LGC Newsletter – September 2020

Guantánamo Bay

In a unanimous decision, a federal appeals court upheld the indefinite decision of Yemeni “forever prisoner” Abdulsalam Al Hela, 52, ruling that Guantánamo prisoners do not have due process rights. His defence argued that the “evidence against him relied on anonymous hearsay and that he never joined or supported Al Qaeda or any other terrorist group.”

This decision could affect the case of five prisoners accused of involvement in attacks on New York City in September 2001, who are currently awaiting trial, as it has long been held, since the 2008 ruling in Boumediene v Bush, that prisoners can only challenge their detention through habeas corpus. The decision can be appealed. Al Hela’s lawyer, David Remes said: "Due process is one of the most fundamental constitutional guarantees, and to rule that it simply does not apply to Guantanamo detainees contradicts those most fundamental values that the due process clause exists to protect”.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/02/us/politics/guantanamo-detainees-due-process.html https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/defense-expected-ask-review-courts-ruling-against-due-process-gitmo-detainees

 

Colonel Stephen Keane has been appointed the new judge in the case of the five prisoners accused of involvement in attacks on New York City in September 2001 after the previous judge, the fourth in the case which is still at pre-trial stage after almost a decade, announced in March he was leaving the case to retire. “No hearings in the case have been held at Guantánamo since February, in part because of a complicated two-week quarantine requirement for newcomers to the base to safeguard its 6,000 residents. (Forty of them are prisoners and 1,500 of them are soldiers assigned to the wartime prison.)”.

One of his first orders has been to cancel all hearings in the case until next year, due to the restrictions, and delay the start of the trial until at least August 2021.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/17/us/politics/military-judge-guantanamo-bay-911-trial.html

https://www.npr.org/2020/09/30/918454831/trial-of-sept-11-defendants-at-guant-namo-delayed-until-august-2021

 

A federal appeals panel has refused to delay a court-ordered, independent medical examination of Saudi prisoner Mohammed Al-Qahtani, “to decide whether he should be repatriated to psychiatric care in Saudi Arabia.” “Justice Department lawyers have warned that the first use of a mixed medical commission — one doctor from the U.S. Army and two from a neutral country chosen by the International Red Cross and approved by the United States and Saudi Arabia — would be disruptive and unleash more requests by other prisoners.”

“Lawyers for Mr. Qahtani, and a psychiatrist who was consulted on the case, made a novel argument for enacting an Army regulation that includes medical-repatriation provisions of the Third Geneva Convention for prisoners of war. Their position is that Mr. Qahtani can only be effectively treated in his homeland.

"Most claims of torture of Guantánamo detainees center on what happened in the C.I.A. prison network before their transfer to military custody. But leaked documents show that Mr. Qahtani was subjected to two months of continuous, brutal interrogations at Guantánamo’s Camp X-Ray — sleep deprivation, dehydration, nudity and being menaced by dogs — while under the care of military medics from the same prison operation that provides his medical care now.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/29/us/politics/court-guantanamo-outside-health-review.html

 

Extraordinary Rendition

In early September, the Trump administration announced sanctions against the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is investigating alleged US war crimes in Afghanistan as part of an investigation into war crimes by all parties in that country. The US is not a member of the ICC and does not consider itself to be affected by it. Nonetheless, it has placed sanctions on Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and the head of jurisdiction at the court Phakiso Mochochoko; they were added to the “Treasury Department's "Specially Designated Nationals" list. The designation freezes any assets they might have in the U.S. or subject to U.S. law.”  https://www.npr.org/2020/09/02/908896108/trump-administration-sanctions-icc-prosecutor-investigating-alleged-u-s-war-crim

 

Court documents in the case brought by the family of Harry Dunn, who was killed after his motorcycle was hit by the car of Anne Sacoolas, “wife of Jonathon Sacoolas, an operative for the CIA”, who was allowed to return to the US and avoid prosecution, have revealed that around 200 US personnel working in the UK have benefited from a bulk diplomatic immunity deal under the war on terror. Sacoolas claimed diplomatic immunity from prosecution, after she fatally hit Mr Dunn while driving the wrong way on the road, near RAF Croughton in Sussex. “The documents show that, in 1995, 2001, and 2006, Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials made a case to ministers to extend diplomatic immunity – including providing immunity from criminal prosecution – to an estimated 200 staff working at the RAF Croughton base in Sussex” and “The heavily-redacted documents include a ministerial submission from 2006 which identifies the base’s role in ‘war on terror’ operations as a reason for granting bulk immunity. This 2006 submission to ministers notes the “increased demands brought on by the global war on terrorism and the war in Iraq” and raises a concern that granting bulk diplomatic immunity to multiple US staff would provoke a “possible read-across by the media to rendition flights”.”

https://www.scottishlegal.com/article/bulk-diplomatic-immunity-conferred-on-us-personnel-in-britain-court-documents-reveal

 

Controversial new legislation that will allow immunity from prosecution for British military personnel for potential war crimes, including torture, committed overseas passed its second reading in parliament. “The bill, which will end the right to bring legal cases against British soldiers for alleged offences that are more than five years old, has been criticised by senior military figures and human rights groups, who say it will damage Britain's reputation abroad and act as a "licence to torture".”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/government-british-troops-immunity-prosecution-human-rights-b674479.html

At the same time, the Conservative Party launched the covert human intelligence sources bill “allowing confidential informants working for MI5 and the police to break the law […] amid a row about whether committing crimes such as murder and torture should be explicitly banned”.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/sep/24/uk-set-to-introduce-bill-allowing-mi5-agents-to-break-the-law

 

LGC Activities:

The LGC is saddened by the death of long-term activist John Lloyd who was a regular at our monthly demonstrations outside the US Embassy and at demonstrations organised by the Guantanamo Justice Campaigns and other organisations. He and his banners offering a poignant reminder of the wrongdoing of the US and UK governments will be very much missed.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/29/john-lloyd-obituary

 

The London Guantánamo Campaign’s monthly Shut Guantánamo! demonstrations continue online for the present at 12-2pm on the first Thursday of each month. To take part, please email a photo/video of your banner to us at london.gtmo@gmail.com or share your picture/video to our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/London-Guantánamo-Campaign-114010671973111/ or via Twitter at that time.

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.

26 June: International Day in Support of Victims of Torture Solidarity Vigil

On International Day in Support of Victims of Torture

The London Guantánamo Campaign invites you to a solidarity vigil with victims of torture

See No Evil, Speak No Evil: No Impunity for Torturers

At 6.30-8pm, on Thursday 26 June 2014, Outside the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square

“Everywhere and every day, crimes of torture are committed against men, women and children and, in most cases, no one is prosecuted or punished for them. These crimes are committed with impunity.”

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention Against Torture, which became international law on 26 June 1987. Nonetheless, the use of torture continues to grow, with impunity. Impunity is the failure of the state to fully investigate violations; to bring to justice and punish perpetrators; to provide victims with effective remedies; and to take all necessary steps to prevent a recurrence of the violation.

The United Kingdom is no exception to this situation.

The failure to investigate and prosecute allegations of prisoner abuse by the British military in Iraq, has led to the intervention of the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Allegations have also been made of prisoner abuse in Afghanistan and have been proven of British intelligence involvement in the “rendition” and torture of British and foreign nationals abroad. Rather than investigate and prosecute, the government has chosen the route of secret courts, partial and non-impartial investigations. NO prosecutions have been brought in spite of the seriousness of the allegations.

Please join us as we stand in solidarity with all victims worldwide, raise awareness of the crimes against humanity being funded by British taxpayers without their knowledge, and demand accountability and justice.

Some resources on the UK government and torture impunity:

Globalizing Torture: CIA Secret Detention and Extraordinary Rendition (2013), a comprehensive report on extraordinary rendition: see page 115 onwards for United Kingdom

http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/reports/globalizing-torture-cia-secret-detention-and-extraordinary-rendition

NGO Liberty on UK Complicity in Torture

http://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/human-rights/no-torture/uk-complicity-torture

Resources by NGO Reprieve on UK torture complicity involving its clients

http://www.reprieve.org.uk/investigations/ukcomplicity/history/

Archives of Baha Mousa Inquiry into the torture and death of an Iraqi civilian by the British army in 2003 http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.bahamousainquiry.org/

On-going Iraq torture inquiry (Al Sweady Inquiry)

http://www.alsweadyinquiry.org/

Detainee Inquiry http://www.detaineeinquiry.org.uk/

All-Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition http://www.extraordinaryrendition.org/

World Without Torture: The UK has still not learned its lesson that torture is wrong

http://worldwithouttorture.org/2014/05/29/the-uk-has-still-not-learned-its-lesson-that-torture-is-wrong/

On Britain's Use of Torture: http://opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/aisha-maniar/on-britains-use-of-torture  
The International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague on why it is carrying out a preliminary examination of the UK for war crimes in Iraq
http://www.icc-cpi.int/en_menus/icc/press%20and%20media/press%20releases/pages/otp-statement-iraq-13-05-2014.aspx
And the UK government's response

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/statement-on-icc-preliminary-examination-into-iraq-allegations