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

“Is This Who We Are?”: London Marks 13 Years of Guantánamo Bay

Report by Aisha Maniar

courtesy of Faiz Baluch

Reading the Sunday newspapers on 11 January, one may be excused for not knowing that the date marks 13 years since the US-run concentration camp at Guantánamo Camp opened on 11 January 2002. The ongoing hunger strike and regime of indefinite detention for 127 prisoners almost all held wholly without charge or trial for so many years was barely worth a mention. To a media hungry for the next sensationalist scare story, torture and arbitrary detention are possibly too real. Providing little more than a pretext to justify the illegal actions of governments worldwide, the suffering of the remaining prisoners and their families otherwise lacks importance.

street theatre

This did not stop human rights activists across the world holding protest actions to mark this sombre anniversary. Protest actions were held in the UK, Ireland, Mexico and the US. In Australia, activists and singer-songwriter Les Thomas launched a new song “Guantanamo Blues” http://thejusticecampaign.org/?page_id=1927 In the evening, activists around the world joined the London Guantánamo Campaign and Free Omar Khadr Now for an online Twitter storm.

street theatre

In the afternoon, around 150 people joined the London Guantánamo Campaign for a unique protest action outside the US Embassy in London. As organisers of the main UK protest to mark the anniversary of Guantánamo opening over the past 8 years, people often expect to turn up to a sea of orange jumpsuits, black hoods and angry chanting. This year we adopted a very different approach. Realising that 13 years on, not only are people immune and accustomed to the abuses that occur at Guantánamo Bay on a daily basis, many are simply unaware altogether. With such little coherent coverage it is hard to know what is really happening. To address this, we performed a piece of street theatre called “The Three Obamas”, in which three actors, and some support, re-enacted various statements and promises Barack Obama has made since 2008 about closing Guantánamo Bay. As president, his first action in 2009 was to sign a decree ordering the closure of Guantánamo Bay by 2010. Five years later, 127 men are still waiting.

Noa Kleinman, Amnesty International UK

courtesy of Faiz Baluch

The street theatre was in two parts to reflect the period between 2011 and 2013, when Obama acknowledged his broken promises with silence and the start of the ongoing hunger strike at Guantánamo Bay which brought the prison camp back under the spotlight.

Ben Griffin, Veterans for Peace UK

Joy Hurcombe, Save Shaker Aamer Campaign

Jean Lambert, Green MEP for London

During the “intermission” between the two parts, activists were addressed by speakers including solicitor for several British nationals held in Guantánamo Bay, Louise Christian, London Green MEP Jean Lambert, Noa Kleinman from Amnesty International UK, Ben Griffin from Veterans for Peace UK and Joy Hurcombe from the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign. It has now been 10 years since the last British nationals were released from Guantánamo Bay. 

Louise Christian, solicitor

While the street theatre performance highlighted the hypocrisy of the US administration over Guantánamo Bay and CIA torture, the speakers focused mainly on the collusion of the British government. Pointing out that this year also marks the 800^th anniversary of the Magna Carta, it is ludicrous that British resident Shaker Aamer remains in Guantánamo Bay after 13 years without charge or trial. Speakers also called for an independent torture inquiry into the UK’s collusion with the US and transparency over Britain’s role in the US’s wars on terror. Joy Hurcombe reminded people that David Cameron will be meeting President Obama later this month and urged people to write to the prime minister and their MP to urge that the question of Shaker Aamer’s release to the UK feature high up the meeting agenda. In an election year, this is also a perfect opportunity to raise your concerns about Guantánamo Bay with local election candidates.

courtesy of Faiz Baluch

After 13 years, this is indeed who we are, along with the US and all its other allies. In the meantime, the campaign to close Guantánamo will continue and we hope you will join us. The London Guantánamo thanks everyone who joined us for a successful and enlightening event, in particular the actors, singers and props persons involved in the street theatre performance. Special thanks to our speakers for sharing their expertise and concerns with us and to Occupy London for providing live streaming throughout the event.

In case you missed or did not get enough yesterday, the Islam Channel will feature a one-hour special about the anniversary action on “The Report” at 9pm on Monday 12 January, on Sky channel 806 and Freeview.

Media of the event:

http://www.demotix.com/news/6631092/us-embassy-protest-marks-13-years-guant-namo-bay-prison#media-6631056

http://www.demotix.com/news/6626604/activists-enact-drama-us-embassy-mark-13-years-guant-namo-bay#media-6639177

http://www.demotix.com/news/6639401/who-we-are-action-mark-13-years-guant-namo-bay#media-6639220

http://www.demotix.com/news/6638717/thirteen-years-guantanamo-protest-tells-obama-close-it-now#media-6638661

LGC Newsletter – December 2014

BRITISH RESIDENTS:

LGC monthly demonstration outside US Embassy, London

In late December, British newspapers reported that Shaker Aamer is among the prisoners cleared for release who are likely to be released by the US in the New Year. In recent months, Barack Obama’s administration has stepped up its effort to release prisoners who do not face charge or trial and are not deemed to pose a threat to the US. Dozens more may be released in the coming months. The Daily Mail stated “It is understood that he is one of 64 prisoners who have been cleared for release and will be released in the next couple of months.” However, there has been no official confirmation or suggestion of this. Shaker Aamer has been cleared for release since 2007.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2888964/Last-British-inmate-Guantanamo-set-freed-new-year-fresh-push-Obama-prison.html

Earlier in December, Hayes and Harlington Labour MP John McDonnell set up an all-party parliamentary group on Shaker Aamer as “Further parliamentary pressure is urgently needed.” The group has received broad cross-party support and held its first meeting on 10 December.

http://www.john-mcdonnell.net/john_mcdonnell_mp_launches_a_shaker_aamer_parliamentary_group

A few days later, a group of celebrities signed a letter in the Daily Mail calling for Shaker Aamer’s return to the UK. The Daily Mail also reported that in response deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg suggested that Shaker Aamer, who has never faced charges either in the US or the UK, should be brought back to the UK to face judicial process, showing the government’s continuing confusion about his status and how the law works.

NEWS:

Guantánamo Bay:

Fifteen more prisoners were released from Guantánamo Bay over December, bringing the number of prisoners held there down to 127 by the end of 2014, from 155 at the beginning of that year. A total of 28 prisoners were released in 2014, the largest number in one year since Barack Obama became president in 2009. More releases are anticipated in 2015.

On 7 December, 6 prisoners – 4 Syrians, 1 Tunisian and 1 Palestinian – were released to Uruguay which accepted them on humanitarian grounds. All 6 had been cleared for release since at least 2010 and the group included Syrian hunger striker Abu Wa’el Dhiab, who brought a case against the US government for the force-feeding of hunger-striking prisoners. The 6 men have not been subject to further incarceration in Uruguay and some have since found jobs and are living ordinary lives.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-30367734

On 20 December, 4 prisoners were returned to Afghanistan - Shawali Khan, Khi Ali Gul, Abdul Ghani and Mohammed Zahir - following a review of their status which cleared them for release. 8 more Afghans are believed to be held at Guantánamo.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-30560747

On 31 December, 5 prisoners, two Tunisians and 3 Yemenis were resettled in Kazakhstan in Central Asia following extensive negotiations with the government there. The five men are Asim Thabit Abdullah Al-Khalaqi, 46, Muhammad Ali Husayn Khanayna, 36, and Sabri Mohammad al Qurash, 44, all from Yemen and Adel Al-Hakeemy, 49, and Abdallah Bin Ali al Lufti, 48 from Tunisia. Tunisia is considered currently too unstable and dangerous to return prisoners to and although in 2013 Barack Obama lifted a moratorium on returning Yemeni prisoners who are cleared for release to their home country, all releases of Yemeni prisoners from Guantánamo Bay since have been to third countries. Nonetheless, in 2014, his administration was able to transfer two Yemeni prisoners held at the Bagram airbase in Afghanistan to the country.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-30640651

In spite of these releases and promises to release further prisoners, in the same month, Obama also signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) 2015 which places checks on his ability to release prisoners and close Guantánamo without Congress’ approval. As in previous years that he signed up to similar provisions, he made verbal threats to use his executive power to override them. Nonetheless, with the “official” withdrawal of US troops and the end of hostilities in Afghanistan, there is no longer any basis to continue keeping Guantánamo open and may cause even greater legal problems for the US government.

On 9 December, the periodic review board cleared a Yemeni prisoner, 35-year old Abdel Malik Wahab al Rahabi, for release, subject to some constraints, even though in March 2014, it deemed it was too dangerous to release him. He was one of the first prisoners to arrive at Guantánamo on 11 January 2002 and although he was never charged, he was accused of being a bodyguard of Osama Ben Laden. Following this decision, there are currently 35 prisoners being held indefinitely as “forever prisoners”, who cannot be charged but are deemed too dangerous to release, through an administrative and not a judicial procedure.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/guantanamo/article4402935.html

The US State Department’s special envoy for the closure of Guantánamo appointed in June 2013, Clifford Sloan, resigned from his post after 18 months citing his frustration at the delays in prisoner transfers. His job consisted of negotiating the release of prisoners with foreign states. The search is on now for a new envoy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/23/us/politics/guantnamo-envoy-cliff-sloan-quits-amid-delays-in-prisoner-releases.html?_r=0

Omar Khadr will be heading back to the Supreme Court of Canada after it decided to hear an appeal by the Canadian government against an earlier decision to have Omar Khadr held as a juvenile prisoner, given that he allegedly committed the offences he was convicted of aged 15; this move would facilitate his rehabilitation. The decision comes as a surprise to his lawyers as the decision being appealed was unanimous and Khadr has not lost a single case against the Canadian government in the Supreme Court in over 10 years. His lawyer Dennis Edney QC said, “So once again, we're going back to the Supreme Court for a third time. The government will be using the taxpayers dollars, as usual, and I'll be using my own particular savings to fight on behalf of Omar Khadr”.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/2014/12/11/omar-khadr-heading-back-to-supreme-court

A few days early, his lawyers revealed that Omar Khadr, who lost sight in his left eye in a gunfight in Afghanistan in 2002, is now almost blind in his right eye too due to a lack of treatment over the past 12 years. He has a cataract in his right eye, probably caused by a piece of shrapnel that has remained lodged in it since 2002 and is currently unable to read or see clearly. He is urgently in need of a specialist operation to restore sight to his eye. Khadr has spent all of his time since his release to prison in Canada in late 2012 studying for his high school diploma and is hoping to continue with his studies to college level. Having been held as an adult at Guantánamo, he was denied an education during his formative teenage years.

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/12/10/omar_khadr_losing_his_eyesight_lawyer_says.html

On 23 December, former Guantánamo prisoner Rasul Kudaev, 36, who was released in 2004 along with 6 other Russian nationals held there, was given a life sentence in Russia’s longest-running terrorism trial involving the largest number of defendants. Accused of involvement in 2005 attacks on the city of Nalchik, near where he lives, he was tortured and forced into confessing to involvement in the attacks. His co-defendants were also tortured into saying he was involved, even though they didn’t know who he was. The fact that he had returned from Guantánamo unable to walk and had been seen by neighbours at the same time was discounted in favour of torture evidence. The fact that he had been held at Guantánamo, where he was never charged, was used as a hinge for the whole case against all 58 defendants in the case. His lawyers plan to appeal. He has suffered further torture in his past 9 years of incarceration in Russia and has a case against the Russian authorities pending before the European Court of Human Rights.

http://onesmallwindow.wordpress.com/2014/12/31/rasul-kudaev-an-injustice-too-far/

Extraordinary Rendition:

On 9 December, the long-awaited and controversial redacted and partial publication (introduction only) of 500 pages of the US Senate’s report on CIA torture under the premise of the “war on terror” was finally issued.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2014/dec/09/-sp-torture-report-cia-senate-intelligence-committee

The document has confirmed much of what prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay or caught up in extraordinary rendition have said for years as well as revealing new claims. It has further sparked a false debate in the international media on whether and when torture can be justified. The answer should be simple to any literate person from the US or most of its allied and enemy states that are signatories to the UN Convention Against Torture, which in Article 1 imposes a blanket prohibition on the use of torture in all circumstances. The debate has no doubt been sparked – and sustained even by the so-called progressive media – to cover up the culpability of the US and its allies and the fact that the revelations made could spark a slew of new litigation or support existing claims. Some European allies, such as the Republic of Ireland and Iceland have also sought to cover their backs by asking the US to look again into US military flights that stopped in their territories that have later been called “torture flights”, carrying rendition victim from one location to another, when such flights stopped to refuel. It has also raised questions about the role of doctors and medical professionals in the practice of psychological torture methods.

The following day, Human Rights Day, 10 December, at the Australian Human Rights Award, former Guantánamo prisoner David Hicks took the Australian Attorney General George Brandis aback when he heckled him during his speech and reminded him of his government’s complicity in torture.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/10/david-hicks-heckles-george-brandis-and-claims-government-knew-about-his-torture

In addition, a few days later, a pre-trial hearing scheduled in the Guantánamo military tribunal of five men accused of involvement in the 9/11 attacks, was suspended. It has been reported that the findings in the disclosed part of the report could help their defence.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/15/us-usa-guantanamo-mohammed-idUSKBN0JT11Y20141215

With respect to the United Kingdom, the report has raised questions as well about the US military’s use of the British-administered island of Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands. The government has previously knowledge of or that the US was using the site to torture alleged terrorists. Fresh demands have been made that the UK hold an independent inquiry into the government’s torture complicity.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2881451/Is-speck-Indian-Ocean-Britain-s-Guantanamo-Chilling-questions-raised-secretive-island-disturbing-allegations-emerge-UK-s-role-CIA-torture.html

LGC Activities:

The December “Shut Guantánamo!” demonstration was attended by 4 people. We were joined this month by the wife and daughter of Shawki Ahmed Omar, an American national who remains in jail in Iraq under false allegations and having suffered torture after more than one decade: http://onesmallwindow.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/starved-of-justice-in-iraq-american-prisoner-on-hunger-strike/

There is no monthly demonstration in January. Please join us instead on Sunday 11^th January at 2-4pm outside the US Embassy as we mark the 13^th anniversary of the opening of Guantánamo Bay on 11^th January 2002. This year’s action is entitled “Is This Who We Are?”

http://londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/is-this-who-we-are-action-to-mark-13.html

https://www.facebook.com/events/1560270904206609/