Another Gitmo Story
After I posted on the death of Abdul Razzaq Hekmati, I received a very gracious thank-you email from Andy Worthington, the co-author of the NY Times article to which I linked. He invited me over to his website to check out some of the other stories about the Guantanamo Bay detainees. I did so, and was both impressed and depressed by the various posts. One in particular caught my attention because it had to do with Sami al-Haj, the al-Jazeera journalist being held in Guantanamo Bay.
Andy links to this article by Meg Laughlin in the February3, 2008 St. Petersburg Times. Reading this article is like taking a punch to the gut.
After his arrest, Amnesty International documents and Sami's London lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, give this narrative of what happened next.
Al-Haj was taken to the U.S. military base in Bagram, near Kabul, and then to a prison in Kandahar. At first, he was held in freezing temperatures in a cage in a dark airplane hangar. Dogs attacked him, and he was fed tiny portions of frozen food. Then, in Kandahar, U.S. soldiers threatened him with sodomy, forced him to kneel on concrete floors for hours and plucked out every hair in his beard, one by one.
In June 2002, he arrived at Guantanamo in shackles, an orange jumpsuit, a hood, goggles and earphones. He was put in an isolation cell and labeled "Prisoner 345." Two years later, he would first learn the charges against him - that there were "inconsistencies in his travel documents" having to do with a passport he'd reported lost years before, that he'd "traveled extensively through the Middle East, Balkans and USSR" and that he was peddling Stinger missiles between Afghanistan and Chechnya. These charges were dropped by 2005. But new ones appeared, only to be dropped by 2006.
The latest charges from his November 2007 Administrative Review center on his job as an al-Jazeera journalist in Afghanistan in 2001 after Sept. 11 and numerous trips to Azerbaijan between 1996 and 1999 to deliver over $100,000 to the charity al-Haramayn, which was shut down in 2004 because of suspicions of terrorist links. The military review says: "He went to work for al-Jazeera, learning to operate a video camera." It also says that between 1996 and 1999 he "assisted with three shipments of humanitarian goods to Baku, Azerbaijan." And it said: "A former head of (the charity) al-Haramayn had connections with al-Qaida."
Al-Haj's London attorney wondered about the charges: "What does working for a legitimate television station have to do with a 'commitment to terrorism?'"
And the lawyer adds that al-Haramayn was a legal charity in U.S. eyes until May 6, 2004. "That's two years, five months and 22 days after Mr. al-Haj was incarcerated."
Al-Haj is one of the detainees who is on a hunger strike, and currently is in bad condition. Andy does note that there have been several unverified reports that al-Haj is finally going to be released, which would indeed be good news.
One of the things that has always puzzled me about al-Haj's detention is that it has gotten so very little notice by the US press. One would think that journalists would be outraged that one of their own is being treated so despicably, but, apparently, one would be wrong. Ms. Laughlin is one of the few reporters who has bothered to put together a coherent account of his arrest, torture, and continuing detention under a series of bogus charges to justify the detention. For that she is to be commended.
Something else, however, puzzles me. Why have the candidates been allowed to remain silent on the issue of Guantanamo Bay and all that it stands for? Sadly, Mr. al-Haj's story is not unique. How many violations of basic human rights are tolerable? If all of the candidates are so big into "change," perhaps this is one area they might consider doing something about.
Andy links to this article by Meg Laughlin in the February3, 2008 St. Petersburg Times. Reading this article is like taking a punch to the gut.
After his arrest, Amnesty International documents and Sami's London lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, give this narrative of what happened next.
Al-Haj was taken to the U.S. military base in Bagram, near Kabul, and then to a prison in Kandahar. At first, he was held in freezing temperatures in a cage in a dark airplane hangar. Dogs attacked him, and he was fed tiny portions of frozen food. Then, in Kandahar, U.S. soldiers threatened him with sodomy, forced him to kneel on concrete floors for hours and plucked out every hair in his beard, one by one.
In June 2002, he arrived at Guantanamo in shackles, an orange jumpsuit, a hood, goggles and earphones. He was put in an isolation cell and labeled "Prisoner 345." Two years later, he would first learn the charges against him - that there were "inconsistencies in his travel documents" having to do with a passport he'd reported lost years before, that he'd "traveled extensively through the Middle East, Balkans and USSR" and that he was peddling Stinger missiles between Afghanistan and Chechnya. These charges were dropped by 2005. But new ones appeared, only to be dropped by 2006.
The latest charges from his November 2007 Administrative Review center on his job as an al-Jazeera journalist in Afghanistan in 2001 after Sept. 11 and numerous trips to Azerbaijan between 1996 and 1999 to deliver over $100,000 to the charity al-Haramayn, which was shut down in 2004 because of suspicions of terrorist links. The military review says: "He went to work for al-Jazeera, learning to operate a video camera." It also says that between 1996 and 1999 he "assisted with three shipments of humanitarian goods to Baku, Azerbaijan." And it said: "A former head of (the charity) al-Haramayn had connections with al-Qaida."
Al-Haj's London attorney wondered about the charges: "What does working for a legitimate television station have to do with a 'commitment to terrorism?'"
And the lawyer adds that al-Haramayn was a legal charity in U.S. eyes until May 6, 2004. "That's two years, five months and 22 days after Mr. al-Haj was incarcerated."
Al-Haj is one of the detainees who is on a hunger strike, and currently is in bad condition. Andy does note that there have been several unverified reports that al-Haj is finally going to be released, which would indeed be good news.
One of the things that has always puzzled me about al-Haj's detention is that it has gotten so very little notice by the US press. One would think that journalists would be outraged that one of their own is being treated so despicably, but, apparently, one would be wrong. Ms. Laughlin is one of the few reporters who has bothered to put together a coherent account of his arrest, torture, and continuing detention under a series of bogus charges to justify the detention. For that she is to be commended.
Something else, however, puzzles me. Why have the candidates been allowed to remain silent on the issue of Guantanamo Bay and all that it stands for? Sadly, Mr. al-Haj's story is not unique. How many violations of basic human rights are tolerable? If all of the candidates are so big into "change," perhaps this is one area they might consider doing something about.
Labels: Guantanamo Bay, Human Rights, Torture
posted by Diane at 3:23 AM
3 Comments:
Andy Worthington has just had his wrist slapped in the NY Times for - gasp! - having an opinion about Guantanamo.
Mr. Worthington has written a book, “The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison,” in which he takes the position that Guantánamo is part of what he describes as a cruel and misguided response by the Bush administration to the Sept. 11 attacks. He has also expressed strong criticism of Guantánamo in articles published elsewhere.
The editors were not aware of Mr. Worthington’s outspoken position on Guantánamo. They should have described his contribution to the reporting instead of listing him as co-author, and noted that he had a point of view.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/07/pageoneplus/corrections.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=worthington&st=nyt&oref=slogin
Heh, too late, NYT!
For a change it worked in our favor. I can just imagine the WH memo that got faxed over to Punch over this.
Thanks for blogging on this and the link to Andy Worthington's site. What a resource that place is.
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