We Tortured Some Folks Too: event report

By Aisha Maniar

 

On 8 December, the London Guantánamo Campaign held a public meeting in cooperation with the Centre for Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London, to mark the anniversary of the publication of the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report (Torture Report) into the CIA’s use of torture under the extraordinary rendition programme. A heavily redacted 500-page summary of the full 6700 page report was published on 9 December 2014. The report took 5 years to compile, details 119 cases from 2002 to 2009 and cost $40 million to produce. Although since then no more of the report has been made public and there have been no prosecutions in the USA, the report has provided confirmation and shed further light of some of the worst forms of physical, sexual and psychological torture carried out by the CIA this century.

Given its international expanse the programme would have been impossible without the collusion of at least 54 other states, as detailed in a 2013 report by the Open Society Foundations, including the United Kingdom. According to this report (the 2014 Torture Report does not name any countries): “The U.K. government assisted in the extraordinary rendition of individuals, gave the CIA intelligence that led to the extraordinary rendition of individuals, interrogated individuals who were later secretly detained and extraordinarily rendered, submitted questions for interrogation of individuals who were secretly detained and extraordinarily rendered, and permitted use of its airspace and airports for flights associated with extraordinary rendition operations.” There are at least two ongoing prosecutions related to information in the Torture Report.

The meeting focused on torture as a practice, rather than as a policy, the needs of survivors and how it is that the UK has become involved in such practices many times. Indeed, in the same time period, Britain was also involved in the torture and abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan, and claims have come to light concerning earlier abuses in Northern Ireland, Kenya and Malaya.

Dr Juliet Cohen, Head of Doctors at Freedom From Torture which is celebrating 30 years of rehabilitating torture survivors this year, spoke first about the devastating impact torture has on the individual affected. She defined torture as per the UN Convention against Torture, which both the UK and US are signatories to: “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.”

 

Dr Cohen outlined one such case from Sri Lanka, of the many she has documented, involving physical and sexual torture by the police, which made the male victim afraid to seek to medical help for rectal bleeding, impotence, anxiety and difficulty eating and sleeping as a result and being afraid to share his experiences as well as triggering difficult memories for him when encountering objects or sounds that reminded him of his imprisonment. She described shame and degradation as the most pervasive of the negative emotions experienced by survivors. The very fact that torture is always carried out law enforcement personnel - overwhelmingly the police and military - means that justice is often a closed door. 

Nonetheless, it is important to hold perpetrators of such crimes to account and have prevention mechanisms in place to reduce the occurrence of such practices. Even so, survivors face challenges in accessing healthcare for treatment and psychiatric support can be difficult to get.

Dr Cohen noted two particular areas where the UK is failing in its responsibilities with respect to torture: the ongoing detention of torture survivors seeking asylum in immigration detention facilities, where they cannot access the specialists who can provide medical proof of their claims to support asylum applications, the ongoing distress caused by this administrative detention as well as the failure to protect torture survivors through the application of Rule 35 which provides that such vulnerable people should only be detained under exceptional circumstances.  The other failing is the UK’s evasion of responsibility for torture collusion by seeking to prevent cases going to court, such as the current case being heard by the Supreme Court of Libyan dissident Abdel Hakim Belhaj. Britain is preventing both individual accountability of those involved as well as criminal accountability. She stated that the impact of torture is devastating and those responsible must be held to account.

Ben Griffin, coordinator of Veterans for Peace UK, spoke of his experiences in the British army. Following 9/11, there was a change in attitude within the military. Using the analogy of the Nazi concentration camps during World War II, he explained the process of how it is a person comes to be tortured during war. There is a process of people being arrest, transported, starved, humiliated, until they are eventually tortured – looking far more haggled and different to the person who was arrested – and sometimes killed. The torturer doesn’t see the person taken from their home: he or she sees the dehumanised shell: the person who has been starved, had their hair shaved, deprived of sleep, etc. Furthermore, the process is broken down; it is compartmentalised, so that those involved are only involved in one part of the process, such as that he was involved in, in Iraq, of arresting alleged insurgents. Creating a suspect profile also helps to dehumanise those who are suspected of fitting it. 

Prisoners in Iraq, where Griffin served until he left the army in 2005, were often held by the British military in completely degrading situations. For example, at Camp Nama, prisoners were held in dog kennels under the heat of the sun. This compartmentalisation of the brutal treatment meted out to prisoners makes it easier to evade responsibility for it. 

In addition, soldiers are indoctrinated to act brutally. This has increased in training methods since World War II, worldwide. Griffin called on people to celebrate acts of resistance by soldiers to the dominant narrative of violence being the solution.

Questions and comments were raised about accountability, the need for a judge-led inquiry in the UK and the inhumane treatment of terrorism suspects under house arrest in the UK.

 Not avoiding the legal issues, Aisha Maniar, LGC organiser, has produced the following brief summary of outstanding torture claims against the British government and the progress that has been made over the past year:

https://onesmallwindow.wordpress.com/2015/12/08/we-tortured-some-folks-too/

Although the Torture Report was a big news story at the end of 2014, its anniversary has been ignored by the media. Nonetheless, the following reports provide interesting and informative updates:

Human Rights Watch https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/12/01/no-more-excuses/roadmap-justice-cia-torture

Physicians for Human Rights http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/library/reports/truth-matters-accountability-for-cia-psychological-torture.html

The LGC thanks the Centre for Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London, for facilitating this event.

Panel Discussion on 8 December: WE Tortured Some Folks Too

The London Guantánamo Campaign and the Centre for Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London, invite you to a panel discussion:

WE Tortured Some Folks* Too

A panel discussion on

Tuesday 8 December,

at 7-9pm in Lecture Theatre LG02, Professor Stuart Hall Building, Goldsmiths, University of London, Lewisham Way, London SE14 6NW (nearest underground: New Cross Gate)

With:

Ben Griffin, Veterans for Peace UK

Adriana Edmeades, Rights Watch UK

Dr Juliet Cohen, Freedom From Torture

On 9 December 2014, the US Senate published part of its report into the CIA’s use of torture in its global programme of kidnap and torture: extraordinary rendition. The programme would have been impossible but for the collusion of other states, including the United Kingdom. 

With the recent return of the last British resident held in Guantánamo Bay and fresh claims of prisoner abuse by the British army in Afghanistan, we invite you to join us to consider the impact the use of torture has on individuals, communities and social and political movements. We will also reflect on questions of impunity and what the use of state-sanctioned torture says about us as a society.

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/919502254800297/

To get to venue (fully accessible): http://www.gold.ac.uk/campus-map/
Centre for Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths website: http://www.gold.ac.uk/cultural-studies/ 

 

* In August 2014, these were the words used by Barack Obama to admit the CIA had indeed used torture in its extraordinary rendition programme

LGC Newsletter – July 2014

NEWS:

British residents:

Former British resident Ahmed Belbacha who returned to Algeria earlier this year was placed under judicial supervision upon his return to the country. At the end of June, he had a court hearing concerning his conviction in absentia in 2009 before an Algerian court for supporting a foreign terrorist organisation, in which he was given a 20-year sentence. The sentence is being reconsidered and at the hearing, the judge at the Algiers Criminal Court set the hearing back to a later date – possibly in September or October – as a large number of documents are missing from the original case file, including interviews and reports, as he had not been questioned about the charges in the past and as no psychiatric evaluation has been carried out on Belbacha. He had been placed in prison the day before but the judge asked for him to be released. His lawyer stated after the hearing that now that Belbacha is in Algeria and able to defend himself in court, the charges are no longer viable and that he is certain that Belbacha will be acquitted as “the case against him is completely non-existent!”

http://www.reporters.dz/affaire-ahmed-belbacha-ex-detenu-de-guantanamo-le-proces-reporte-pour-la-prochaine-session-criminelle/11286

Guantánamo Bay:

Following a ruling by the judge overseeing proceedings at the Guantánamo military tribunal, James Pohl, ordering the CIA to disclose files detailing the torture Abd Al-Nashiri was subject to while imprisoned in secret CIA prisons in different countries, one of the defendants accused of involvement in the 9/11 attacks, Ammar Al-Baluchi has asked for similar files related to the torture he faced to be disclosed and taken into consideration in his case. It is feared that this – consideration of the application by the judge and then disclosure and its impact on the current case – could further delay proceedings, however with the show trial still firmly stuck on procedural issues almost 13 years after the offence took place, and no timeline for an actual trial, the US is no hurry to prosecute or take the case forward.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/01/911-trial-blow-defendant-cia-torture-records

Judge Pohl has stepped down from the other case currently being heard by the Guantánamo military tribunal, that of Yemeni Abd Al-Nashiri accused of involvement in bombings of US naval vessels in the Gulf of Aden in 2000, due to scheduling conflicts and to ensure continuity in the 9/11 case. He will be replaced by Air Force Col. Vance Spath.

http://media.miamiherald.com/smedia/2014/07/10/16/10/19rugr.So.56.pdf

The case of the 5 defendants in the 9/11 case has been split as on 24 July Judge Pohl ruled that the case of Ramzi Binalshibh should be severed and dealt with separately and alone as legal issues relating to his case alone are holding up the trial of the other four defendants. The first issue to be considered in Binalshibh’s case is whether or not he has the mental capacity to stand trial having been diagnosed in 2008 as having a “serious mental disease” by military doctors.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/26/us/guantanamo-defendant-gets-own-trial.html?_r=1

A redacted memo issued by the U.S. Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) in a case related to the death of American Anwar Al-Awlaki released in June under a Freedom of Information order and dated 2010, shortly before Canadian former Guantánamo child prisoner Omar Khadr’s 2010 military commission hearing, shows that the US deliberately designated Khadr an “unprivileged belligerent” to charge him with offences that the US knew did not exist under US or international law and to deny him protection under the Geneva Conventions.

http://www.lawfareblog.com/2014/07/defense-olc-memo-supports-invalidation-of-omar-khadrs-conviction/

On 30 June, Khadr’s US lawyer filed a motion to have the stay on Khadr’s case, imposed in March, lifted and his conviction quashed on the basis that “the disclosure of a previously secret memorandum […] which provided authoritative legal guidance to the Department of Defense several months prior to Mr. Khadr’s guilty plea, vitiates the theory of criminality underlying this prosecution and therefore defeats the premise of the Court’s order”, and consequently that the charges and conviction of Omar are bogus. On 7 July, the US government’s lawyers filed a motion to have this dismissed, stating that the memo is “irrelevant” to Khadr’s case. Khadr’s U.S. lawyer Sam Morison called this response predictable, however the court denied Khadr’s motion before his lawyers had an opportunity to respond.

On 8 July, Khadr won his appeal before the Alberta Appeal Court in Canada for him to serve a youth sentence as opposed to being held as an adult. This would entail the transfer of Khadr to a provincial jail where he will have better opportunities for rehabilitation and parole. The judge was quite unequivocal in her ruling that the offences could only mean that Khadr be held as a youth offender in Canada, given his age at the time. Nonetheless, he remains at the Bowden Institute, a medium-security adult prison, following an appeal to the Supreme Court by the Canadian government. Khadr agreed to stay where he is pending this appeal as he is comfortable in his current environment and provided that the ruling he is being held as a juvenile applies.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/07/08/khadr_should_be_serving_youth_sentence_court_rules.html  

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/07/14/khadr_stays_put_as_ottawa_sends_mixed_messages_on_case.html

Khadr’s Canadian lawyers have also brought a lawsuit against the federal government and the Canadian corrections system to allow Khadr the opportunity to speak to the media. Held since 2002, Khadr has never once – not in the media, not in the courts or in any public writings – had the opportunity to present his side of the story. Vilified by the Canadian media, he has never actually met or spoken to any journalists.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/omar-khadr-seeking-the-right-to-tell-his-story-to-reporters/article19718453/

Reports issued by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s own officials and office show that Omar Khadr is not a terrorist and is essentially a “good kid”, in spite of constant statements by Canadian government upholding his military tribunal conviction, which falls far below the conditions necessary for trial in Canada.

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Harper+government+reports+show+Omar+Khadr+good+dangerous+terrorist+lawyer/10073818/story.html

Sunday 27 July marked the 12^th anniversary of Omar Khadr’s capture by the US following a gun battle in Afghanistan in which he was severely injured. The following article provides a good overview of what has happened recently in his case and where it currently stands: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/25161-the-trials-of-alleged-tween-terrorist-omar-khadr-of-canada

Judgment was handed down in the long-awaited military commission conviction appeal by Yemeni prisoner Ali Hamza Al-Bahlul, accused of providing Al Qaeda’s PR by making promotional videos for the organisation, and the only prisoner to be given a life sentence. In 2008, he was convicted on three charges of conspiracy, providing material support for terrorism and soliciting others to commit murder. Following the successful appeal by fellow Yemeni Salim Hamdan of his conviction in 2012, Al-Bahlul appealed as well and his convictions were all quashed by the federal appeals court in January 2013. In that case, the judges gave no reasoning for their decision to quash the convictions. Given the huge ramifications the case has on other pending military commissions and appeals of convictions, the US government sought a retrial “en banc” (where the case is then reheard by all the judges in the appeal court – 7 as opposed to 3) which was granted. The US government mainly contended that while the charges were not international war crimes – which it concedes – they could be considered war crimes under US domestic law.

http://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/8F42CB79020918FF85257D15004DBDDD/$file/11-1324-1502277.pdf

http://justsecurity.org/12880/quick-dirty-summary-of-and-reaction-to-the-al-bahlul-decision/

Rather than simplify and clarify matters, the case has instead made them much more complex and unclear. The 7 judges ruled to quash Al-Bahlul’s convictions for material support for terrorism and solicitation but upheld the conviction for conspiracy, a charge other prisoners have been convicted of and feature in other pending military commissions. The judgment overturns parts of the Hamdan ruling and also ruled to return the case back to the original 3-judge panel to consider some of the issues related to the conspiracy conviction, ultimately meaning that it could be overturned. Lawyers for Al-Bahlul have the option of waiting to see what the original panel then decides – not until at least next year – or appealing to the Supreme Court. In either case, whether or not his convictions are upheld, the future remains extremely precarious for Al-Bahlul himself, who remains imprisoned at Guantánamo - the quashing of his convictions could see him become a “forever” prisoner: http://justsecurity.org/12996/letter-editor-al-bahlul/

The appeals of former prisoners Canadian Omar Khadr and Australian David Hicks were stayed in March pending this judgment. The judgment as it is should mean that Hicks’ sole conviction for material support is now automatically invalidated and that this is purely an administrative matter. However, both he and Khadr, for whom the judgment is more obscure, may still have to wait along with Al-Bahlul the outcome of this judicial wrangling over the essentially flawed military commission process.

http://truth-out.org/news/item/25135-military-commissions-deferring-the-inevitable-at-guantanamo

Uruguay is likely to accept 6 prisoners over the coming month. Having asked to resettle a number of prisoners earlier this year, an issue raised during a visit by Uruguayan president Jose Mujica to the US in April, the US has finally completed the necessary paperwork on its side. The six are likely to include 4 Syrian prisoners, a Palestinian and Tunisian, all of whom have never been charged or tried and have long been cleared for release, but have not been as there is nowhere safe to send them. Uruguay anticipates hosting them as regular refugees.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/pentagon-prepares-to-transfer-six-guantanamo-detainees-to-uruguay-1405553466

One of the six is alleged to be Syrian Abu Wael Dhiab, currently on hunger strike and who has brought a high-profile court challenge against the Pentagon’s procedures for forcibly feeding detainees who are on a hunger strike. His transfer would most likely render his lawsuit moot, although there are several similar challenges.

Following two separate appearances before the Periodic Review Board last month, the Board has decided to clear Kuwaiti Fawzi Al-Odah for release while continuing to deem fellow countryman Fayiz Al-Kandari “almost certainly retains an extremist mindset and had close ties with high-level al-Qaida leaders in the past” and will remain held at Guantánamo indefinitely. Neither man has ever been charged or tried in the past 12 years of imprisonment.

Although the US has cleared 4 prisoners for release since restating the reviews over the past year, none of the prisoners cleared have been released.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/25/guantanamo-inmate-remain-prison-panel-rules

Extraordinary Rendition:

Amid growing demands for the UK government to admit to the extent of US use of the British-administered territory of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean for the extraordinary rendition programme, the government reported in parliament that files related to the issue had been destroyed by water damage during recent flooding.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/09/files-uk-role-cia-rendition-destroyed-diego-garcia-water-damage

Accused of a cover up, especially as there had been no substantial rain at the time the damage is claimed to have occurred, a week later it then reported that the files had been salvaged and dried out. The UK government is still refusing to admit the full extent of its own complicity in the extraordinary rendition programme and what it knew at the time of the alleged use of this territory.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10969535/Lost-US-extraordinary-rendition-files-have-dried-out-Foreign-Office-says.html

One prisoner who is alleged to have been flown through Diego Garcia, Libyan Abdel Hakim Belhadj, and his wife Fatima Bouchar, who were rendered from Southeast Asia to Libya in 2004 with the collusion of the UK brought an appeal on 21 July against a High Court ruling in favour of the government that he could not sue MI6 and the British government for their involvement in the rendition of himself and his family.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jul/21/libyan-dissident-abdel-hakin-belhaj-appeal-mi6-rendition

Former Bagram prisoner Yunus Rahmatullah, who was captured by British troops in Iraq in 2004 and handed over to the US who rendered him to Bagram in Afghanistan, from where he was released to Pakistan in April this year with other Pakistani prisoners is bringing a lawsuit against the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign Office for complicity in his torture and abuse he suffered in both Iraq and Afghanistan over 10 years. In 2011, the Court of Appeal ruled that he was unlawfully detained but in the Supreme Court, government lawyers were able to successfully claim that the UK could not get the US to act to release him.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jul/29/mod-foreign-office-yunus-rahmatullah-torture-case

Judgment was handed down by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg on 24 July ruling that Poland had acted in breach of its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights, particularly as concerns the absolute ban on the use of torture, when it hosted and operated a secret CIA torture prison in Stare Kiejkuty. The facility has since closed down. The case was brought by two prisoners currently facing military commission at Guantánamo Bay, Abu Zubaydah and Abd Al-Nashiri, who both “disappeared” for at least two years into the CIA’s networks of secret prisons around the world. The former was held and tortured in Poland for 6 months and the latter for 9 months. The court found Poland guilty of involvement in extraordinary rendition and ordered the Polish government to pay each man €100,000 in compensation and a further €30,000 to Abu Zubaydah in costs. The judgment outlines the journey of the two men to Guantánamo and the horrific torture they faced at the facility. This is the second time the court has ruled against a European state for complicity in rendition, and further cases are pending against Lithuania and Romania. A major blow for the CIA’s rendition programme, while the Polish government gets a slap on the wrists and is ordered to pay a fine, no agents involved have been prosecuted as yet and the CIA is still not subject to any prosecution, while Abu Zubaydah and Al-Nashiri, the victims, face military commissions and ongoing detention at Guantánamo and have never been given the opportunity for torture rehabilitation. In many ways, outside of the legal framework of using the law to check the extralegal behaviour of governments, the judgment remains largely pyrrhic unless it can in some way influence their respective military commissions.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-28460628

LGC Activities:

The July “Shut Guantánamo!” demonstration was attended by 4 people. The August

demonstration will be at 12-1pm outside the US Embassy and 1.15-2.15pm outside Speaker’s Corner, Marble Arch on Thursday 7^th August: https://www.facebook.com/events/262069207321360/