Recounting some of the “atrocities committed shamefully in the name of our nation” during the ongoing so-called War on Terror, Sen. Dick Durbin on Tuesday said he has introduced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would close the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba “once and for all.”
“Since the first group of detainees was brought to Guantánamo in January of 2002, four different presidents have presided over the facility,” Durbin (D-Ill.) – a longtime proponent of closing the prison – said during a speech on the Senate floor.
“In that time the Iraq War has begun and ended, the war in Afghanistan – our nation’s longest war – has come to a close,” he continued. “A generation of conflict has come and gone yet the Guantánamo detention facility is still open and every day that it remains open is an affront to our system of justice and the rule of law.”
“In the wake of 9/11 the [George W.] Bush administration tossed aside our constitutional principles as well as the Geneva Conventions,” Durbin contended, calling Gitmo a place “where due process goes to die.”
“Military officials, national security experts, and leaders on both sides of the aisle have demanded its closure for years,” he said. “The facility was virtually designed to be a legal black hole where detainees could be held incommunicado beyond the reach of law and subjected to unspeakable torture and abuse.”
Durbin brought up the testimony last month of Majid Khan, a Pakistani man and former al-Qaeda operative imprisoned at Guantánamo since 2006. Prior to that, he was held at a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) black site in Afghanistan called the “Salt Pit,” where prisoner Gul Rahman was tortured to death in 2002.
Khan told the jury of US officers during his Gitmo military commission trial that he was raped by CIA medics, subjected to the interrupted drowning torture commonly called waterboarding, hung naked from a ceiling beam, and chained to the floors for days on end.
“These high-ranking military leaders did something unheard of,” said Durbin. “Seven of the eight jurors signed a handwritten letter demanding clemency for Majid Khan,” who was subsequently sentenced to 26 years in prison in a formality due to to a superseding plea deal with the US government that grants his release next February.
“Stories about the torture of prisoners have only galvanized American enemies” and have “diminished our international standing,” Durbin argued. “How can we claim credibility as a nation, how can we hold authoritarian dictators accountable, if they can point to our own legacy of cruelty?”
As a former prisoner of the US #Guantanamo and a survivor of 3 yrs of #torture and imprisonment without trial I encourage everyone to listen to this. Once you have, please read our open NYRB letter to Joe Biden on how to #closeGuantanamohttps://t.co/1zI7Z4Xz78https://t.co/uWpWkS4Vdz
— Moazzam Begg (@Moazzam_Begg) November 30, 2021
“This subversion of justice has harmed detainees, it has undermined our moral standing, and it has failed to deliver justice which it promised,” the senator continued. “For two decades the families of Americans who died on 9/11 have waited for the alleged co-conspirators who are being detained in Guantánamo to be brought to justice… but the case still hasn’t come to trial.”
Meanwhile, he added, “Guantánamo has become a symbol for human rights abuse [and] lawlessness.”
Durbin also lamented that “we spend more than $500 million a year to keep Guantánamo open” to detain just 39 prisoners, 13 of whom have been approved for transfer.
“That works out to nearly $14 million a year for each prisoner,” he noted. “That’s enough money to expand Medicaid coverage to 1.5 million Americans for 10 years.”
“Guantánmamo does not reflect who we are or who we should be,” Durbin said. “Indefinite detention without charge or trial is antithetical to American values and yet more than two-thirds of the people detained at Guantánamo today have never been charged with a crime. How can that be any form of justice?”
“We must accelerate the timeline to finally close Guantánamo,” he argued. “America’s failures in Guantánamo must not be passed on to another administration or to another Congress. Can this Senate summon the courage to finally close this detention facility? I’d like to test it on the floor of the Senate.”
Thank you @SenatorDurbin for your words: “Close the detention facility in Guantanamo. Let’s put this dark chapter behind us once and for all.” https://t.co/MHwN0rndkV
— Center for Victims of Torture (@CVTorg) November 30, 2021
Durbin called on President Joe Biden – who has signaled his intention to close Gitmo – to appoint a special envoy on detainee transfers and to pursue a “swift resolution to the remaining cases” in civilian courts.
“The use of torture and military commissions that deny due process have hindered our ability to bring terrorists to justice,” he said. “Our federal courts have proven more than capable of handling even the most serious and complex terrorism cases.”
Durbin quoted the late Maj. Ian Fishback, who exposed murder, torture, and other crimes committed by US forces against prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq: “If we abandon our ideals in the face of adversity and aggression then those ideals were never really in our possession.”
“The families who lost loved ones on [9/11] deserve better. America deserves better,” Durbin insisted. “It’s time at long last to face reality and… close the detention facility at Guantánamo. Let’s put this dark chapter behind us once and for all.”
Brett Wilkins is is staff writer for Common Dreams. Based in San Francisco, his work covers issues of social justice, human rights and war and peace. This originally appeared at CommonDreams and is reprinted with the author’s permission.
The US military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is the finest such facility on earth. While serving there as the ranking US Army Medical Department officer for the Joint Detainee Operations Group, Joint Task Force 160, in 2002, ICRC physicians I worked with there and later in Iraq, told me, “No one does [detention operations] better than the US.” FREE Qurans, prayer rugs/beads, white robes, beards, directions to Mecca, services of a US military Muslim chaplain, halal and special Muslim holy holiday meals, world class health, dental and vision care, recreation, correspondence, library, TV, DVD, games, sports and more! Club Gitmo on steroids. 731 unlawful combatant Islamists RELEASED and NONE beheaded, executed, blown up, hacked to death, dragged naked and lifeless through the streets, drowned or burned alive. All things our enemies have done to us and/or our allies. There is no moral comparison between Gitmo and how our enemies treat their captives. Gitmo is a small piece to the big puzzle of how we WIN the Global War on Terror. Former detainees have come back to re-engage in jihad against the US, and have killed Americans. Currently, at least four of the five released Taliban leaders are back in action in the new reality in Afghanistan. Closing Gitmo is a LOSING strategy.
First you make the terrorists and then you torture and kill the terrorists. Good gig.
LOL! Did you read ANY of the comment you commented on? 731 Gitmo detainees RELEASED, and NONE executed, beheaded, hacked to death, blown up, dragged naked and lifeless through the streets, drowned or burned alive. All things our enemies have done to us and/or our allies. There is NO moral comparison between Gitmo and how our enemies treat their captives. All Gitmo detainees were at LEAST unlawful combatants who could have been executed on the battlefield. Only a handful of detainees were waterboarded (which was legal and approved at the time) in order to obtain valuable information that saved many lives.
The fact that there ever WERE 731 GITMO detainees in the first place is the problem. But you, or anyone else, thinking that we can “WIN” the global war on terror is the main problem. So, sure, I read your comment.
Tens of thousands of detainees were taken on the battlefield in the early years of the Global War on Terror, but only just less than 800 were brought to Gitmo. All could have been lawfully shot dead on the battlefield, but were not, due to their potential intelligence value and the benevolence of the United States. During WWII over 400,000 mostly German lawful combatant POWs were held in the US without charge or trial, “until the end of hostilities,” as per the Geneva Conventions. Taking combatants from the battlefield is a main goal of armed conflict. Sun Tzu: “One hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the most skillful. Subduing the enemy without battle is the most skillful.” Thinks of the hundreds of released detainees who rejoined the fight and then killed or directed others to kill innocent people, mostly Muslims, but Americans as well. Let that soak in.
“All could have been lawfully shot dead on the battlefield, but were not, due to their potential intelligence value and the benevolence of the United States.”
Lawfully shot dead in illegal wars? Sure, why not. And the “benevolence of the United States”? You really are delusional. Let that soak in.
“All Gitmo detainees were at LEAST unlawful combatants”
Not according to the evidence.
“Only a handful of detainees were waterboarded (which was legal and approved at the time)”
If it was ever “legal,” that hasn’t been the case since 1945.
You are mistaken, Sir. According to the AUMF, Geneva Conventions and Law of Land Warfare, those not covered under the description of “lawful combatants,” are therefore unlawful combatants in a declared war zone. The Global War on Terror declared the globe a war zone. Tens of thousands of detainees were captured in Afghanistan alone during the early years of the GWOT, but only less than 800 were ever brought to Gitmo. Waterboarding and other EIT were approved and legal when performed on a handful of detainees in order to obtain valuable information that saved many lives. That’s from 22 years in the Army, the last 9 of which were spent with Military Police Enemy Prisoner of War Liaison Detachments, charged with the care and safety of EPWs and detainees, both at Gitmo and Iraq, where ICRC physicians I worked with told me, “No one does [detention operations] better than the US.”
“Waterboarding and other EIT were approved and legal when performed on a handful of detainees in order to obtain valuable information that saved many lives.”
Torture approved and made legal by those doing the torturing is still torture.
Not torture. In fact, it wasn’t until new President Obama unilaterally declared waterboarding torture that it was added to the list. Waterboarding did not meet the internationally accepted definition of torture at the time. Definitions of terms are important.
At least it didn’t meet Dick Cheney’s definition of torture. Not sure what you’re talking about as far as what the “internationally accepted definition of torture” might be, but you and Dick are on the same page. Personally, I consider simulated drowning to be torture and thankfully so do most civilized human beings.
It is NOT simulated drowning . It is drowning that stops just short of death .
You got me. But “drowning” is death so it can’t be death that stops short of death either. It’s pretending to attempt to drown someone?
The Holy Inquisition called waterboarding “tortura del agua”.
Being accused of being an unlawful combatant is not the same thing as being an unlawful combatant.
After World War 2, the US insisted on the execution of Japanese generals who authorized waterboarding. It was torture then and it’s torture now. Having John Yoo write a memo declaring that it isn’t what it is doesn’t make it not what it is.
If the US ever returns to rule of law, those who ordered and/or participated in torture will be brought to justice.
Unlawful combatant status is established on the battlefield when a person is apprehended. It is either circumstantial or a tribunal is held to determine the status of a detained person. All detainees rendered to the US military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were unlawful combatants. During WWII over 400,000 mostly German POWs (lawful combatants) were held in the US without charge or trial, “until the end of hostilities,” as per the Geneva Conventions and Law of War. Although not entitled to the status or protections of Geneva or LoW, Gitmo detainees were treated within the spirit of Geneva, as per then Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld. I know it’s hard to get through all the myths regarding “waterboarding,” but in WWII it was used as torture, frequently ending in Death by the Imperial Japanese (not “Japanese”). Much different than the technique perfected by our CIA (not DoD personnel), which instead of death is effective repeatedly in obtaining valuable information that saved many lives. Waterboarding has been used on US personnel in SERE training. Surely you are aware of this. I hope those found guilty of torture are brought to justice as well. Torture is wrong. But is it ethical to accuse people of something that when it was done was NOT torture, by law?
It’s torture. That’s a fact. You don’t have to like the fact that it’s a fact. It’s a fact whether you like the fact that it’s a fact or not.
The US government tried to have it both ways with the “unlawful combatant” nonsense. If the detainees were accused of being “unlawful combatants,” they were being accused of crimes. Yet the US government unlawfully placed a US military basis (Gitmo) beyond the jurisdiction of US courts, and unlawfully established “tribunals” to conduct fake “trials.”
That’s leaving aside the fact that, Congress not having declared war, the US was not, in any legal sense, AT war and that therefore all US troops deployed in the “Global War on Terror” were themselves “unlawful combatants.”
It’s not a “fact.” It’s a cover. The fact is that waterboarding was legal, approved and did not fit the internationally accepted definition of torture at the time a handful of detainees were waterboarded at Gitmo in order to obtain valuable information that saved many lives. It was only later that it was added, unilaterally by Barack Hussein Obama to a list of techniques he called torture. You’re wrong. The whole concept of detention is to bring some humanity to war. The powers that wrote and then signed the Geneva Conventions felt that those who did not sign, comply with or otherwise violated the concepts would be subject to severe penalties, including death. Hence the Nuremberg Trials. Also, in 1942, six of eight German saboteurs, caught dry-foot on US soil, were captured, denied habeas corpus, tried by military commission and then executed by electric chair, all within about 8 weeks. Oh, and the executed German spies hadn’t hurt a fly nor damaged any property, they were simply found in violation of the Geneva Conventions. According to the Conventions and Law of War, detainees/POWs/protected persons would be held within the country of capture if possible. If impractical or not secure enough they can be moved to such places that would provide the best protection – especially from fratricide. The US naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was the most logical location due to existing facilities from the Hatian/Cuban boat crises of the early 1990’s, logistics (close to the US), security (few US bases are more secure, and legal independence. Rumsfeld & Co. knew there would be lawfare waged on behalf of the detainees and wanted to postpone it as long as possible, not to deny rights (unlawful combatants have none), but to give time for interrogations to obtain valuable information that could save many lives. You are looking at the whole thing through the lens of the enemy for some reason. You must be an Islamist apologist or something. Very disappointing for a fellow veteran. A declaration of war was not necessary. The AUMF gave US forces all the legal grounds they needed to capture suspected terrorists. You are really good at parroting all the myths and legends of the MSM and Islamist apologists who have come before you. I’ve been doing this for thirty years, and you are WAY behind the poser curve.
You’ve been doing this for 30 years, and I was doing it 30 years ago.
Maybe 30 years from now, you’ll have wised up and taken responsibility for what you participated in, instead of making excuses, too.
And I’m not a “sir.” Enlisted, not commissioned. My first name back in the day was “sergeant.”
I remember, “Don’t call me sir, I work for a living”.
And I served five years as a combat medic before becoming an officer through OCS. We were both trained to refer to civilians as Sir, and Ma’am, Sergeant.
We were also both trained to not commit war crimes.
Don’t beat around the bush, Sergeant. Come out and say what you want to say. Be a man. You think I committed a war crime, tell me. And then provide the evidence and turn me in. Otherwise, I would be very careful if I were you.
You certainly SOUND like a perpetrator attempting to justify his war crimes . How exactly is Thomas Knapp supposed to provide evidence of it when so many of the Guantanamo atrocities have been occluded under the state secrets doctrine?
If you can’t show evidence you shouldn’t accuse, veiled or not.
I have no idea who you are, or whether you are who you say you are, or, based on your comments, whether you actually participated in torture or other war crimes or not.
As for “turning you in,” I can’t even turn myself in for the war crimes I committed. The US government doesn’t admit they were war crimes.
Google much, Thomas? I’m real. Wrote a book called, “Saving Grace at Guantanamo Bay.” Check it out sometime. We all have demons. Take care.
You must not understand how the Internet works. Anyone on Earth with an Internet connection could sign up for a Disqus account and pretend to be “Montgomery Granger.”
And whether or not you are “the real Montgomery Granger” has no impact whatsoever on whether torture is torture.
Ditto. You can call it whatever you want, doesn’t make it so, whoever you are.
I think you did. I did 3 years in the Army back in the 70’s. Please try to scare me too. I need a good laugh.
Seriously?
Well, if you’re going to try and intimidate Thomas Knapp by using threatening language as though you are both on active duty, then yes.
I didn’t feel like he was trying to intimidate me. More like he was throwing a lot of spaghetti at the wall to hide a fallacious argument from authority. No biggie. I’m not in charge of ensuring that he reaps whatever terrible karma he may have sown.
I felt like I was back in service when a rosy cheeked Butterbar would try to intimidate a seasoned vet with talk like he used.
The only utility such torture has is to coerce false confessions for use in show trials . Josef Stalin , call your office !
“The finest such facility on earth” – and Theresienstadt was a sanatorium for pampered prisoners…