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Jun 25, 2005
By Anthony Lewis
When Vice President Dick
Cheney said last week that
detainees at the American
prison camp in Guantánamo
Bay, Cuba, were treated better
than they would be "by
virtually any other government
on the face of the earth,"
he was carrying on what has
become a campaign to whitewash
the record of abuses at Guantánamo.
Right-wing commentators have
been sounding the theme. Charles
Krauthammer, a columnist,
said the treatment of the
Guantánamo prisoners
had been "remarkably
humane and tolerant."
Yes, and there is no elephant
in the room.
FBI agents observed what
went on in Guantánamo.
One reported on July 29, 2004:
"On a couple of occasions,
I entered interview rooms
to find a detainee chained
hand and foot in a fetal position
to the floor, with no chair,
food or water. Most times
they had urinated or defecated
on themselves and had been
left there for 18, 24 hours
or more."
Time magazine published an
extended article last week
on an official log of interrogations
of one Guantánamo detainee
over 50 days from November
2002 to January 2003. The
detainee was Mohamed al-Kahtani,
a Saudi who is suspected of
being the planned 20th hijacker
on Sept. 11, 2001, but who
was unable to enter the United
States.
Al-Kahtani was interrogated
for as long as 20 hours at
a stretch, according to the
detailed log. At one point
he was put on an intravenous
drip and given three and a
half bags of fluid. When he
asked to urinate, guards told
him that he must first answer
questions. He answered them.
The interrogator, not satisfied
with the answers, told him
to urinate in his pants, which
he did.
FBI agents, reporting earlier
on the treatment of al-Kahtani,
said a dog was used "in
an aggressive manner to intimidate"
him. At one point, according
to the log, al-Kahtani's interrogator
told him that he needed to
learn, like a dog, to show
respect: "Began teaching
detainee lessons such as stay,
come and bark to elevate his
social status to that of a
dog. Detainee became very
agitated."
At a minimum, the treatment
of al-Kahtani was an exercise
in degradation and humiliation.
Such treatment is forbidden
by three sources of law that
the United States respected
for decades - until the administration
of George W. Bush: the Geneva
conventions, the UN Convention
Against Torture and the Uniform
Code of Military Justice.
The idea that a president
can legalize the unlawful
evidently came from a series
of memorandums written by
Justice Department officials.
They argued, among other things,
that Bush's authority as commander
in chief to set interrogation
methods could trump treaties
and federal law.
Although Bush decided to
deny detainees at Guantánamo
the protection of the Geneva
conventions, he did order
that they must be treated
"humanely." The
Pentagon, responding to the
Time magazine article on the
treatment of al-Kahtani, said,
"The Department of Defense
remains committed to the unequivocal
standard of humane treatment
for all detainees, and Kahtani's
interrogation plan was guided
by that strict standard."
In the view of the administration,
then, it is "humane"
to make a detainee urinate
on himself, force him to bark
like a dog, or chain him to
the floor for 18 hours.
No one can seriously doubt
now that cruelties and indignities
have been inflicted on prisoners
at Guantánamo. Nor
is there any doubt that worse
has happened elsewhere - prisoners
beaten to death by American
soldiers, untold others held
in secret locations by the
CIA, others rendered to be
tortured by governments such
as Uzbekistan's.
Since the widespread outrage
over the photographs from
Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq,
Americans have seemingly ceased
to care. It was reported Monday
that Lieutenant General Ricardo
Sanchez, the former American
commander in Iraq during the
Abu Ghraib scandal, is being
considered for promotion.
Many people would say the
mistreatment of Mohamed al-Kahtani,
or of suspects who may well
be innocent, is justified
in a war with terrorists.
Morality is outweighed by
necessity.
The moral cost is not so
easily put aside. We Americans
have a sense of ourselves
as a moral people. We have
led the way in the fight for
human rights in the world.
Mistreating prisoners makes
the world see our moral claims
as hypocrisy.
Beyond morality, there is
the essential role of law
in a democracy, especially
in American democracy. The
United States has no ancient
mythology to hold it together,
no kings or queens. We have
had the law to revere. No
government, we tell ourselves,
is above the law.
Over many years the United
States has worked to persuade
and compel governments around
the world to abide by the
rules. By spurning our own
rules, we put that effort
at risk. What Justice Louis
Brandeis said about law at
home applies internationally
as well: "If the government
becomes a law-breaker, it
breeds contempt for law."
Anthony Lewis is a former
New York Times columnist.
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