|
The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
|
October 13th, 2006 - Southern
Command to Probe Gitmo Charges 1st News article by the Associated
Press News
article by the Washington Post |
|
Southern Command to Probe
Gitmo Charges By Andrew O. Selsky The Associated Press Friday, October 13, 2006; 3:39 PM San Juan, Puerto Rico - The
U.S. Southern Command has been told to investigate possible abuse at the
Guantanamo Bay prison after a Marine officer said she overheard guards
boasting about abusing detainees, the Pentagon's Inspector General's office
said Friday. Marine Lt. Col. Colby Vokey,
who represents a detainee at the U.S. naval base in eastern Cuba, filed the
"hotline" complaint last week, attaching a sworn statement from his
paralegal, Sgt. Heather Cerveny, 23. In it, Cerveny described comments made by
several guards in a bar at Guantanamo Bay. Several of them bragged about
beating detainees and described it as common practice. "Other ones of them
were talking about how when they get annoyed with the detainees, about how
they hit them, or they punched them in the face," Cerveny told The
Associated Press in a telephone interview Thursday night. "It was a
general consensus that I (detected) that as a group this is something they
did. That this was OK at Guantanamo, that this is how the detainees get treated." Cerveny visited the U.S.
Naval Base in Cuba last month and said she spent an hour with the guards at
the military club. She said they stopped discussing beating detainees after
finding out she works for a detainee's legal team. In her complaint, she wrote:
"From the whole conversation, I understood that striking detainees was a
common practice. ... Everyone in the group laughed at the others' stories of
beating detainees." Asked Thursday if the
conversation could have been exaggerated bar talk, she said, "I don't
think that they were trying to impress me in any way. They were already in a
discussion in there when I walked into a group." She said she filed the
complaint because "I don't think it's right for us to be allowing these
prisoners to be treated poorly. ... I think we should hold ourselves to a
higher standard." Gary Comerford, spokesman
for the Pentagon's Inspector General's office, told The Associated Press that
in the past two days, the case "has been referred to Southcom for
action. They're going to have to look into this." The military Joint Task
Force that runs the detention camps in Guantanamo Bay pledged to work with
investigators from the Miami-based Southern Command, which oversees U.S.
military operations in the Caribbean and Latin America. "The Joint Task Force
will cooperate fully with Southcom to learn the facts of the matter and will
take action where misconduct is discovered," said Navy Cmdr. Rob Durand,
spokesman for the detention center, in an e-mail to the AP from the base. He insisted that his group's
mission "is the safe and humane care and custody of detained enemy
combatants. Abuse or harassment of detainees in any form is not condoned or
tolerated." The Inspector General
receives 14,000 tips on misconduct each year via the hotline, and opens 3,000
cases each year as a result, Comerford said. There are now 454 detainees
at Guantanamo Bay, according to Vincent Lusser, a spokesman for the
Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross. The Red Cross just completed
a two-week visit to the prison, meeting the alleged mastermind of the Sept.
11 attacks and 13 other high-profile detainees who were transferred there
weeks ago from CIA custody. Guantanamo Bay began
receiving prisoners, most of them captured in Afghanistan and Pakistan, in
January 2002. Only 10 of the detainees have been charged with crimes. Associated Press writer
Thomas Watkins in San Diego contributed to this report. © 2006 The Associated Press External link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/13/AR2006101300564.html Red Cross Meets With 14
Moved to Guantanamo Bay By Josh White Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, October 13, 2006; A23 An International Committee
of the Red Cross delegation that visited the U.S. detention facility at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, met with the 14 detainees who had been held for years
in secret CIA custody, the first time the alleged high-value terrorism
suspects had contact with the outside world since their initial confinement. The U.S. military and ICRC
officials confirmed yesterday that Red Cross representatives spent time with
each of the 14 men in the weeks after they were transferred to Guantanamo, a
series of standard meetings during which the detainees were officially
registered with the international humanitarian organization and had an
opportunity to meet with a doctor. Among the men is Khalid
Sheik Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Red
Cross officials do not comment on the details of such meetings or their
recommendations to government captors, citing confidentiality agreements that
allow them unfettered access. They also declined to comment on the conditions
the detainees faced while in secret U.S. custody and on their mental and
physical well-being. Simon Schorno, an ICRC
spokesman in Washington, said yesterday that representatives met with the 14
men who had been in CIA custody and shared their observations with Guantanamo
authorities. "We were able to work
according to our standard modalities," Schorno said. During a visit that began on
Sept. 25 and ends today, the Red Cross met with a total of 454 detainees -
believed to be the facility's entire detainee population - as part of a
regular series of visits aimed at assessing their treatment and facilitating
contact with their families through official letters. Cmdr. Robert Durand, a
Guantanamo spokesman, said yesterday that the ICRC had the opportunity to
meet with all detainees and specifically cited the humane treatment afforded
both the general detainee population and the 14 high-value detainees who
recently arrived. In an e-mail statement, Durand said they receive
"adequate food, shelter and clothing," may worship and have access
to a Koran, and are given exercise and reading opportunities. Also yesterday, Pentagon
officials announced that they had transferred 17 detainees out of Guantanamo
Bay as part of an ongoing effort to reduce the facility's population and to
share the detention burden with allies. Sixteen men were released to
Afghanistan and one was released to Morocco, bringing the total number of
detainees held at Guantanamo to approximately 440. The U.S. military has
deemed an additional 110 detainees eligible for release or transfer. Staff researcher Julie Tate
contributed to this report. © 2006 The Washington Post
Company External link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/12/AR2006101200635.html Ex-Gitmo detainees arrive in
Afghanistan By Rahim Faiez Associated Press Writer October 13, 2006 Kabul, Afghanistan - Sixteen
Afghans and one Iranian released from years in captivity at the U.S. prison
in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, arrived in Afghanistan on Thursday, an Afghan
official said. The 16 Afghans appeared at a
news conference alongside Sibghatullah Mujaddedi, head of Afghanistan's
reconciliation commission, which assists with the release of detainees from
Guantanamo and the U.S. prison at the Bagram military base north of Kabul. Mujaddedi said many of the
detainees, who are now free, had served up to four years in Guantanamo. He
said "most" of the prisoners were innocent and had been turned in
to the U.S. military by other Afghans because of personal disputes. The released Iranian
prisoner, who also arrived in Afghanistan on Thursday, was handed over to the
International Committee of the Red Cross, he said. A U.S. military spokesman in
Kabul confirmed that 16 Afghans had been released from Guantanamo and turned
over to the Afghan government. Lt. Marcelo Calero said he had no information
about the Iranian prisoner. One of the released
prisoners, Sayed Mohammead Ali Shah, said he had been a delegate at the
country's first loya jirga, a council of leaders that helped establish the
interim government in 2002 after the U.S.-led invasion to oust the Taliban in
2001. "For four years they
put me in jail in Cuba for nothing," said Shah, a doctor from the
eastern province of Paktia whose hands shook from nervousness when he spoke. "All these people (the
other prisoners) and all those Afghans still in Cuba, they are innocent,"
he told reporters. "All were arrested because of false reports, and the
Americans, without investigating, they arrested innocent people and put them
in jail for a long time." Another former prisoner,
Habib Rahman, 20, said he was arrested because he had a weapon in his home. "They told me, 'You are
against us, you are anti-American and anti-government and you are fighting
with us,'" said Rahman, from Paktia. "At that time in our area
everyone had weapons. I was innocent and I hadn't participated in any
fighting." Rahman said that he was
treated harshly at Guantanamo, and that one time he was kept awake for 38
hours while being questioned about ties to terrorists. "The last time they
tortured me like that was four months ago," he said. "They were kicking
us all the time, beating us with their hands." Sayed Sharif Yousufy, a
spokesman for the Afghan reconciliation commission, last month said that
between 90 and 110 Afghans were still at Guantanamo, meaning that between
about 74 and 94 would still be there. One of the released
prisoners, Sadir, who only goes by one name, said 74 Afghans remain in
Guantanamo. External link: http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2006/10/13/ex_gitmo_detainees_arrive_in_afghanistan/ |