A Gitmo lawyer on America's black hole: "I AM WRITING FROM GUANTANAMO BAY..."

[DeepModem Mom]

LAT: Gitmo: America's black hole
A lawyer for prison detainees is struck by how the immoral mistreatment of inmates has become so mundade.
By Clive Stafford Smith
October 5, 2007

GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA --

I am writing from the Combined Bachelors' Quarters on the leeward side of Guantanamo Bay. Particularly in the age of "don't ask, don't tell," it is a strange name for a military barracks. Yet the irony of this place runs deep, as does the tragedy. The base motto is "Honor Bound to Defend Freedom," even though my clients, who are prisoners in the detention center, have none.

I've been here meeting with them this week, but I can't tell you what anyone has told me, as it must all go through the censors. It does not matter that the topic may be as innocuous as Speedo swimwear, for each word is considered a potential threat to national security. (Why would a lawyer talk about Speedos? Because, a few weeks ago, a commander alleged that I smuggled in Speedos and Under Armour underwear to one client, apparently so he could paddle around in the only pool available to him, his privy.)

Most of the secrecy in Guantanamo involves suppressing bad news about the base rather than anything that should really be classified. But I obey the rules or I go to jail, so until I get permission, I can only write about what I see, not what is said.

I had a morning meeting scheduled with Sami Haj, the Al Jazeera journalist, no more a terrorist than my grandmother. Sami's original arrest in Pakistan in late 2001 was perhaps understandable because the U.S. military thought he had filmed an interview with Osama bin Laden. To track down the criminal behind 9/11, many people would accept a little trampled due process. Unfortunately, as has often been the case, the intelligence turned out to be wrong. Yet Sami remained in custody. On the fifth anniversary of his detention without trial, his patience wore thin and he went on a hunger strike, the age-old peaceful protest against injustice....

***

In more than 20 years trying death-penalty cases, I have visited all the worst prisons in the Deep South, yet none compares to Camp Six here. To the military, this tribute to Halliburton's profiteering is state-of-the-art; to the human being, it is simply inhumane. The prisoners have an average of 23 hours a day in isolation, six hours of direct sunlight a month, perhaps one fishing magazine a week to read, and never, ever the chance to see a loved one. The immoral has become so mundane.

(Clive Stafford Smith is the legal director of Reprieve, a British charity that provides legal representation to prisoners around the world. He is also the author of "Eight O'Clock Ferry to the Windward Side: Seeking Justice in Guantanamo Bay.")

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-smith5oct05,0,792214.story?coll=la-home-commentary

[CrispyQ]

1. "The immoral has become so mundane."

k&r

[tblue37]

9. Hannah Arendt called it "the banality of evil."

She was, of course, referring to Hitler and the Nazis, especially to the industrialized murder of the Holocaust.

[Maat]

2. This is SO appalling ..

and is one of the reasons this law school graduate's stomach churns everyday.

[DeepModem Mom]

3. Thanks for commenting from your perspective, Maat. nt

[Maat]

10. Take care DMM!

We have to keep fighting and keep our spirits up.

[Hydra]

4. Everything about this madness has become "mundane"

Torture, imprisonment without charge, lying to the UN about a country's threat to the world(twice).

I was arguing with a koolaid drinker yesterday...he had no problem that we were doing all of these things, and why weren't we doing them sooner to "protect america."

Complicity in this makes me sick.

:puke:

[mmonk]

5. Rightwingers never see this as a threat to themselves.

I'm always reminded of "First they came for the Jews".

[Hydra]

8. You nailed it

I know better- the closer you are to the ones in power, the closer you are to the headsman.

Bush has no respect for his "supporters"- he thinks they're morons. As such, if he needed to sacrifice all of them for a material gain, he'd have no problem with it.

They have no idea that they're already fishbait. I find that amusing, now and then. :evilgrin:

[DeepModem Mom]

6. Olbermann asked last night how far we had come from what America is supposed to be...

or words to that effect. I wonder if we haven't been educated enough in some years about what America is supposed to be -- or if, starting with the Reagan years, what we are supposed to be somehow changed, and what was once unacceptable, is now, as you and the writer note, "mundane."

[Hydra]

7. The fools have been convinced that we, as a nation,

cannot be WRONG. Therefore, anything we do must be justified, and should be accepted and even cheered when appropriate.

That form of brainwashing doesn't work on me, since I know authority rarely has clean hands.

[Richard Steele]

11. And the RW views Guantanamo as a MODEL; a blueprint for the future. recommended.