over six years 1,000 prisoners have been held without trial - despite supreme court orders that their cases should be heard in federal courts. The men have been kept away from the courts by the US military, the justice department and the White House, because most would never be convicted of any crime.
Outrageously, covering up this history, the Pentagon propaganda teams are now comparing their military commissions for the 9/11 suspects favourably to the Nuremberg trials after the second world war. The American justice system is once again taking a body blow from the Bush administration.
Victoria Brittain is a former associate foreign editor of the Guardian. She is co-author with Moazzam Begg of his book Enemy Combatant. Her previous books include Hidden Lives, Hidden Deaths and Death of Dignity.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008
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38 Comments so far
Show AllStalin must be turning over in his grave. To be outdone by amateurs!
The names that are not included in the list of psychopaths are: Columbus, the "butchers" of Native Americans, the "butchers" of Vietnamese, Bill Clinton and Bush (the butchers of innocent Iraqis, congolese....), CIA........
Cambodia's Pol Pot [circa 1975] would be totally amused his old enemy would adopt such draconian and totally useless methods...Pol Pot's excuse for torturing was inpart for entertainment; because he was just a sadistic, genicidal psychopath...
Whats Bu$hCo's excuse? Unrecovered dry drunk, psychopath, postmenapausal impotence...add your own diagnosis...
As I stated elsewhere: yoohoo telecoms!!!!!!!!
I find the printed news about the upcoming 'kangar….er, fair trial' by the military commissions in Gitmo intriguing. I have not seen a story in print with the specific charges that the 'Gitmo 6′ are being accused (condemned?) of.
Public Radio yesterday announced the specifics and they sounded as if they were duplicates of the war crimws we are and have been committing in Iraq and Afghanistan - charges such as bombing civilian targets in time of war, killing innocent civilians, conspiracy to kill civilians, terrorism…. and so on.
Small wonder the MSM is NOT daring to print the specific charges - even unaware readers would not fail to see through the hypocrisy.
We hanged German and Japanese war criminals for these crimes(including (waterboarding) after WWII.
Talk about the 'Silence of the Lambs'
Seig Heil !
WATERBOARDING IS NOT SIMULATED DROWNING!
It is controlled drowning. Crikey!
[T]he Pentagon propaganda teams are now comparing their military commissions for the 9/11 suspects favourably to the Nuremberg trials after the second world war.
The Nuremburg trials used citizen judges, not military officers. There is no comparison.
As an aside, I have been on another discussion board with a mix of politicos, and the vehemence of those who have already assigned guilt is horrifying. There are some very, very ignorant, offensive and ill people out there.
curmudgeon99 wrote: I have not seen a story in print with the specific charges that the 'Gitmo 6′ are being accused (condemned?) of.
The charges are murder and conspiracy (I've not seen details either). The crimes are not military crimes.
Smoke and mirrors sure is right, Lets nail this crime on others, and by the time the real perps are tossed out they can claim they was innocent as the stoolies took the blame for them
"Stalin must be turning over in his grave. To be outdone by amateurs!"
Oh no. No, no, no, no, no. We are not amateurs. Pick up the corner of the rug and you'll see that we're right up there with ol' Joe and others. We just have a better PR campaign, thanks to Ed Bernays and the Freudian coup.
None of these tortured persons, guilty or not, will ever live long enough to give witness against the criminals in our government.
WTF:
One of the specifics mentioned on BBC yesterday was 'Attacking civilians in time of war'
I am not sure of exact wording - it would be good to see if yesterday's broadcasts are available for confirmation of exact wording - but the gist was all about war crimes against civilians and civilian structures as my fading memory recollects.
Sorry USA..your time as world leader is up..you have disgraced yourselves and are now international criminals
I'm not keen on bin ladens vision of an international caliphate...but I dont like Bush's vision of international US fascism either.
Your day has come and gone, and you are now on the short downward spiral to oblivion to join the rest of your kind on the trashheap of history along with Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot and the rest
How many "masterminds" were behind the 911 attacks exactly?
And what's that make Osama and al-Zawahiri - like, superdelegates or something? Master-masterminds?
iammyself,
But it is all a matter of degree. It is beginning to look like the Bush administration is not even trying anymore to appear civilized. Maybe it is part of their "going back to the 19th Century" approach. I don't know.
curmudgeon99 wrote: One of the specifics mentioned on BBC yesterday was 'Attacking civilians in time of war'
That's interesting; I did not know we were "at war" on 9/11. Last I looked, there were no outstanding "declarations of war" in the US Congress in 2001.
Clearly the above posters have hit the nail on the head, and that there is a concerted effort to keep the Gitmo 6 out of civilian courts, where they would walk and be hugely embarrassing...sorry, cannot think of a stronger word...to both the Administration and the military/intelligence communities.
WTF
'there are some very, very ignorant, offensive and ill people out there'
have you just noticed...........???? wtf have you been for the last few decades???
I posted this on another article about the same subject, but I think it is apropos here also.
-------------------------------------------
When I was a young man, we used to see the CCCP put on show trials of "enemies of the people."
Most of these poor bastards had been in the dungeons of the KGB's Lubyanka Street building, sometimes for years. They confessed to anything that was said to them, no matter how ridiculous. If they confessed, with luck they would be shot. Denial meant going back for more torture.
Many were there for an unorthodox thought, a criticism of party dictates, or just because a neighbor was angry with them and denounced them. The end result was the same. There were no innocent people. After a time, they would do anythng, confess anything, to get a bullet in the back of the head instead of more torture.
We used this to demonstrate how much how much more civilized we were than the Russians. We had the rule of law. The Bill of Rights protected everyone. You were innocent until proven guilty. You had the right to an attorney.
SO now, we are having show trials at Gitmo, with evidence given under torture, no right to hear evidence, and already convicted in the minds of the judges and their keepers, and perhaps in the eyes of an American People, bombarded by endless propaganda and lies.
After six or seven years of torture and humiliation, I imagine that many of the so-called defendants would rather be executed, than go back to still more years of Gitmo.
This just serves to drive another nail in the coffin of our Constitutional Republic.
-----------------------------
The United States government is composed largely of war criminals as bad as Goering, who was worse than Hitler. Hitler, unlike Bush and Goering had feelings. The latter two are psychopaths. Hitler was a neurotic criminal but not a psychopath. Bush and Cheney are psychopathic war criminals. Pelosi and Reid are war criminals too. All four individuals should be executed, not because I say so, I would give them life in prison, but because the law says so. Look it up.
Given the unlawful actions of the US, these people must be held as war prisoners. Under international law an occupied people have the right to resist by any means at their disposal. 9-11 was thus justified, if in fact it was caused by victims of American aggression. I happen to believe that 9-11 was perpetrated by the CIA, Mossad, and Cheney. This is treason. The punishment is death by execution. That's the law. Bush gleefully endorsed these sadistic capital punishment laws when Governor of Texas. He pardoned not one person! But he pardoned a traitor: Libby. The execution of George Bush, while distasteful to me, would be a correct interpretation of US law..
Not only is this wrong to do to our so called enemies, it will be wrong when the government starts doing it to US. And I mean, ANYONE who speaks out against them. Period.
question: does anyone know where these six detainees came from? where were they apprehended?
Most of the Gitmo et al., inmates were sold to the US by bounty hunters, offered X dollars for "terrorists" no questions asked. They picked up people off the street, out of buses and cars and took them to the military or the CIA. They were then "guilty" and remanded to the torture cells. Ignorance as to why they were there was considered as stubbornness.
The whole damned thing is disgusting. Soon, you'll see people picked up here at random, or for criticizing government policies, to disappear also. Nacht und Nebel rides again!
Ein volk, ein Fuehrer, ein Vaterland! Seig Heil! Seig Heil!
And we thought it would never happen again. Silly us.
Speaking of smoke and mirrors, not only is Michael Hayden an odious abomination, but also a proven liar on a grandiose scale, like the rest of his ilk in the Bush Administration. This is the same Bush crony who, as director of the National Security Agency (NSA) in charge of Bush's illegal spying program, publicly declared that in conducting searches (wiretapping Americans) NO PROBABLE CAUSE standard is required by the Fourth Amendment. You decide. Here's the Fourth Amendment, only one sentence in length:
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon PROBABLE CAUSE, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
Unless he was intentionally displaying his ignorance--for which there is no excuse--, wouldn't it seem of paramount importance that the person in charge of the agency that oversees spying on Americans would clearly understand and be able to articulate one of the most basic and important tenets of American Civil Liberties? Apparently, the corporate press didn't think so, or more likely, didn't feel Americans needed such information and, of course, let this story go.
Shortly thereafter, as a reward for Hayden's loyalty to Bush and betrayal of Americans, Bush appointed Hayden to head the CIA. This cretin is our current Director of Central Intelligence. Comforting, huh?
For those not familiar with our legal system, "probable cause," may not seem like a big deal. It is. It's so important that it is one of the very first lessons law enforcement officers and criminal justice students are taught. Without probable cause, no warrant will be issued. Any evidence obtained without a proper warrant--or with no warrant--is considered unlawful and inadmissible in court under the exclusionary rule. The definition of probable cause is as follows:
Probable Cause: The degree of FACTUAL certainty needed to justify an arrest (seizure of person), search, or seizure (of property). Probable cause exists when an officer is aware of ARTICULATABLE FACTS and circumstances sufficient to warrant a reasonable person in believing a crime has been committed and the person to be arrested or searched committed it.
Probable Cause (to search): The degree of FACTUAL certainty needed for the issuance of a search warrant. Probable cause exists if a prudent person would conclude that specific objects linked to a crime will be found at a particular location.
Probable Cause (to seize): The degree of FACTUAL certainty needed to seize an object as evidence. Probable cause to seize exists if a prudent person would conclude that the object in question is associated with criminal activity.
As you can see, without probable cause, no judge, FISA or otherwise, will sign a search warrant. Period. Thus, any search performed without probable cause and the ensuing warrant must be random, thus rendering it illegal pursuant to the Fourth Amendment. Of course, in Bush world, as shown repeatedly over the past seven long years, any laws that are inconvenient will either be distorted or ignored. Is there any wonder how this guy can justify waterboarding? FACTUAL certainty is always hidden in a fog of smoke and mirrors with this unconscionable group.
For the complete story on this disgraceful cover-up by the corporate media, check out the following link: http://www.fair.org/index/php?page+2808.
The words of my father, circa late 1940's, to his friends
keep popping into my head
He pointed out that the Nuremburg trials would come back to haunt the American people. He talked about how close our country came to entering WWII on the side of the Axis. Many of our corporate leaders were impressed with the society of Germany. The German-American Bund drew many thousands to their rallies to show solidarity with the 3rd Reich. He talked of the companies whose subsidiaries kept doing business with Germany after 1941 - including Das Fuehrer's Walker banking ancestors. He talked about the Nazis enlisted to help us fight the Communist scourge long before it was in the press.
He said it could happen here just as easy as Germany if not easier since our society was so much more violent and had even deeper sense of superiority than did the population of the 3rd Reich.
I keep remembering those words as we complete our sinking into the morass of a fascist totalitarian state run by the rich.
And we laughed at those 'conspiracy nuts' who compared the tragedy of 9/11 to the Reichstag Fire which began Germany's descent from democracy to a fascist totalitarian state. I wonder who's laughing now?
THE CIA DESTROYED THE TORTURE FILMS of these men, now they are about to erase the rest of the evidence by a quick group prosicution and death.
BushCo must have been getting nervous fearing their own prosecution after this administrations term is up.
These GITMO detainees are evidence not only as alleged terrorists, but also in crimes against humanity at the hands of torturers.
They should be held alive at least until any possible case against the Bush administration for crimes against humanity has been pursued after the administration is well out of office.
Their swift prosecution and death will also fuel the Right wing Paranoids into a frenzy before the Nov election.
2 birds one stone.
curmudgeon, thanks for pointing out the facts about Hitler and his buddies. The disinformation is that we shouldn't appease (fill in the blank of the current Hitler) because look what happened when we appeased the original.
It wasn't appeasement! It was support! Just like the US supported Saddam until 1991.
And the US supported Pol Pot against the Vietnamese, also, simonhh
has any of you read the 'secret orcon interrogation log'? to me, it's just garbage.......
One of the reasons Saddam was rushed to the short drop was that if the other trial that was pending had used him as a witness, it would have brought out the facts that we supplied the gas, and looked the other way. We invented and perfected Saddam, and if he hadn't gotten caught in hubris and started screwing with oil prices and flirting with Euros, he'd still be in power.
As soon as he crossed the big boys, he was marked and it didn't make any difference how many Iraqis died as long as he was history. A captive with a lot of information detrimental to his captors doesn't stand much of a chance. As one of the Neocons said during the Iran venture, "Yeah, he's a ruthless murderous dictator, but he's our ruthless murderous dictator."
All Americans can now stand up and proudly declare their solidarity with Comrade Stalin. Incredible!
it's hard to imagine what the heck to do about all this...how do you stop us guys?
27.
cpclt February 12th, 2008 8:05 pm says:
"it's hard to imagine what the heck to do about all this…how do you stop us guys?"
+++++++
confused. "...how do you stop us guys?"
Who are we talking about here? Who is "us guys?"
Don't mean to be a stickler, but I hope you are not the Prince of Darkness Richard Perle who makes me shiver every time I see his eyes and listen to that voice with the hissing underneath ...
"These vicious killers will get a fair trial." GW Bush speaking Texan to more than one crowd....I heard him say this. Unquestioned, of course. A man who "doesn't want to comment on an ongoing legal matter."
Now you know why they confessed to destroying the tapes of their interrogations
I imagine the interrogation went something like this.
CIA: Why didn't you guys hit the Capitol and White House. We paid for 4 targets. Now POTSUS can't relocate the White House to Crawford and still has to deal with Congress, even though we own them now after our Anthrax letters.
KSM: We did our best but your lousy airlines..... No wonder your companies are in a hurry to move away, so much incompetence. Anyways, one plane could not take off at all and you shot down one of our other flights which was late. Why you do that? Besides, you did the Pentagon yourself, why could't you do the White House and Capitol too?.
CIA: It was too slow so we had to take it down, and there was not enough time to arrange backup since we had some exercises running as a cover for leaving DC unprotected . Anyways, next time we will do everything ourselves. But we want our money back, where is it?.
KSM: Osama invested it in some SIV's. It was making really good returns and Greenspan promised to give him a heads up for when he pulls the plug on the sub-primes, so he can sell at a big profit.
CIA: Where is he now?.
KSM: He is setting up a video production company in Crawford. He has a nice big government contract for making up to 3 videos per year on request. He even hired a speech writer from America but I can not remember his name.
CIA: How did he get to the US?. He made us look real bad, we were supposed fly him to Crawford ourselves.
KSM: Come on, don't you know he was really in NY on 9/11? He flew from Islamabad with Mahmood Ahmed a week earlier to have meetings in Washington to go over Massounds assasination, and the plans for Afghansitan. They dropped off Osama in New York as he did not want to miss the show in person, plus he needed to see a Doctor for his kidney problem. Hey, how did you get the buildings to fall down, that was pretty cool, no way the planes did all that damage.
CIA. Sh*t. Those guys in Washington never keep us informed. As for the buildings collapse, we had to pay off the Mossad to keep them quiet, the SOB's have spies everywhere, they know everything, so they arranged for the demolition, and their agent Silverstein will collect on the insurance for them and rebuild it. The frigging courts had ruled out explosive demolition due to the asbestos which is why he could get the lease from the Port Authority. Frankly, we were not too keen on the idea since we did not think people could be so stupid and believe they fell due to the fires. It is amazing what you can get away with when you own the media.
KSM. But Osama was very upset. Said he ate a lot of dust and complains he has some lung problems now, always coughing, but his Doctor in Crawford is very good and sends all his bills to the White House for payment.
CIA. Glad he is happy with his benefits. We might use him to take over the House of Saud if they give us any crap over invading Iraq and Israel's crackdown on the Palestinians and Arafat.
KSM. He would like that very much. It has always been his dream and he misses his family. But I think there will be no problem from them if you attack Iraq so long as you remove your bases from Saudi Arabia and make sure you do not let the Shia turds to turn it over to the Iranian dogs. They like Israel to mistreat the Palestinians so the people will be more angry at them than their own government, so no problem there either. You must always give the people an enemy to hate, so they do not look so close at their own government. But you know that. (wink, wink)
CIA. Fine. Well, I think thats about it. I will ask Washington to deal with Osama directly. Maybe we can split some of the profits on those SIV's.
How about your room, is everything to your liking.
KSM. It is very fine, thanks. And that virgin you provided was much prettier than last time, and she squealed like a pig which gives me much pleasure. We made much pleasure on that waterboard in the jacuzzi.
CIA. How about dinner and a night on the town. There is a new club here in Kabul where we have imported some very fine Russian beauties for your pleasure.
KSM. Thank you but I will have to pass. I will dine in tonight and pleasure myself some more with your gift. Could you arrange for a nice juicy steak cooked rare and a fine bottle of red wine. Last time I was here I remember my steak was a bit overdone, so please ask the chef to take care. And no GM food please.
As an person from overseas, I've been watching America for many years, watching it slowly disintegrate. It's been a sad experience.
I guess all empires eventually disintegrate and yours seems to be moving towards that eventuality. And, in common with most empires, the rot begins from within.
Perhaps it began when Corporations began to seize control of the government. Or was it the corrupting influence of Religion on government? Perhaps it happened when people began to grow lazy, filled their lives with beer and television and sport? Was it caused by rampant Nationalism? Perhaps it was a combination of all the above.
Whatever, it's been a sad experience.
www.dangerouscreation.com
Giovanna, the 4th amendment states that probable cause is required for the issue of warrants, but since the NSA spying program proceeds without warrants then Michael Hayden can declare that no probable cause is required according to the 4th.
Ignorance is strength.
Part of the US strategy in the more than 1/6 century war against Iraq was the deliberate sabotage of the public health and medical care infrastructure of that nation in the hope that the locals would do what the US military lacked the courage to do the first time: get in their and kill Saddam Hussein. This military campaign emphasized the deaths of the most vulnerable, young children and the elderly. While it did not succeed in toppling Hussein, it did result in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people.
The cowards who did this think they are worthy of being judges. They have no respect for law or human decency, and belong to be in chains, sentenced to hard labor at clearing up the mess they made.
MiMiCcS, very good!
'attacking civilians in time of war'
Let's see, how many civilian deaths have we accounted for in Iraq? You will never see this in our Corporate media.
Amateurs? Slow slide into fascism? Hey, the US of A has been practicing torture and dehumanization going on five hundred years. How do you think we were able to maintain a system of slavery for as long as we did? Was it a matter of gently convincing natives and Africans to help build our sterling republic. In fact, the methods of European Christian torture were refined in the New World because the "Indians" and then the Africans were not considered to be human beings by our standards. So please, don't think of this as some kind of gradual devolution. It's part of our birthright.