Guantánamo (Continuación)

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Every time there is a chance for the United States to escape from the trap it has created for itself in Guantanamo Bay, it slams the door shut.

The Pentagon's decision this week to seek the death penalty for six men it accuses of the 9/11 attacks, and to try them under the hugely disputed version of military courts that it has devised, is one of the stupidest mistakes that the Bush Administration has made.

Everything about Guantanamo is an affront to the values the US says it is defending in the War on Terror. The principle of holding hundreds of people there without charge, for years; the fluid rules of the “military commissions” used for the very few who will be tried; the torture that the Administration acknowledges has been practised on these six: all these are an assault on the US Constitution.…  Seguir leyendo »

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The Supreme Court heard arguments this month in cases brought by detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. Media reports noted the complicated legal issues involved, such as whether the Constitution extends beyond sovereign U.S. territory, whether foreigners are entitled to constitutional protections and whether habeas corpus would have been available in a place like Guantanamo some 250 years ago under British rule.

Those are all interesting legal questions. But what is at stake here is far less complicated and more fundamental -- the question of whether our government can throw people in prison without giving them a fair chance to defend themselves.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Six years ago this Tuesday, President Bush granted American armed forces sweeping authority to detain and interrogate foreign members of Al Qaeda and their supporters and to use military commissions to try them. By doing so, the president set in motion the creation of military commissions and the detention camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

The Bush administration may legitimately claim certain benefits from the Guantánamo system. Some dangerous men are held there, and valuable intelligence has probably been gathered, perhaps even some that has enabled the government to disrupt terrorist activities.

But the costs have been high. Guantánamo has come to be seen worldwide as a stain on America’s reputation.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Actually, Majid Khan -- whom I represent in my work as a lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights-- is still very much alive. Yet his legal status as a person entitled to basic rights is under grave assault. You see, Majid is one of dozens of people who have been held in secret CIA detention centers around the world. They are known as "ghost detainees" because our government hid them away from everyone, even the Red Cross. Their existence is an enduring reminder of the shocking abuse of power taking place in this nation.

Majid's story has become fairly well known.…  Seguir leyendo »

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If the president, the secretary of state and the secretary of defense all want to see the Guantanamo Bay prison closed before they leave office -- as they do -- why does it remain open?

When asked this question directly, senior administration officials -- some of the ones charged with implementing such changes -- reveal the difficulties of turning a gesture into a policy.

First, they explain, countries such as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen, which exported these terrorists, don't want them back, at least under conditions we find acceptable. America insists that returned terrorists remain under lock and key, and also not be tortured.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Via a monitoring camera, I saw a snippet of an interrogation session here one day last week inside one of the high-security complexes where foreign detainees are held. No faces were visible, but I glimpsed the jingling bracelets, open-toed sandals and skirts of two young women, who were seated in soft leather chairs around a table with a man in prison garb. One woman was the interrogator; the other was a translator. The means of persuasion, apart from the evident feminine charm, was a generous bag of pistachios -- a usually unavailable treat.

Yes, I was on a tour organized by the Pentagon; but no, the scene I witnessed was not a staged departure from a norm of pressure and pain.…  Seguir leyendo »

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The prosecution by a military court last week of the Australian David Hicks had a surface veneer of respectability (Australian's guilty plea at Guantánamo hearing, March 27). But this was a facade. Yes, Hicks "is the first terror suspect to face prosecution in revised military tribunals established after the US Supreme Court last year found the Pentagon's system for trying such detainees was unconstitutional". But that's a dubious distinction.The Australian government has talked publicly about their satisfaction in getting "this Australian to the head of the queue" for a military commission, saying it shows the "degree of influence" enjoyed by John Howard's government in Washington.…  Seguir leyendo »

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El Tribunal Supremo de Estados Unidos acaba de rechazar que los alrededor de 400 detenidos en la prisión de Guantánamo (Cuba) tengan derecho a ser juzgados por la justicia ordinaria. De este modo permanecerán sin derecho al 'habeas corpus', sometidos a juicios sumarios, posiblemente a coacciones físicas y sin estar acusados formalmente de ninguna causa. La medida del Tribunal supone una victoria para el Gobierno de George W. Bush y para los que propugnan que la tortura y los juicios sumarios son necesarios en la guerra contra el terrorismo.

A partir de 2001, el Pentágono y varias agencias de seguridad e inteligencia de Estados Unidos pusieron en marcha un plan para obtener información rápida de detenidos en Afganistán.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Here's what the Bush administration has done to the values, traditions and honor of the United States of America: An accused terrorist claims he confessed to heinous crimes so that agents of the U.S. government would stop torturing him, and no one is shocked or even surprised. There's reason to believe, in fact, that what the suspect says about torture is probably true.

There's also reason to doubt that the suspect -- Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, held in U.S. custody without charges for more than four years -- is the Zelig-like innocent bystander he claims to be. But we can't be sure, because George W.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Después de que la confesión de Jalid Sheik Mohammed saltara a los titulares de nuestros medios de comunicación, junto a la indignación moral por la dimensión de sus crímenes surgieron las dudas: ¿podíamos fiarnos de su confesión? ¿Y si estaba confesando más de lo que había hecho, quizá por un vano deseo de ser recordado como el gran cerebro terrorista, o porque estaba dispuesto a confesar lo que fuera con tal de que dejaran de someterle a la tabla de agua y otras "técnicas mejoradas de interrogación"?

Lo que no ha llamado tanto la atención es el hecho de que, por primera vez, la tortura es algo normalizado, que se presenta y se acepta como tal.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Since the release of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed’s dramatic confessions, moral outrage at the extent of his crimes has been mixed with doubts. Can his claims be trusted? What if he confessed to more than he really did, either because of a vain desire to be remembered as the big terrorist mastermind, or because he was ready to confess anything in order to stop the water boarding and other “enhanced interrogation techniques”?

If there was one surprising aspect to this situation it has less to do with the confessions themselves than with the fact that for the first time in a great many years, torture was normalized — presented as something acceptable.…  Seguir leyendo »

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El día 7 de enero, el prisionero número 905 de "la cárcel de máxima seguridad" de la base naval de Guantánamo -enclave de Cuba ocupado por Estados Unidos desde 1898- inició una huelga de hambre. Esta grave decisión es el último recurso del sudanés Sami al Haj como protesta por los cinco años que lleva detenido. Además, reclama: respeto al derecho de los presos para practicar su religión, aplicación a todos los reclusos de la Convención de Ginebra sobre prisioneros, fin del régimen de aislamiento total de varios presos, una investigación independiente, completa y pública sobre el fallecimiento de tres internos el 10 de junio de 2006, y su propia libertad o, en su defecto, la comparecencia ante un tribunal civil norteamericano.…  Seguir leyendo »

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For more than 200 years, the courts have served as the ultimate safeguard for our civil liberties. A critical part of this role has been the judicial branch's ability to consider writs of habeas corpus, through which people who have been imprisoned can challenge the decision to hold them in government custody. In this way, habeas corpus has provided an important check on executive power. However, because of a provision of the Military Commissions Act passed last fall, this fundamental role of the courts has been seriously reduced.

Habeas corpus -- the Great Writ -- has been the preeminent safeguard of individual liberty for centuries by providing meaningful judicial review of executive action and ensuring that our government has complied with the Constitution and the laws of the United States.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Something remarkable is going on in a Miami courtroom. The cruel methods US interrogators have used since September 11 to "break" prisoners are finally being put on trial. This was not supposed to happen. The Bush administration's plan was to put José Padilla on trial for allegedly being part of a network linked to international terrorists. But Padilla's lawyers are arguing that he is not fit to stand trial because he has been driven insane by the government.

Arrested in May 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare airport, Padilla, a Brooklyn-born former gang member, was classified as an "enemy combatant" and taken to a navy prison in Charleston, South Carolina.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Lenta y oscuramente la prisión de Guantánamo se encamina hacia su inevitable cierre, reclamado por las víctimas y por los demócratas y defensores de los derechos humanos de todo el mundo y sólo impedido por el empecinamiento del actual Gobierno de Estados Unidos que la ha convertido en un símbolo inútil de la defensa de su seguridad y, más aún, de la reparación del orgullo nacional herido por la monstruosa tragedia criminal del 11 de septiembre de 2001.

Sin embargo, la convicción universal, bien fundada, de la comisión de graves violaciones de derechos humanos por Estados Unidos contra los sospechosos de terrorismo allí detenidos, debería bastar para que ningún Gobierno, por lo menos ninguno "democrático", autorizara el desplazamiento de sus propios agentes a tal lugar con la finalidad de entablar relación con los prisioneros con fines diferentes de los de lograr su entrega al país de nacionalidad o su liberación o, en cualquier caso, de su sometimiento inmediato a las normas del Derecho y en especial a las de un proceso justo.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Al conmemorar, el pasado julio, el 230º aniversario de la Independencia de Estados Unidos, el presidente Bush observaba que los patriotas que lucharon por la independencia creían que todos los hombres nacen iguales y con unos derechos inalienables. Y más adelante declaraba que debido a esos ideales, Estados Unidos "sigue siendo un rayo de esperanza para quienes sueñan con la libertad y un ejemplo resplandeciente para el mundo de lo que puede conseguir un pueblo libre". Pero al mismo tiempo que hacía esas declaraciones, su Gobierno retenía en la base cubana de Guantánamo a unos 400 prisioneros. Algunos de éstos llevan hoy más de cinco años recluidos, y ninguno ha sido juzgado todavía.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Los secretos que saben más de dos personas son malos de guardar. Si el secreto es multilateral guardarlo es intentar coger agua con un capazo. Pero, si es un secreto a voces, su evidencia nos atonta y no reparamos en él. Y eso es bueno para el secreto mientras dura el atontamiento.

La connivencia con los diversos poderes e infrapoderes públicos norteamericanos de sus homólogos en los Estados atlantistas y muy especialmente en los de los promotores de la ilegal guerra de Irak era una sospecha razonable que, con el paso del tiempo, ha adquirido rango de certeza. No sólo por la aprobación del Informe Fava por parte del Parlamento Europeo en cuanto a los vuelos de la CIA, sino por las propias realidades nacionales.…  Seguir leyendo »

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It would be the ideal spot for a beachside birthday party. Surrounded by a turquoise sea, palm trees and white sand, the US detention camp at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba was five years old yesterday. Tony Blair calls it an "anomaly", but the evidence is overwhelming. Camp Delta, which still houses 470 men never convicted of any crime, is a torture camp. That should be the starting point of any debate about what is acceptable in the west's fight with Islamist extremists. More than 750 men have passed through the camp, with nearly half being released. Many prisoners, past and present, have given consistent and repeated testimony of serious abuses and ill treatment.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Aquel día de julio en El Escorial comprendí que serían sospechosos para siempre: ¿Erais religiosos antes de llegar a Guantánamo?, ¿qué hacíais realmente en Afganistán cuando fuisteis detenidos? Asif y Ruhel relataban a decenas de periodistas, con frases cortas, tímidamente, su vida de dos años y medio en Guantánamo, ese gulag contemporáneo que cumple hoy su quinto aniversario: "Al principio estaba en una jaula como un animal..., nos torturaron durante meses...".

Asif y Ruhel, con todo, tuvieron suerte y fueron liberados sin cargos en marzo del 2004, aunque les acompañará siempre el estigma de la sospecha: "Algo habrán hecho", "por algo se los llevaron".…  Seguir leyendo »

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The day after tomorrow marks the confluence of two ignominious anniversaries. The first is the five-year anniversary of the opening of the notorious prison camps run by the US at the Guantánamo naval air station in Cuba. In the five years since the US started shipping prisoners from around the world to Guantánamo, approximately 99% have never been charged with any transgression, much less a crime. Approximately 400 prisoners, characterised by the Bush administration as "the worst of the worst", have been released without charge, many directly to their families. That any prisoners have been released is due almost entirely to the outrage of the civilised world.…  Seguir leyendo »