This story reports on an extraordinary 2004 article by a Harvard lecturer and former Chief of Neuropsychiatry at Guantanamo Bay [William Henry Anderson, M.D.], which made the shocking claim that "hard-core zealots" had "brains that are structurally and functionally different from us." Furthermore, the article stated, 100,000 "zealots" within the Muslim body politic would have to be eliminated, the way "malignant [cancer] cells" are removed from a healthy body.
....
The text of Anderson's article is not online, as Intelligencer does not post its articles on the Internet. However, I have obtained a copy, and can report what I read.
The article starts out as a bloviating howler. Anderson quotes Sun Tzu, recapitulates the Aristotlean causal categories, and fulminates about "credulous enablers" and "useful idiots" that sabotage U.S. efforts to mount an effective defense against its enemies. Anderson regrets that the enablers and idiots will be with us for a long time, as they represent unfortunate but necessary aspects of human nature.
It is only when we get to the "zealots" that we, supposedly, enter new territory. The zealots are "a pathological departure" from "human nature."
The blogger quotes the article:
No, the zealots are another kind of person. They may be thought of as cells of a social body that have undergone malignant change.
For comparison, there is a quote provided from a Nazi concentration camp doctor reconciling similar comments about Jews with his Hippocratic oath.
Today, Anderson is a Massachusetts General Hospital senior psychiatrist.
But something bothered us yesterday: did Bumiller and her editors consider the possibility that a six-year stay Gitmo could actually create terrorists? That an innocent Afghan man embittered after being scooped up by the United States and unjustly imprisoned for years might actually become a terrorist?
....
Bumiller and her editors seem to have realized the possibility that they might have gotten spun -- though too late to change the front-page story in the print edition.
The paper has changed the lead and headline of the Web version of the story to reflect the uncertainty. The new headline reads: "Later Terror Link Cited for 1 in 7 Freed Detainees." And the lead: "An unreleased Pentagon report concludes that about one in seven of the 534 prisoners already transferred abroad from the detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, are engaged in terrorism or militant activity, according to administration officials."
Compare that to the original version: "An unreleased Pentagon report provides new details concluding that about one in seven of the 534 prisoners already transferred abroad from the detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has returned to terrorism or militant activity, according to administration officials."
'He has asked his team for a proposal on how to shut it down, what will be required specifically to close it and move the detainees from that facility, and at the same time protect the American people from dangerous terrorists.'
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ordered aides to draw up plans for closing the "war on terror" prison at Guantanamo, a declared priority for President-elect Barack Obama, a spokesman said Thursday.
Gates wanted to be ready in case Obama decides to take action on Guantanamo soon after assuming office next month, said Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary.
"He has asked his team for a proposal on how to shut it down, what will be required specifically to close it and move the detainees from that facility, and at the same time protect the American people from dangerous terrorists," he said.
The prison, which currently has about 250 inmates, was opened in early 2002 to hold detainees captured in Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere in the U.S. "war on terror."
The prisoners include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged operational mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, as well other alleged senior al-Qaeda leaders.
In an interview that aired late Wednesday on PBS television, Gates said, "I think we can provide alternatives to it."
"I would like to see it closed. And I think it will be a high priority for the new administration," he said on the Charlie Rose show.
But he said closing the prison will require passage of laws that would prevent dangerous detainees from being released in the United States.
"As an example, you probably want something in legislation that says if somebody is freed from Guantanamo, they don't have an automatic right to asylum in the United States," he said.
Jimmy Carter writes: Today marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. With a new administration and a new vision coming to the White House, we have the opportunity to move boldly to restore the moral authority behind the worldwide human rights movement. But the first steps must be taken at home.
President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to shut down the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay and end torture, which can be accomplished by executive orders to close the prison and by enforcing existing prohibitions against torture by any U.S. representative, including FBI and CIA agents. The detention of people secretly or indefinitely and without due process must cease, and their cases should be transferred to our courts, which have proved their competence in trying those accused of terrorism. Further, a nonpartisan expert commission should be named to conduct a thorough review of U.S. practices related to unwarranted arrest, torture, secret detention, extraordinary rendition, abandonment of habeas corpus and related matters. Acknowledging to the world that the United States also has made mistakes will give credence to our becoming "a more perfect union" -- a message that would resonate worldwide. Together, these actions will help us restore our nation's principles and embolden others abroad who want higher moral standards for their own societies.
Khadr claims that interrogators abused him by using techniques such as "stress positions," sleep deprivation and isolation. They also say that, because Khadr was 15 at the time he is alleged to have thrown a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier, he would be the first "child soldier" ever prosecuted for a war crime.
Omar Khadr.
There have been two significant developments at Guantanamo Bay today. Five detainees accused of being connected to 9/11 have announced they want to plead guilty. The five men asked the military judge hearing their case to accept their "confessions to plea in full." (The U.S. has previously said it will seek the death penalty in each of their cases.)
Meanwhile, in a much less reported development, the military has withdrawn a government witness in the case against another Gitmo detainee, Omar Khadr, the Canadian accused of killing a U.S. soldier when Khadr was 15 years old.
According the Khadr's lawyer, the witness was to testify that Khadr made a self-incriminating statement during an interrogation in December 2004. But according to the defense lawyer, the government decided to withdraw their witness because that confession was made through coercion.
Judge: 'To allow enemy combatancy to rest on so thin a reed would be inconsistent with this court's obligation.'
WASHINGTON - A federal judge on Thursday ordered the release of five Algerians held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the continued detention of a sixth in a major blow to the Bush administration's strategy to keep terror suspects locked up without charges.
In the first case of its kind, U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon said the government's evidence linking the five Algerians to al-Qaida was not credible as it came from a single, unidentified source. Therefore, he said, the five could not be held indefinitely as enemy combatants, and should be released immediately.
"To allow enemy combatancy to rest on so thin a reed would be inconsistent with this court's obligation," Leon told the crowded courtroom.
As a result, he said, "the court must and will grant their petitions and order their release."
As for the sixth Algerian, Belkacem Bensayah, Leon said there was enough reason to believe he was close to an al-Qaida operative and had sought to help others travel to Afghanistan to join the terrorists' fight against the United States and its allies.
Leon also urged senior Justice Department leaders and high-level officials at other government agencies involved in the case not to appeal his ruling. The Justice Department said later Thursday it had not decided whether it would.
Leon said the five Algerians already have been improperly held for seven years and deserve to go home. He said an appeal could delay their release for up to another two years.
SANAA, Yemen - Attorneys for dozens of Yemenis held at Guantanamo Bay say that the prisoners range from "high-value" terrorism suspects to people who were mistakenly arrested, and they include a number who apparently were jailed because they're related to other suspects.
....
For example, there's Mohammed Ahmed Salam al Khateeb, in his 20s, who traveled from Yemen to Pakistan on the advice of doctors to have a growth in his nose removed, according to court documents. U.S. officials charge that his trip was funded by Jamaat al Tabligh - a Pakistani-based Muslim missionary organization that militants sometimes have used as a cover - but Khateeb denied that at a status hearing in 2004.
Others include Salman Rabeii, who was arrested in Afghanistan shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks. Rabeii told a military tribunal in 2004 that he'd turned himself in to Afghan authorities because he wanted to return to Yemen, and he denied that he'd attended a training camp that was associated with al Qaida.
Rabeii's parents, who live on the outskirts of Sanaa, told McClatchy that their youngest child continued to be held because his older brother, Fawaz, had been connected with terrorist attacks in Yemen. Fawaz was among 23 high-profile Yemeni terrorism suspects who escaped from a Yemeni prison in 2006; security forces killed him later that year.
"Fawaz was tied with bin Laden, but Salman had nothing to do with bin Laden," said his mother, Um Hasan. Her husband and two other sons also have served jail time in Yemen, when authorities questioned them about Fawaz, she said.
Two other Guantanamo inmates have brothers who escaped from prison in Yemen in 2006, according to experts, which may complicate their release in Yemen.
"There are a lot of family linkages," said Gregory Johnsen, an expert on Yemen who's researched for the Jamestown Foundation and other counterterrorism organizations. "It's not clear how they'll fit back into Yemen if they're released."
According to a new Human Rights Center/Center for Constitutional Rights report, former prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay and released without charge went home with "psychological and emotional problems" and found themselves "stigmatized and shunned" and viewed either as terrorists or U.S. spies. In a forward to the report, former DC appeals court judge Patricia Wald compared the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody to the treatment Bosnian Muslims received at the hands of their Serbian captors:
The officials and guards in charge of those prison camps and the civilian leaders who sanctioned their establishment were prosecuted - often by former U.S. government and military lawyers serving with the tribunal - for war crimes, crimes against humanity and, in extreme cases, genocide.
Last June, Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba (ret.), the Army general who led the investigation into prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, also accused the Bush administration of committing "war crimes" and called for those responsible to be held to account.
The Pentagon has sent two more Guantánamo detainees home to Algeria, reducing the prison camps' population to about 250.
The latest transfer, announced on Monday, has been part of a steady series of departures from the controversial prison camps in southeast Cuba as the Bush administration winds down.
A filing in federal court listed one of the two men repatriated to his homeland as Soufian Huwari, 38. The other has not yet been identified.
Defense Department documents indicate that Huwari was sent to Guantánamo in May 2003 and had traveled through Europe and joined Chechen fighters in the Republic of Georgia before his capture.
The transfer comes at a time of much debate over the future of the Pentagon's showcase detention center.
The American Civil Liberties Union is urging President-elect Barack Obama to issue an executive order halting the military commissions there and ordering the camps' closure on his inauguration day.
The Obama transition team's spokeswoman, Stephanie Cutter, replied that no decision would be made without first ``conferring with congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle, as well as interested groups.''
Cutter's statement did not appear to rule out pre-inauguration deliberations, however, noting that ``any decisions would need to be discussed with his Cabinet nominees, none of whom have been selected yet.''
The plan would face opposition from Republicans who oppose bringing terrorism suspects to the US and from Democrats who oppose creating a new court system with fewer rights for detainees.
WASHINGTON - President-elect Obama's advisers are quietly crafting a proposal to ship dozens, if not hundreds, of imprisoned terrorism suspects to the United States to face criminal trials, a plan that would make good on his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison but could require creation of a controversial new system of justice.
During his campaign, Obama described Guantanamo as a "sad chapter in American history" and has said generally that the U.S. legal system is equipped to handle the detainees. But he has offered few details on what he planned to do once the facility is closed.
Under plans being put together in Obama's camp, some detainees would be released and many others would be prosecuted in U.S. criminal courts.
A third group of detainees _ the ones whose cases are most entangled in highly classified information _ might have to go before a new court designed especially to handle sensitive national security cases, according to advisers and Democrats involved in the talks. Advisers participating directly in the planning spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans aren't final.
The move would be a sharp deviation from the Bush administration, which established military tribunals to prosecute detainees at the Navy base in Cuba and strongly opposes bringing prisoners to the United States. Obama's Republican challenger, John McCain, had also pledged to close Guantanamo. But McCain opposed criminal trials, saying the Bush administration's tribunals should continue on U.S. soil.
The plan being developed by Obama's team has been championed by legal scholars from both political parties. But it is almost certain to face opposition from Republicans who oppose bringing terrorism suspects to the U.S. and from Democrats who oppose creating a new court system with fewer rights for detainees.
Laurence Tribe, a Harvard law professor and Obama legal adviser, said discussions about plans for Guantanamo had been "theoretical" before the election but would quickly become very focused because closing the prison is a top priority. Bringing the detainees to the United States will be controversial, he said, but could be accomplished.
"I think the answer is going to be, they can be as securely guarded on U.S. soil as anywhere else," Tribe said. "We can't put people in a dungeon forever without processing whether they deserve to be there."
According to the Republicans the people at Guantanamo are not subject to the Geneva Conventions because they are "unlawful combatants" not engaged in "war" as defined by the conventions. But now they are being "tried" for "war crimes."
Isn't this having it both ways? Either they are or are not.
Obviously, the US government has appropriated the phrase "war crimes" for propaganda value, thus undermining its moral value in describing anything that may actually be a war crime-which is probably just fine for war criminals like Dick Cheney and George Bush.
The war crimes in question however, are not those as defined in the Geneva Conventions but those as defined by the US Congress in a bill it passed in 2006, taylor made for the current military action in Afghanistan. The media will probably forget to make the distinction between the real war crimes of the Geneva Conventions and the ones that Congress whomped up in 2006.
