Guantanamo Bay detention camp
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| A US military base now used primarily as a torture camp due to its obscure legal jurisdiction. After campaigning in 2009 on promises to shut it down within a year, in 2014 Barack Obama announced plans to expand it. |
In January 2002, US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said the prison camp was established to detain extraordinarily dangerous prisoners, to interrogate prisoners in an optimal setting. This may refer to the exceptional legal status of the camp, which is on the island of Cuba; policies of torture and kidnapping on US territory would very likely provoke legal challenges under state law. As of 2014, the entire prison is composed of around 2,200 military and civilian personnel, who monitor around 150 "terrorists", most of whom have never been charged with a crime.[1] [2]
War on terror
- Full article: War on terror
- Full article: War on terror
As part of the "war on terror", the US government sought to promote violent Islamic terrorism.[3] More or less open torture established that old legal precedents need not apply, while naturally stirring up violent opposition and hatred amongst terrorising the populations subject to it (e.g. Muslim populations in Middle East). Torture of detainees in Guantanamo Bay was used a source of false evidence which was cited (with appropriate censorship on grounds of "national security") as post hoc justification for anti-terrorism measures and the continued ramping up of the "war on terror". For example, the 9/11 Commission Report's claim that Al Qaida "did it", which widely cited evidence derived from torture.
Closure promise
US President Barack Obama promised to shut the Guantanamo Bay detention camp within the year.[1] On 20 May 2009, the United States Senate passed an amendment to the Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2009 (H.R. 2346) by a 90–6 vote to block funds needed for the transfer or release of prisoners held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.[4]
On 7 January 2011, President Obama signed the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act, which, in part, placed restrictions on the transfer of Guantanamo prisoners to the mainland or to foreign countries, thus effectively preventing the closure of the facility.[5]
Murder Allegations
Army Staff Sergeant Joseph Hickman, on guard at Camp Delta on the night of June 9, 2006 alleged in his 2015 book Murder at Camp Delta that three prisoners were murdered by the CIA. The US government's official narrative is that all three committed suicide by hanging themselves in their cells.
Expansion
In May 2014 the US Congress allocated $69 million for a new secret jail at Guantanamo Bay to hold a small number of former CIA prisoners.[1]
Trials
- Full article: James Pohl
- Full article: James Pohl
In 2013, defense lawyers accused Colonel James Pohl, a judge at the trials of among others Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, of having "conspired with the prosecution to destroy evidence relevant to defending the accused architect of the 9/11 attacks"[6].
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/05/10/362035/us-earmarks-69m-for-new-gitmo-prison/
- ↑ "No charges, no justice: Almost 19 years later, the forgotten Guantanamo is now a dilemma for Biden"
- ↑ Fifty Years of the Deep State by Mark Gorton
- ↑ "Senate votes to block funds for Guantanamo closure"
- ↑ "Obama signs Defense authorization Bill"
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/31/9-11-attacks-destroyed-evidence-khalid-sheikh-mohammed