The worst of the worst at Guantanamo?
Guantanamo and al Qaeda
TOM MAERTENS
But information made available recently, including that posted at TIME.com, suggests that – like other statements about the Global War on Terror – any correlation between the administration’s assertions and the facts is purely coincidental.
The reality appears to be that we swept up a few terrorists and a lot of other people who were/are nothing of the sort.
Public Radio International’s series This American Life recently did a program entitled "Habeas Schmabeas" that reported on the detainees in Guantanamo. (A link is here.)
Their reporter concluded that only about 5% of the detainees held at Gitmo were captured by American forces. Most of the rest were turned over by Northern Alliance and Pakistani forces.
Moreover, some were turned in as a result of a bounty offered by U.S. forces for al Qaeda members. The bounty varied from $5,000 to $10,000, a fortune for many people in that part of the world.
The result is what you would expect: a lot of prisoners fingered to settle old scores, some politicians ridding themselves of troublemakers, a few opportunists abusing the program for money, and… a few al Qaeda actually turned in.
PRI reporter Jack Hitt quoted informed sources that conclude only about 8% of the detainees at Gitmo are al Qaeda members, and very few of them significant leaders. It appears there are between one and two dozen al Qaeda foot soldiers at Gitmo. Most of the big time al Qaeda members are kept in secret CIA prisons previously located in Europe, but because of the political uproar, now relocated to North Africa.
How it is we swept up 13- and 14-year olds is a mystery. The administration contends they didn't have passports and so there was no way to tell their ages. What they were detained for is also a mystery. Throwing stones? Turned in by angry imams for failing to memorize the Koran?
Almost two hundred detainees have been released in the last 3+ years. Few have been interviewed, although Hitt has located some, who apparently are innocent civilians wrongly imprisoned.
The administration has made much of the fact that a few of those released later took up arms against the U.S. The government claim is that they were al Qaeda members the whole time and deceived U.S. interrogators to win their release – the "masters of deceit" argument.
It’s at least as plausible, reading the description of the treatment accorded to detainees, that they took up arms to exact revenge for mistreatment at the hands of the U.S. Even some FBI agents protested the military’s treatment of prisoners. (See the "FBI Agents Complained of Prisoner Abuse, Records Say" from March 12, below.)
It appears that U.S. interrogation methods were sufficiently harsh as to be self-defeating, causing detainees to turn against one another simply to stop the pain. Thus one detainee after another finds himself subjected to greater abuse as a result of other prisoners’ statements, and he in turn tries to stop the pain the same way.
Meanwhile every major human rights organization in the world has condemned the U.S. mistreatment of the detainees, its refusal to abide by the Geneva Convention, and its failure to provide the detainees access to an impartial hearing on their status.
A history of detainee releases is contained here.
TOM MAERTENS
"According to [Secretary] Powell, the military is holding one 13-year-old, one 14-year-old, two 15-year-olds, one 16-year-old, an 88-year-old, and a 98-year-old. Powell also questioned why it is taking so long to reach 'a final determination'on the fate of the roughly 660 people from 42 countries being held at the base." (U.S. News and World Report 5/12/03)Secretary Rumsfeld has called those detained at Guantanamo the "worst of the worst," and George Bush has termed them terrorists and "bad guys."
But information made available recently, including that posted at TIME.com, suggests that – like other statements about the Global War on Terror – any correlation between the administration’s assertions and the facts is purely coincidental.
The reality appears to be that we swept up a few terrorists and a lot of other people who were/are nothing of the sort.
Public Radio International’s series This American Life recently did a program entitled "Habeas Schmabeas" that reported on the detainees in Guantanamo. (A link is here.)
Their reporter concluded that only about 5% of the detainees held at Gitmo were captured by American forces. Most of the rest were turned over by Northern Alliance and Pakistani forces.
Moreover, some were turned in as a result of a bounty offered by U.S. forces for al Qaeda members. The bounty varied from $5,000 to $10,000, a fortune for many people in that part of the world.
The result is what you would expect: a lot of prisoners fingered to settle old scores, some politicians ridding themselves of troublemakers, a few opportunists abusing the program for money, and… a few al Qaeda actually turned in.
PRI reporter Jack Hitt quoted informed sources that conclude only about 8% of the detainees at Gitmo are al Qaeda members, and very few of them significant leaders. It appears there are between one and two dozen al Qaeda foot soldiers at Gitmo. Most of the big time al Qaeda members are kept in secret CIA prisons previously located in Europe, but because of the political uproar, now relocated to North Africa.
How it is we swept up 13- and 14-year olds is a mystery. The administration contends they didn't have passports and so there was no way to tell their ages. What they were detained for is also a mystery. Throwing stones? Turned in by angry imams for failing to memorize the Koran?
Almost two hundred detainees have been released in the last 3+ years. Few have been interviewed, although Hitt has located some, who apparently are innocent civilians wrongly imprisoned.
The administration has made much of the fact that a few of those released later took up arms against the U.S. The government claim is that they were al Qaeda members the whole time and deceived U.S. interrogators to win their release – the "masters of deceit" argument.
It’s at least as plausible, reading the description of the treatment accorded to detainees, that they took up arms to exact revenge for mistreatment at the hands of the U.S. Even some FBI agents protested the military’s treatment of prisoners. (See the "FBI Agents Complained of Prisoner Abuse, Records Say" from March 12, below.)
It appears that U.S. interrogation methods were sufficiently harsh as to be self-defeating, causing detainees to turn against one another simply to stop the pain. Thus one detainee after another finds himself subjected to greater abuse as a result of other prisoners’ statements, and he in turn tries to stop the pain the same way.
Meanwhile every major human rights organization in the world has condemned the U.S. mistreatment of the detainees, its refusal to abide by the Geneva Convention, and its failure to provide the detainees access to an impartial hearing on their status.
A history of detainee releases is contained here.
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