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TechnoratiGuantánamo has proved a useful distraction from the secret detention camps run by the US around the world
We shouldn't be surprised to hear that George Bush dined with a group of historians on Sunday night. The president has spent much of his second term pleading with history. But however hard he lobbies the gatekeepers of memory, he will surely be judged the worst president the United States has ever had.
Even if historians were somehow to forget the illegal war, the mangling of international law, the trashing of the environment and social welfare, the banking crisis, and the transfer of wealth from rich to poor, one image is stamped indelibly on this presidency: the trussed automatons in orange jumpsuits. It portrays a superpower prepared to dehumanise its prisoners, to wrap, blind and deafen them, to reduce them to mannequins, in a place as stark and industrial as a chicken-packing plant. Worse, the government was proud of what it had done. It was parading its impunity. It wanted us to know that nothing would stand in its way: its power was both sovereign and unaccountable.
Three days before Bush arrived in Britain, the US supreme court ruled that the inmates at Guantánamo Bay were entitled to contest their detention in the civilian courts. This is the third time the supreme court has ruled against the prison camp, but on this occasion Bush cannot change the law: the court has ruled that the prisoners' rights are constitutional.
Symbolically the decision could scarcely be more important. Practically it could scarcely be less. The department of defence can transfer its prisoners to an oubliette in another country, where the constitution's writ does not run. The public atrocity of Guantánamo Bay has provided a useful distraction from something even worse: the sprawling system of secret detention camps the US runs around the world.
We don't, of course, know much about this programme. Bush first acknowledged it in September 2006. "Of the thousands of terrorists captured across the world, only about 770 have ever been sent to Guantánamo." Other suspects, he said, were being "held secretly" by the CIA. "Many specifics of this program, including where these detainees have been held and the details of their confinement, cannot be divulged." He went on to claim that all the secret prisoners had now been transferred to Guantánamo Bay.
Several lines of evidence suggest that this claim was false. The CIA appears to have overseen or controlled, and in some cases appears still to be running, black sites in Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Macedonia, Kosovo, Morocco, Libya, Egypt, Djibouti, Somalia, Ethiopia, Iraq, Jordan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Thailand and, possibly, Diego Garcia. The US appears to be using ships as secret prisons. In just two years the CIA ran 283 flights - which the Council of Europe believes were used for transporting secret prisoners - out of Germany alone. It admits that it possesses 7,000 documents about its ghost detention programme. Are we to believe all this was done for the 14 men transferred to Guantánamo Bay? In Iraq, the US now admits to holding 22,000 prisoners without charge in its own facilities, some of whom are known to be kept away from the Red Cross and other visitors.
Apart from those moved to Cuba, hardly anyone, so far, has come out of this system. At the end of last year salon.com interviewed Muhammad Bashmilah, who was arrested and tortured by Jordanian police, handed to the Americans, flown to an unknown country in autumn 2003, and held secretly by the CIA until he was transferred to Yemeni custody in May 2005. He reports that he was kept in a cell about the size of a transit van throughout the 19 months of his confinement, without any human contact except during interrogation. The lights and a source of white noise were left on permanently. Driven mad by isolation and sensory deprivation, he tried to kill himself several times. Eventually, when it became obvious even to the CIA that he had nothing to do with terrorism, he was handed over to the Yemeni government, who held him for another year until he was released without charge.
Lawyers for some of the men transferred to Guantánamo Bay claim that, while in secret detention, their clients were left hanging from the ceiling by their wrists, beaten with electric cables, yanked around on a dog's leash, chained naked in a freezing cell, and doused with cold water. "The CIA worked people day and night for months," one prisoner reports. "Plenty lost their minds. I could hear people knocking their heads against the walls and doors, screaming their heads off."
Could it be worse than this? Yes. In 2003, a US official admitted to the Sunday Telegraph that the CIA was detaining and interrogating children. Discussing two boys aged seven and nine held in secret detention by the CIA, the official explained: "We are handling them with kid gloves. After all, they are only little children, but we need to know as much about their father's recent activities as possible. We have child psychologists on hand at all times and they are given the best of care." According to another prisoner, the boys had already been tortured by Pakistani guards. A former CIA official told the New Yorker that "every single plan [in the secret detention programme] is drawn up by interrogators, and then submitted for approval to the highest possible level - meaning the director of the CIA. Any change in the plan - even if an extra day of a certain treatment was added - was signed off by the CIA director."
Never mind detention without trial; this is detention without acknowledgement. When men and women disappear into this system, neither they nor their families know where they are. The Red Cross cannot reach them; they are beyond the scope of the law. They have been disappeared in the Latin American sense of that word.
Do I need to explain that this treatment breaks just about every article in the Geneva conventions? Do I need to tell you that - without charges, trials, lawyers, scrutiny or even recognition - it is just as likely to net the innocent as the guilty? In 2006 George Bush maintained that "these aren't common criminals, or bystanders accidentally swept up on the battlefield - we have in place a rigorous process to ensure those held at Guantánamo Bay belong at Guantánamo". But a new and detailed investigation by the McClatchy newspaper group has found that many of them were indeed either common criminals or bystanders, or men sold to the authorities in order to settle a feud. Who knows how many innocent people are going out of their minds in the CIA's secret prisons today?
Along with its innocent victims, the US government has locked itself into this system. As the justice department has argued, these prisoners cannot be released in case they describe the "alternative interrogation methods" (the euphemism it uses for torture) the CIA used on them, which could "reasonably be expected to cause extremely grave damage". Like almost everything Bush has done, this programme promises to backfire. George Bush will be remembered not only for the lives he has broken, but also for smashing everything he claimed to defend.
monbiot.com
© Guardian News and Media Limited 2008
27 Comments so far
Show AllSadly, I must agree with Tetti_Tatti. The USA is burning and they're taking the rest of the planet down with them.
Then again, the average lifespan of a species is 100,000 years. As humans, we're long overdue for extinction...
Bush, Cheney, Guantánamo and all these secret detention camps are simply the face of Americans.
Let's not forget that 95% of the world serial killers live in the United States, that the US remains the world's greatest polluter, the greatest consumer of illegal drugs, the greatest exporter of arms, the greatest sponsors and financiers of terrorism and guerrilla in the world.
If the people had any shame or sense of decency at all (which they don't) they would've done something, anything, to stop Bush, Cheney and their crimes against humanity. They've done nothing, except reelect the wicked duo. Bush and Cheney are merely a reflection of this pathological nation called the US of A.
This is the result of a Criminal Society, that has been in evolution since the beginning of this "experiment in self governance" know as "America".
The mere fact that so many are willing to commit crimes against so many, whether it be the unacceptable excuse of "following orders", or "I gave the orders in defense of "Democracy and the American Way".
The mere fact that so few "citizens" were opposed to going to war in Iraq for violations of UN Treaties, while the USA is in violation of 234 treaties signed with the Native Tribes of the US Continent; or that so few if any opposed the war simply because it was a violation of the Geneva Accords and the Nuremberg Tribunals--------is an obvious revelation that the USA is a criminal nation that is more dangerous than any before because of it's overwhelming wealth (most of which was stolen from the previously mentioned Tribes, via violation of the previously mentioned treaties)-----and the power that comes with wealth-as well as the fact that such power can and has fallen into the hands of a relative few who are unqualified to even be close to such power.
Without immediate action by the "people" to call these violations of international law what they are---and prosecute the offenders, from the top down----from Pres. Bush to "Pvt Smith ", USA,USMC etc-------then the USA is doomed to failure, and to the everlasting shame given the most egregious negative example for history.
Never mind the fact that the USA meddled in the affairs of Afghanistan during the Reagan admin., and in doing so created the Taliban (then touted as "Freedom Fighters"), who in turn created AlQuida, who in turn created the disaster on 9/11-----------the world can hardly tolerate these international crimes by the USA-----and if they chose to, the USA could never hope to win against a united "World"---bent on taming the monster known as the USA------
The fact that when one calls the IRS office in any location in the US, with the option, "press one for English, press two for Spanish"-----UN Soldiers could very well occupy Wash D.C. someday as a measure to protect the World from the USA..........
To those of you who read this and may be laughing at such a thought--------no German in 1936* could/would have imagined US Bases in Germany in 2008-------but there are several of them---still occupying the former German super power. So you might want to brush up on your foreign language skills----forget Spanish, try German, or Dutch, or French or-----
*In 1936 the Nazi party was heavily financed by the US Bank under the control of Prescot Bush, the Grand Father of the most notorious War Criminal alive today-----Pres. G.W. Bush.
This may be a case of splitting hairs, but I believe that it is incorrect to say that Bush is the worst president the USA has ever had.
The Constitution tells how one becomes president. Bush was never elected. This pitiful excuse for a nation has been without a president since January, 2001. Bush is merely a pretender to that office.
Undoubedtely Junior will be judged the worst president in history by most people and by some of that number, not even the president at all since we don't usually obtain a president by Supreme Court decree. A coup d'etat inny countries works but it is not the tradition in this one. By millions of Americans, however, no such subtle differentiation exists. He will be seen as both a president and the best one of all and the reason is that Corporate America put him there and he did their bidding beautifuly. Indeed, should CA decide that neither McCain nor Obama will do they may just decide to have Junior declare Marshal Law on account of some dreadful threat from, say, Lithuania, and cancel the damned elections. At that point we'll have our first dictator even though he can't say the word "nuclear" without choking.
We are not powerless in the face of this. Get your big cardboard signs (use the monster pumpkin or watermelon boxes from the supermarket, cut' em in half and you have two signs which will stand up by themselves when the ends are folded at right angles...white backgrounds and black letters) and GO TELL IT LIKE YOU SEE IT!!!.
I been out in the streets for five years with a few friends, once a week, and it has helped me feel good enought to avoid complete loss of faith in the human race...not a small benefit let me tell ya... its the only thing short of violence which one day will effect some change, once things are bad enough...once there's enough of us...gotta be patient meantime ...
With Dictator Bush at the helm and clearly driving our country down the toilet, I would venture to say a LOT.
JT
http://www.FireMe.To/udi
I'm so ashamed to call myself an American when I read these articles. It all seems so hopeless, too. I can't imagine a President Obama getting anywhere at all with prosecuting these war criminals. What are the chances?
George Monbiot, you are so hot! What great work you do!
Now about the work at hand- nothing is more urgent than the exposure of this multi faceted atrocity. You are also so right in naming Gitmo as a distraction- it houses about 1% of all the prisoners in u.s. custody. not a mistake- one percent. 270 in gitmo, 27,000-32,000 in the other places, including the prison ships. So when they close gitmo what chance will these other poor people have of ever getting out? Much mor light needs to shine all over the great american gulag.
by the way- that reminds me joe stalin is clearly the role model for these creeps, but i'm not sure he was as intent on torture. he had bigger numbers, yes, and his were all innocent too. i just don't remember this level of torture- that is, all the prisoners, all the time.
who else is working on this is clive stafford smith. it's called Reprieve
http://www.reprieve.org.uk/staff_clivestaffordsmith.htm
From the Declaration of Independence ...
"For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:"
-----------
These are two of the grievances that our founders had with King George III. Sounds familiar. We've become the British imperial rulers that our forefathers fought AGAINST to establish a free country.
Bozodriver nutshells it totally: "I'd like to comment, but I don't know where I am, or why I'm here, or who I am, or if anybody's listening."
BTW, the phrase is "the transfer of wealth from POOR to RICH" in the original article on monbiot.com and guardian.co.uk. It just got transposed in its reprint on CD.
Okay, then let's make it easier on our employees at the CIA, FBI, NSA, and the other 13 intel agencies: immunity in exchange for testimony against your superiors. You kidnapped? You tortured? Tell us who gave the orders, give us some hardcopy, say you're sorry, retire, and remember you're banned from ever working for our government - Fed, State or Local - and/or any contractors thereof, forever.
No jail time. No criminal record. Just serve up your masters and go live on an island with your conscience.
If the Congress doesn't have the votes in the Senate to impeach, why doesn't someone arrest Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rice, Yoo et al. and turn them over the International Criminal Court for prosecution and eternal imprisonment????? Since our Justice Dept. would not be needed for this arrest and trial, it could not be further corrupted by the arrestees and the trial could proceed.
The wonderful George Monbiot tried to carry out a citizens arrest of John Bolton when Bolton was in Wales in late May for the Hay Festival of Ideas. The security people ushered Monbiot out, unfortunately, as Bolton would have been the very first of these criminals to be tried.
Bozodriver June 17th, 2008 2:41 pm -- "I'd like to comment, but I don't know where I am, or why I'm here, or who I am, or if anybody's listening."
Be assured that you're not alone. And, yes, people are listening, although many are as bewildered as you are about what can be done to restore some semblance of sanity to the world. Unfortunately, there is also a very large comatose bloc and it appears increasingly likely that it's going to get worse -- perhaps much worse -- before it gets any better,
No change will occur and the criminals responsible will never face justice until we throw off the yoke of oppression and take to the streets. We must remove the criminals and torturers from elected office and take back our government. Elections need to be publicly financed and the corporations and the oligarchy should be denied their privileged access. Unless the people act the noble experiment called democracy will fail. The government is now owned by greedy and power-hungry psychopaths.
I'm is sick of how awful this country has become. Politicians should not have as much power as they do...
Clinton Incident
Bozodriver June 17th, 2008 2:41 pm
"I'd like to comment, but I don't know where I am, or why I'm here, or who I am, or if anybody's listening."
Ask someone close to you if you were ever in a detention centre called Bagram? If they say yes I sympathise and will do all I can to help you.
"We are handling them with kid gloves. After all they are only little children." So, you removed five toenails and five fingernails without any anesthesia.
I was working with some high school kids in the 1990's and they told me that their text book said Nixon had resigned due to illness. Don't underestimate revisionist historians.
I'd like to comment, but I don't know where I am, or why I'm here, or who I am, or if anybody's listening.
Secret is the operative word here. It tells us the truth about Bush. Bush is no more than criminal. He is a criminal. Repeat yet again. Bush is a criminal, knows it and conceals that with the secrets he keeps. He knows no other way to operate except as a criminal. He is a criminal with regard to his murders of Americans, Iraqi and Afghani civilians, with regard to missing trillions he has embezzled from the American Treasury, with regard to the black flag operation on 9/11. The 4084 American soldiers dead as acknowledged by Bush is just the tip of the iceberg. Add to that the 120,000 soldiers who suicided in the service or after they came back to the US. Add also the 400,000 permanently disabled including of course the 40,000 physically disabled, but more than that the additional military suffering from invisible brain injuries and most of all those suffering from PTSD. None would have happened had Bush not gone to war illegally through lies, deception and manipulation of the evidence. All this is concealed through his secrecy and demonstrates absolutely and conclusively that he knows he is a criminal.
Then again, another of his secrets is that he is not the president, that Al Gore won in 2000, that he illegally and criminally assumed the office and that our nation illegally and criminally looked the other way.
Remember when republicans were parading around telling everyone how great bush was? How george bush was going to be the greatest president ever? How it would be nothing but republican presidents from now on? What a laugh that is. Worst-president-ever! Remembered for torture, abuse, and law-breaking. What a cruel joke.
In this case the crime is far, far worse than the cover up. These crimes will be an albatross around any future captain of our Ship of State.
In the article "..., the transfer of wealth from rich to poor" by Bush is obviously a typing error.
We have sunk to the lowest level possible (at least I hope we can not sink any lower). Most Americans care more about Brangelina or Brittney than the atrocities their government is committing in our names. Try to point these things out to them and they don't want to know. They deny reality. They try to justify the actions of our government, revealing a side of themselves that is even more pitiful (and frightening) than those who simply are in denial. Under Bush and company, our very worst selves are being revealed. I now understand how thousands of Germans did nothing as they saw their neighbors being carted off in cattle cars, or how 30,000 Argentines disappeared with hardly anyone noticing. When the propoganda has been successful, a government can do anything. This is a frightening realization. Detaining and torturing children - I am horrified.
As the justice department has argued, these prisoners cannot be released in case they describe the "alternative interrogation methods" (the euphemism it uses for torture) the CIA used on them, which could "reasonably be expected to cause extremely grave damage".
Revealing "alternative interrogation methods" could cause extremely grave damage to what?! If the concern is for public opinion, either domestic or global, it must surely be obvious by now that it counts for less than nothing. And it's equally obvious that those responsible will never face justice if the U.S. 'leadership' has anything to say about it, regardless of which 'two-party' facade is in power.
The only likely damage I can foresee is the just retribution that the released prisoners and their compatriots might exact upon the cowards who subjected them to such inhuman treatment. And, quite frankly, I'd be happy to help. So you'd better come and get me too.
real historians should salivating at what history will uncover about Bu$h and Uncle Dick.