(This statement was seasoned by the Peace & Justice Committee and approved by Oak Park Friends Meeting on March 13, 2011.)
Say NO to Torture, Indefinite Detention, and Military Tribunals!
In 2002, under former U.S. President Bush an illegal and immoral prison was established on Guantánamo Bay, an area on the southeastern shore of Cuba which the U.S. has leased and controlled since 1903, but which is not under the sovereign jurisdiction of the United States. President Obama initially promised to close the prison camps at Guantánamo Bay, but in December 2010 the U.S. Congress passed a bill (which President Obama signed into law on January 7, 2011) that bans the trials Attorney General Eric Holder requested, forbids the Pentagon from transferring any of the Guantánamo Bay prisoners to the United States for any other purpose other than standing trial, blocks Defense Department spending on the building of domestic prisons for detainees, and imposes sharp limitations on the ability of the government to transfer the detainees to other countries. This has effectively hobbled the Obama Administration’s original plan for trials, transfer and/or release of the men held at Guantánamo Bay prison camps. President Obama’s team is now working on a plan that includes military tribunals or indefinite detention for the remaining 172 prisoners.
As American Friends (Quakers), it is important that we publically take a stand against the illegal, immoral, and politically ill-advised detainment of "enemy combatants" at Guantánamo Bay. We must insist that our government either try these people or release them. Please follow your conscience and start writing letters asking for action to correct the past wrongs.
To help you come to clarity on the issues for yourself, I have prepared a summary of the history of Guantánamo Bay Prison and relevant legal, moral, and political issues. And, I’ve included some recommended actions you can take at the end of this summary.
History
The U.S. has leased Guantánamo Bay since 1903 per terms of the Cuban-American Treaty. This treaty gave the Republic of Cuba ultimate sovereignty over Guantánamo Bay while granting the United States "complete jurisdiction and control" of the area for coaling and naval stations. From the 1970s through the 1990s the U.S. government used the area for detaining Cuban and Haitian refugees, but since the "war on terror" was declared it has been used to detain, without trial, suspected terrorists.
In January 2002 twenty men, who were detained in 2001 in Afghanistan on suspicion of belonging to Al-Qaeda, became the first inmates of a new military prison on the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base. Eventually 775 prisoners of various nationalities were transferred to the site. Most have since been released or handed over to their national governments. However, as of December 24, 2010 there remained 174 detainees. [Note: In January 2011 Saiid Farhi was transferred to Algeria. On February 2, 2011 it was announced that Awal Gul, a detainee of nine years, dropped dead, the 7th detainee to do so while imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay.]
The detention of enemy combatants by the U.S. military at Guantánamo Bay is legally, morally, and politically problematic. Among the problems are issues about the legality of such detention, issues about the morality of the prisoner’s treatment, and issues about the politics, and role in prolonging war, such detainment entails.
Legal Issues
The legal issues are complex and constantly evolving. The crux of the matter is that the U.S. captured and imprisoned these men and held them for years without due process of law. The core element of due process of law is the requirement that if individuals are taken into custody by the Government, then within some reasonable time, they will be advised of the crimes of which they are accused, they will be charged with those crimes, and they will be prosecuted.
Thus, many people have argued that the detention at Guantánamo Bay is illegal because it specifically violates Article VI clause 2, Amendment V, and Amendment VI of the Constitution of the United States of America. Article VI Clause 2 of the Constitution of the United States of America reads in part, "This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land." Amendment V reads in part, "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, ... nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." Amendment VI reads in part, "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, ... and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; ... and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence."
Ex-President George W. Bush, former Attorney Generals John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales, along with former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, took the position that no such legal requirements attach to individuals declared "enemy combatants." Lawyers from the ACLU have initiated lawsuits, many of which were eventually tried before the Supreme Court. Here are the important cases and decisions.
The first Supreme Court decisions came in 2004. In Hamdi v Rumsfeld, Hamdi was a Saudi national born in the U.S. who also held U.S citizenship, and the legal question was whether U.S. citizens could be held as enemy combatants. The Court sustained the government’s right to hold United States citizens as enemy combatants without criminal charges when they had been seized on the battlefield participating in active hostilities. However, it also maintained Hamdi was entitled to some elements of due process, namely the right to challenge his detention before an impartial judge. In Rasul v Bush the question was whether the U.S. court system has the authority to decide whether foreign nationals (non-U.S. citizens) held in Guantánamo Bay were wrongfully imprisoned. The Supreme Court ruled it did have the authority to decide.
In 2006 Hamdan v. Rumsfeld the Supreme Court of the United States held that military commissions set up by the Bush administration to try detainees at Guantánamo Bay lack "the power to proceed because its structures and procedures violate both the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the four Geneva Conventions signed in 1949."
In 2008 Boumediene v. Bush the issues were:
1. Whether foreign nationals had the right to submit writs of habeas corpus (a summons demanding that a prisoner be taken before the court and that the custodian present proof of authority, allowing the court to determine if the custodian has lawful authority to detain the person)
2. Whether the Military Commissions Act (MCA) of 2006, which eliminates federal courts' jurisdiction to hear habeas applications from detainees who have been designated enemy combatants, was constitutional.
The United States Supreme Court ruled that the Guantánamo Bay captives were entitled to the protection of the United States Constitution (i.e., they have the right to petition for habeas corpus) and that the MCA was an unconstitutional suspension of that right.
Thus after six years of lawsuits it has been legally determined that the detainees in prison camps at Guantánamo Bay must be either tried or released. These legal precedents ought to ensure that similar enemy combatant detentions do not happen again. The first trials of detainees in civilian courts began in August 2010.
However, Congress has now banned remaining trials. That is, Congress has enacted a ban on trials which the Supreme Court has already ruled were required by law! We must write to our Congressmen and tell them that we do not agree with their ban.
Moral Issues
The moral issues are also many and varied. There have been allegations of torture against these detainees. Better documented are the allegations of poor treatment resulting in ill health and long term psychological problems. In some cases this has led to suicide. There are also allegations of human rights abuses. Although conditions have improved over the years, there are still violations going on.
Allegations of torture at Guantánamo Bay prison are difficult to document because of the limited access human rights monitors such as the International Red Cross or Human Rights Watch have been granted. Furthermore detainees, at least in the early years, were largely kept incommunicado. What constitutes torture is also differently defined. However, there are certain human rights abuses we do know.
The initial prison was called Camp X-ray, an open-to-the-elements barb wired enclosure. All detainees held there suffered physical discomfort and problems from exposure. We know this because the Pentagon has released pictures showing the detainees kneeling and subjected to sensory deprivation. They are seen handcuffed, wearing goggles, ear muffs, surgical masks and heavy gloves. Instead of toilets they had to use buckets.
After three months, due to international pressure, Camp X-ray was replaced by Camp Delta. As Camp Delta developed, it came to have five camps/levels of security/permissions. In addition there is Camp Iguana, built for the detention of under 16-year-olds, and Camp 7, information about which is classified. Thus abuses are different depending on the camp. The prisoners who are compliant and accept that the US needs to be holding them prisoners have the most privileges including watching satellite T.V., spending four hours a day outside, and gardening. On the other hand there are 15-20 men staying on year-long hunger strikes, being forced fed to keep them alive with no privileges.
The people held in Guantánamo Bay are human beings and deserve being treated humanely. Oak Park Friends Meeting recently joined with the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) in denouncing torture. We must follow through on this support and tell our legislators that we know torture occurred at Guantánamo Bay, and we strenuously request they establish an official, open commission of inquiry.
Political Issues
The illegal and immoral detention at Guantánamo Bay is politically bad for the United States. It undermines our claim to promote democracy in the world. Other nations see us flouting our own values and laws and rightfully call us hypocrites.
Guantánamo Bay feeds terrorism; it does not stop it. Some studies have shown that 25% of the people who have been released from Guantánamo Bay have subsequently participated in some kind of anti-U.S. activity (although this figure has been disputed). Some people argue this means we need to keep the remaining prisoners; however, I argue this statistic confirms what we already know: the best way to make a terrorist is to capture, hold and torture a person in the name of anti-terrorism.
Friends’ Testimonies
The SPICE of Quaker life includes the testimonies of Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, and Equality. All of these testimonies lead us to speak out against the U.S. Government’s detention of men in prison camps at Guantánamo Bay. For example, the legal play by former government officials and lawyers to create a veneer of legality is not Simple. Our Peace testimony tells us to work to take “away the occasion of all wars;” sadly, the history of detention at Guantánamo Bay will be used to justify more attacks against the United States. We must speak truth to power, and expose the dishonesty of those who are establishing a policy of indefinite detention. In the Community of human beings, all of us deserve Equal access to justice.
Suggested Actions
Call and/or write your representatives in Congress and tell them that you believe the U.S. should not indefinitely detain anyone, and that the remaining prisoners at the Guantánamo Bay Prison Camps should be publicly tried in civilian courts or released immediately.
Call or Write Attorney General Eric Holder and request that the U.S. prosecute "the Bush Six"
former US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
former Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee
former lawyer in the Office of Legal Counsel (an office in the United States Department of Justice) John Yoo
former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith
former general counsel for the Department of Defense William Haynes II
former Chief of Staff to the Vice President of the United States (under Dick Cheney) David Addington
These are the former senior administration legal advisors who violated international law by creating a legal framework that materially contributed to the torture of suspected terrorists at US-run facilities at Guantánamo and other overseas locations. [Note: Spain has already established a legal framework for the prosecution of government lawyers -– a prosecution that last took place during the Nuremberg trials, when Nazi lawyers who provided cover for the Third Reich's war crimes were held accountable for their complicity — and plans to try these men. Spain has asked Holder to hand them over.]
Call or write your representative in the U.S. House and your senators in the US Senate to request that they establish an official, open commission of inquiry to investigate claims of torture and abuse at Guantánamo Bay. (This is an idea suggested by NRCAT.)
Write President Obama to express your concerns about CIA Director Panetta’s recent statement (that if Osama bin Laden or his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri were captured, they would be transferred to the prison at Guantanamo Bay – the first prisoners to be transferred there since President Obama took office) and remind him of the importance of closing Guantanamo. (This is also an idea suggested by NRCAT.)
Write a letter to a prisoner at Guantánamo Bay and let him know there are citizens of the U.S. concerned about his detention. (This is a campaign in the UK Newspaper The Guardian).
----------------------------
Kelly Maynard
Clerk, Peace & Justice Committee
Oak Park Friends Meeting
March 6th, 2011
Say NO to Torture, Indefinite Detention, and Military Tribunals!
In 2002, under former U.S. President Bush an illegal and immoral prison was established on Guantánamo Bay, an area on the southeastern shore of Cuba which the U.S. has leased and controlled since 1903, but which is not under the sovereign jurisdiction of the United States. President Obama initially promised to close the prison camps at Guantánamo Bay, but in December 2010 the U.S. Congress passed a bill (which President Obama signed into law on January 7, 2011) that bans the trials Attorney General Eric Holder requested, forbids the Pentagon from transferring any of the Guantánamo Bay prisoners to the United States for any other purpose other than standing trial, blocks Defense Department spending on the building of domestic prisons for detainees, and imposes sharp limitations on the ability of the government to transfer the detainees to other countries. This has effectively hobbled the Obama Administration’s original plan for trials, transfer and/or release of the men held at Guantánamo Bay prison camps. President Obama’s team is now working on a plan that includes military tribunals or indefinite detention for the remaining 172 prisoners.
As American Friends (Quakers), it is important that we publically take a stand against the illegal, immoral, and politically ill-advised detainment of "enemy combatants" at Guantánamo Bay. We must insist that our government either try these people or release them. Please follow your conscience and start writing letters asking for action to correct the past wrongs.
To help you come to clarity on the issues for yourself, I have prepared a summary of the history of Guantánamo Bay Prison and relevant legal, moral, and political issues. And, I’ve included some recommended actions you can take at the end of this summary.
History
The U.S. has leased Guantánamo Bay since 1903 per terms of the Cuban-American Treaty. This treaty gave the Republic of Cuba ultimate sovereignty over Guantánamo Bay while granting the United States "complete jurisdiction and control" of the area for coaling and naval stations. From the 1970s through the 1990s the U.S. government used the area for detaining Cuban and Haitian refugees, but since the "war on terror" was declared it has been used to detain, without trial, suspected terrorists.
In January 2002 twenty men, who were detained in 2001 in Afghanistan on suspicion of belonging to Al-Qaeda, became the first inmates of a new military prison on the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base. Eventually 775 prisoners of various nationalities were transferred to the site. Most have since been released or handed over to their national governments. However, as of December 24, 2010 there remained 174 detainees. [Note: In January 2011 Saiid Farhi was transferred to Algeria. On February 2, 2011 it was announced that Awal Gul, a detainee of nine years, dropped dead, the 7th detainee to do so while imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay.]
The detention of enemy combatants by the U.S. military at Guantánamo Bay is legally, morally, and politically problematic. Among the problems are issues about the legality of such detention, issues about the morality of the prisoner’s treatment, and issues about the politics, and role in prolonging war, such detainment entails.
Legal Issues
The legal issues are complex and constantly evolving. The crux of the matter is that the U.S. captured and imprisoned these men and held them for years without due process of law. The core element of due process of law is the requirement that if individuals are taken into custody by the Government, then within some reasonable time, they will be advised of the crimes of which they are accused, they will be charged with those crimes, and they will be prosecuted.
Thus, many people have argued that the detention at Guantánamo Bay is illegal because it specifically violates Article VI clause 2, Amendment V, and Amendment VI of the Constitution of the United States of America. Article VI Clause 2 of the Constitution of the United States of America reads in part, "This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land." Amendment V reads in part, "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, ... nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." Amendment VI reads in part, "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, ... and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; ... and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence."
Ex-President George W. Bush, former Attorney Generals John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales, along with former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, took the position that no such legal requirements attach to individuals declared "enemy combatants." Lawyers from the ACLU have initiated lawsuits, many of which were eventually tried before the Supreme Court. Here are the important cases and decisions.
The first Supreme Court decisions came in 2004. In Hamdi v Rumsfeld, Hamdi was a Saudi national born in the U.S. who also held U.S citizenship, and the legal question was whether U.S. citizens could be held as enemy combatants. The Court sustained the government’s right to hold United States citizens as enemy combatants without criminal charges when they had been seized on the battlefield participating in active hostilities. However, it also maintained Hamdi was entitled to some elements of due process, namely the right to challenge his detention before an impartial judge. In Rasul v Bush the question was whether the U.S. court system has the authority to decide whether foreign nationals (non-U.S. citizens) held in Guantánamo Bay were wrongfully imprisoned. The Supreme Court ruled it did have the authority to decide.
In 2006 Hamdan v. Rumsfeld the Supreme Court of the United States held that military commissions set up by the Bush administration to try detainees at Guantánamo Bay lack "the power to proceed because its structures and procedures violate both the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the four Geneva Conventions signed in 1949."
In 2008 Boumediene v. Bush the issues were:
1. Whether foreign nationals had the right to submit writs of habeas corpus (a summons demanding that a prisoner be taken before the court and that the custodian present proof of authority, allowing the court to determine if the custodian has lawful authority to detain the person)
2. Whether the Military Commissions Act (MCA) of 2006, which eliminates federal courts' jurisdiction to hear habeas applications from detainees who have been designated enemy combatants, was constitutional.
The United States Supreme Court ruled that the Guantánamo Bay captives were entitled to the protection of the United States Constitution (i.e., they have the right to petition for habeas corpus) and that the MCA was an unconstitutional suspension of that right.
Thus after six years of lawsuits it has been legally determined that the detainees in prison camps at Guantánamo Bay must be either tried or released. These legal precedents ought to ensure that similar enemy combatant detentions do not happen again. The first trials of detainees in civilian courts began in August 2010.
However, Congress has now banned remaining trials. That is, Congress has enacted a ban on trials which the Supreme Court has already ruled were required by law! We must write to our Congressmen and tell them that we do not agree with their ban.
Moral Issues
The moral issues are also many and varied. There have been allegations of torture against these detainees. Better documented are the allegations of poor treatment resulting in ill health and long term psychological problems. In some cases this has led to suicide. There are also allegations of human rights abuses. Although conditions have improved over the years, there are still violations going on.
Allegations of torture at Guantánamo Bay prison are difficult to document because of the limited access human rights monitors such as the International Red Cross or Human Rights Watch have been granted. Furthermore detainees, at least in the early years, were largely kept incommunicado. What constitutes torture is also differently defined. However, there are certain human rights abuses we do know.
The initial prison was called Camp X-ray, an open-to-the-elements barb wired enclosure. All detainees held there suffered physical discomfort and problems from exposure. We know this because the Pentagon has released pictures showing the detainees kneeling and subjected to sensory deprivation. They are seen handcuffed, wearing goggles, ear muffs, surgical masks and heavy gloves. Instead of toilets they had to use buckets.
After three months, due to international pressure, Camp X-ray was replaced by Camp Delta. As Camp Delta developed, it came to have five camps/levels of security/permissions. In addition there is Camp Iguana, built for the detention of under 16-year-olds, and Camp 7, information about which is classified. Thus abuses are different depending on the camp. The prisoners who are compliant and accept that the US needs to be holding them prisoners have the most privileges including watching satellite T.V., spending four hours a day outside, and gardening. On the other hand there are 15-20 men staying on year-long hunger strikes, being forced fed to keep them alive with no privileges.
The people held in Guantánamo Bay are human beings and deserve being treated humanely. Oak Park Friends Meeting recently joined with the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) in denouncing torture. We must follow through on this support and tell our legislators that we know torture occurred at Guantánamo Bay, and we strenuously request they establish an official, open commission of inquiry.
Political Issues
The illegal and immoral detention at Guantánamo Bay is politically bad for the United States. It undermines our claim to promote democracy in the world. Other nations see us flouting our own values and laws and rightfully call us hypocrites.
Guantánamo Bay feeds terrorism; it does not stop it. Some studies have shown that 25% of the people who have been released from Guantánamo Bay have subsequently participated in some kind of anti-U.S. activity (although this figure has been disputed). Some people argue this means we need to keep the remaining prisoners; however, I argue this statistic confirms what we already know: the best way to make a terrorist is to capture, hold and torture a person in the name of anti-terrorism.
Friends’ Testimonies
The SPICE of Quaker life includes the testimonies of Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, and Equality. All of these testimonies lead us to speak out against the U.S. Government’s detention of men in prison camps at Guantánamo Bay. For example, the legal play by former government officials and lawyers to create a veneer of legality is not Simple. Our Peace testimony tells us to work to take “away the occasion of all wars;” sadly, the history of detention at Guantánamo Bay will be used to justify more attacks against the United States. We must speak truth to power, and expose the dishonesty of those who are establishing a policy of indefinite detention. In the Community of human beings, all of us deserve Equal access to justice.
Suggested Actions
Call and/or write your representatives in Congress and tell them that you believe the U.S. should not indefinitely detain anyone, and that the remaining prisoners at the Guantánamo Bay Prison Camps should be publicly tried in civilian courts or released immediately.
Call or Write Attorney General Eric Holder and request that the U.S. prosecute "the Bush Six"
former US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
former Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee
former lawyer in the Office of Legal Counsel (an office in the United States Department of Justice) John Yoo
former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith
former general counsel for the Department of Defense William Haynes II
former Chief of Staff to the Vice President of the United States (under Dick Cheney) David Addington
These are the former senior administration legal advisors who violated international law by creating a legal framework that materially contributed to the torture of suspected terrorists at US-run facilities at Guantánamo and other overseas locations. [Note: Spain has already established a legal framework for the prosecution of government lawyers -– a prosecution that last took place during the Nuremberg trials, when Nazi lawyers who provided cover for the Third Reich's war crimes were held accountable for their complicity — and plans to try these men. Spain has asked Holder to hand them over.]
Call or write your representative in the U.S. House and your senators in the US Senate to request that they establish an official, open commission of inquiry to investigate claims of torture and abuse at Guantánamo Bay. (This is an idea suggested by NRCAT.)
Write President Obama to express your concerns about CIA Director Panetta’s recent statement (that if Osama bin Laden or his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri were captured, they would be transferred to the prison at Guantanamo Bay – the first prisoners to be transferred there since President Obama took office) and remind him of the importance of closing Guantanamo. (This is also an idea suggested by NRCAT.)
Write a letter to a prisoner at Guantánamo Bay and let him know there are citizens of the U.S. concerned about his detention. (This is a campaign in the UK Newspaper The Guardian).
----------------------------
Kelly Maynard
Clerk, Peace & Justice Committee
Oak Park Friends Meeting
March 6th, 2011
