You can start jihad in the suburbs and end up as a prisoner of the United States at Guantanamo. That’s the situation of six Frenchmen of North African origin, held in solitary confinement the last two years along with 660 other Islamists captured in Afghanistan. On this base it rents from Cuba, Washington neutralizes its enemies, collects intelligence, and experiments with new methods in the anti-terrorist struggle. A report from the other side of the bars.
Turrets and fences: a fleeting vision as we fly over Guantanamo base, an American enclave on the island of Cuba. On the ground, the landscape is quite different: well-kept gardens and tidy houses. More classic Club Med. The resort impression is reinforced by the warm welcome given us by our GO, Captain Kolarik, a good old boy exuding mechanical joviality, who calls us by our first name at the end of five minutes and tells us about his fiancée at the end of ten. The tour operator, in this case the DoD (Department of Defense), has done things well. We are five journalists taking part in a “media tour”. We even had to sign a contract before leaving, just as with a travel agency. The U.S. Army declines all responsibility “in case of accident.” And we commit to respect the sine qua non condition: to not attempt communication with the prisoners, to give up any idea of photographing or interviewing them.
Because the place we’re visiting is not exactly like the others, even if we do look like tourists on a binge with our guides in khaki and our tinted-window minibus. For two years, 660 Taliban prisoners, citizens of 42 countries (among them, six French citizens of North African origin: Mourad Benchellali, Brahim Yadel, Redouane Khalid, Nizar Sassi, Khaled Ben Moustapha et Imad Achab Kanouni) have been staying here for an indefinite period under the supervision of 2800 Americans, without any formal charges being brought or legal assistance offered. Which is not to suggest that they’re a bunch of choirboys. Washington simply considers them “enemy combatants”, not prisoners of war, because they were captured in Afghanistan in the GWOT (Global War On Terror), i.e. the anti-terrorist crusade launched after September 11, 2001. In consequence, they aren’t protected by the Third Geneva Convention which authorizes prisoners to keep their personal effects, encourages recreational activities, prohibits solitary confinement and interrogation. Besides, since Guantanamo is rented from Cuba by virtue of a 1934 treaty, it’s not American territory and American civil law does not apply here, notably the right to counsel.
In effect, a detail that escapes us here in Europe, America is at war. And reacts that way, faithful to the Old Testament precept dear to the Mayflower ancestors: “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” The Bible and the gun. Crew-cut and clear-eyed, Pastor Daniel Odean, prison chaplain in civilian life and a pillar of the Protestant Assembly of God, is charged with the salvation of the troops’ souls and morale. He summarizes the majority opinion at Guantanamo with faith and conviction:
America was attacked. George W. Bush is right: we defend American citizens first of all, but also freedom in the world.
Every guard adheres to this credo. And everything is done so that they don’t forget it, beginning with Guantanamo’s motto: “Defending freedom is our honor.” In the internet room, posters along the lines of “Never Again” evoke September 11 and notices remind users to respect “Opsec” (security operations), because “you never know who’s listening during wartime.” In the television room, the walls are papered with children’s drawings sent by Mrs. Rowland- a patriotic Hoosier teacher’s -class. The Star - Spangled Banner is omnipresent and the unequivocal messages: “Thanks for defending our country.” In fact, not one of the minders we interviewed (in the presence of the vigilant Kolarik, it is true) feels any compassion for the prisoners. “It’s not our job to ask questions. We don’t know their past. For us, they’re just numbers,” confides Sergeant Smith, while his colleagues approve.
These so-called “numbers” are imprisoned at Camp Delta. Several walls, wire fences, barbed wire, watch towers, spotlights: that’s the décor. Inside, prisoners are divided into two groups: The “naughty” and the “nice”. The “naughty” are in the so-called “maximum security” camps 1, 2 or 3. Imagine a high-tech kennel and there you are. Blocks of 48 cells, 24 on each side of a corridor, one man per cell, an improved 2.5 x 2 meter cage, equipped with a cot shelf, a sink, and a Turkish toilet.
Hallal Menus and a Taped Muezzin
Decked out in orange jumpsuits (“so we can see them if they try to escape,” someone explains to us), they get a mattress, a rug, a skullcap, a Koran, flip-flops, and game of checkers. They get out only a half hour a time three or four times a week for twenty minutes of exercise and a ten minute shower. On the other hand, they eat Hallal food (“2200 calories a day and menus to their taste,” the kitchen boss congratulates himself: unaccustomed to a Yankee diet, the prisoners gain weight like chickens in a factory farm until the dieticians intervene) and they’re entitled to a muezzin call (from a CD recorded on the internet and broadcast over the loud speakers) five times a day.
Over at the “nice”, so-called “medium security” camp 4, it’s still not exactly the Hilton, but the atmosphere is noticeably more breathable. Who are the “nice guys”? “Those who cooperate,” specifies the well-named Sergeant Wireman (“bearded man”) boasting the merits of his “rewards and penalties” system, the local version of the carrot and the stick. There are about a hundred men who benefit from this favorable treatment. Here, the prisoners are no longer in solitary, isolated from one another. They live in dormitories of ten and shower whenever they want. Instead of the orange jumpsuit, they wear a white garment (“Islam’s color of purity”, the junior officer tells us). The doors are opened several hours a day so they can play soccer or volley ball. In the middle of the complex, an ultra-sophisticated tower (called “Liberty Tower”) keeps their activities and movements under surveillance by means of interspersed cameras.
On our arrival, there are about a dozen men are going about their business behind the wire fences. They sport the Taliban look: thick beards on classic Afghan faces. Some converse holding hands, others sunbathe. They don’t look traumatized. When they see us coming, they openly enjoy a good laugh. A welcome diversion to look forward to. Some call out to us. Others gesture. No animosity. Just curiosity.
“They’ve never been so well cared-for.”
Apparently, they’re in good health, which contradicts the rumors of bad treatment propagated by some media and NGOs. Captain Edmondson, the chief doctor at the prison hospital confirms:
“No doubt they’ve never been so well cared-for. Some had never seen a doctor. We even brought over a team of cardiologists for an open-heart surgery at a cost of $100,000.”
General Miller, Supreme Commander at Guantanamo, tops him:
“There’s no country that treats its prisoners better than America.”
One thing is certain: in the Taliban’s hands, an American soldier would survive several seconds and one dares not imagine the conditions in the case of a hypothetical imprisonment. Nevertheless, isolation and uncertainty undermine the men: as the 34 suicide attempts due to spleen demonstrate. Moreover, the naval guards themselves are not exempt from depression: up to now, the only successful suicide was that of a military man who took his own life two days before Christmas! Hence the prospectuses on the refectory table that describe how to deal with suicidal behavior.
As for General Miller, he’s not thinking of putting an end to his days. He’s even rather pleased with himself:
“In order to understand Camp Delta, you must know we have a double mission: First detention; then, intelligence collection. And in that regard, we do excellent work.”
All prisoners may be interrogated at any hour. “No physical pressure, nor sleep deprivation, just a conversation with specialists,” asserts the superior officer. There are about forty “interrogators”. They work in Tiger Teams of four: two “interrogators”, one interpreter (17 languages, including French, and 19 dialects are spoken at Camp Delta!) and an intelligence analyst. If you believe the CIA interrogation manual, Camp Delta’s structure and functioning follow a certain logic:
“The interrogator must organize things so that the subject’s environment is not only different from his usual environment, but is also strange in itself, an environment where familiar notions of time, space, and sensory perception are disrupted and overwhelmed.”
We express our skepticism to General Miller. The first doubt concerns the nature of the prisoners: all Al Qaeda’s brains (such as the elite soldiers of the 55th Brigade) have eluded the hounds and only the small fry have landed in the U.S. Army’s nets. Not to mention mistakes: during the Afghanistan operation, the Pentagon offered $4,000 dollars reward to any mudjahadeen who brought a Taliban in to them. The consequence: several innocent men were captured by their countrymen and sold on to the Americans. The general confesses:
“At the outset, we had 800 prisoners. Today, we have 660. Those who were innocent have been released. Or will be: I’ve recommended that for the minors who are at Guantanamo (Note: they are three between 13 and 16 years old, held in a little house apart from the adults). Two of them had been kidnapped.”
Second doubt: what can one hope to gain from an interrogation two years after the event? The response:
“Only last month, we gleaned over 300 useful bits of information. There are several kinds of intelligence: tactical (weapons and munitions), operational (network organization), and strategic (financing, for example). This is the domain where we get the best results.”
According to Eric Denécé, ex-intelligence officer and Director of CF2R (French Center for Intelligence Research), that’s not impossible, but there are some nuances to understand:
“The Americans are so far behind in their knowledge of jihadists that they use the Guantanamo prisoners to fill in their gaps. However, as a function of these same gaps, they’re often unable to screen what they get. The other handicap is language: in Vietnam, intelligence officers spoke Vietnamese. In Guantanamo, they use translators who are not always trustworthy (NOTE: two of them, turned in by the prisoners, are suspected of espionage).
The American officer admits that foreign services (including the French) have helped considerably in the “debriefing” of their nationals:
“We’ve received 50 delegations in fifteen months. The French (Note: two delegations comprising Quai d'Orsay diplomats, Interior officials, and intelligence services agents, with a third scheduled for this month) have contributed a lot. We collaborate with all our allies and France is our ally.”
To the question of whether the interrogation of Mourad Benchellali (the son of the Vénissieux imam recently arraigned for terrorism) and his comrade Nizar Sassi was the source of the DST*’s successful sting operation, the general can’t repress a carnivorous smile:
“I don’t want to go into details. What I can assure you is that our collaboration is fruitful…”
Whatever the case, under pressure from its allies (including Great Britain, which militates for the repatriation of its nine nationals) and its own justice system (the Supreme Court has agreed to review the legality of the incarceration and will pronounce its decision soon), America intends to clarify the legal situation of the individual prisoners: pure and simple liberation, appearance before a military tribunal, or transfer to their respective countries.
“Each case will be examined shortly,” concludes General Miller. “Including the French ones.”
But nothing says that other presumed terrorists won’t come and take their places: to judge by the international news, jihad has some fine days ahead of it, alas. To such an extent that one wonders whether Guantanamo isn’t some sort of experimental laboratory, a military-judicial prototype intended for this novel confrontation, the war against terrorism. Fifteen days ago, The Independent of London evoked Camp Justice, situated in the Indian Ocean on the island of Diego Garcia. Like Guantanamo, Diego Garcia, officially under British sovereignty, is rented to the United States, which has installed a base there. And, as at Guantanamo, Al-Qaeda suspects would be imprisoned there. Perhaps a future market for the Kellog, Brown & Root company, a Halliburton (Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney’s former company) subsidiary that constructed the Guantanamo penitentiary. Not for free, of course. Disaster is always good for something.
*T.N: The DST is the domestic intelligence arm of the French national police.
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Translation: Truthout French language correspondent Leslie Thatcher.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/012704H.shtml
