Taxi to the Dark Side Page #12

But now they are NLEC, which means "No Longer Enemy Combatants,"

because we want to say they were guilty to begin with,

but now they've had a change of heart so they're not guilty anymore. But we were right in the first place.

These men aren't necessarily innocent men.

That's not an accurate characterization. You're more accurate in their long title:

"No longer identified as an enemy combatant."

They are being held separate from the remainder of the detainees

until the United States Government can find a country they can be returned to.

[Military PR guy] Some of these guys were policed off the battle field.

And if they weren't here, they'd probably be on the battlefield killing American soldiers.

They are here for a reason. And it's our job to insure that they stay here

until such time as it's "deemed" that they don't need to be here any longer.

[Clive Stafford Smith, Lawyer for Guantanamo detainees, including Moazzam Begg] Guantanamo is hiding the fact that the really bad dudes...

Aiman Al, and of course Osama bin Laden...have never been captured.

So you have Guantanamo Bay as, "Here are 750 really evil guys" as a PR stunt, effectively.

To say, "Look, we're really achieving something in the war on terror."

[PR Guy] And that is the main entrance to Camp X-Ray.

It would be extremely difficult for anybody to make an escape out of here.

Each one is 8 x 8 x 8. One individual per cell.

If you remember the individuals in the orange jumpsuits,

there's like three or four kneeling facing that way, and three or four kneeling facing that way.

If you take a shot from right here, you'll have the same image.

And no detainee has ever died at GTMO from anything. Since this interview 4 Guantanamo detainees have commited suicide

And I think the doctors gave you an update: We've performed well over 100 surgeries.

So one good thing for them being here is they are quite healthy, and getting anything fixed they need getting fixed.

[PR Girl] We've introduced some new sports-type activities here in Camp 4.

We've recently built this half-basketball court.

And off to the left of that, you will see a soccer court.

It is a privilege to live in Camp 4. They are compliant with the camp rules in order to live here.

And we have introduced things like cake on Wednesday nights.

Pepsi on Monday nights. Ice cream on Sunday nights.

Let's go in and take a look at the Bed.

[Clive Stafford Smith, Lawyer for Guantanamo detainees, including Moazzam Begg] On the bed, they have the so-called "CI's",

or "comfort items," like a toothbrush! But also included is a game of Checkers.

And I did ask them, "Who is my partner to play Checkers with?" He's in solitary confinement by himself.

What's the problem with the press photographing them?

Talking with them? Observing them?

[Brigadier General Jay Hood, Commander Joint Task Force, Guantanamo 2004-2006] The desire to not provide a platform

To have the men we're holding espouse vile, Islamic rhetoric. A violent, vile, Islamic rhetoric!

[PR Guy] This is a tactic of al Qaeda: hunger strike to elicit media attention,

and to bring pressure on the United States Government.

When these numbers go up significantly, you guys start talking about it. You guys start asking about it.

81 detainees were on Hunger Strike during our tour So they understand that.

[PR Guy] Camp 5 is a 100-bed, maximum security segregation interrogation facility.

[Clive Stafford Smith, Lawyer for Guantanamo detainees, including Moazzam Begg] If they're held in Camp 5, an average day is always the same.

Which is you're held 24 hours in solitary confinement.

[Moazzam Begg, 20 months in isolation, Guantanamo] Here in the cell, it was 8' x 6', and I couldn't physically take 3 steps in any direction.

I certainly believed that I was going to spend the greater part of my life,

and perhaps even face execution, which was what I was told quite often.

[Clive Stafford Smith, Lawyer for Guantanamo detainees, including Moazzam Begg] What's particularly pernicious in Guantanamo Bay

is there is no sense of when it's going to end, or if it's going to end.

And the reason that prisoners go on hunger strike, for example, and may starve themselves to death,

Is, in the words of Omar Deghayes, "I'm dying slowly here in Guantanamo as it is.

So I may as well take my life into my own hands."

[Brigadier General Jay Hood, Commander Joint Task Force, Guantanamo 2004-2006] I have no intention of holding somebody here any longer than he is a threat to our country

Or that he has intelligence or information that could be valuable to us in the global war on terror.

We continue to collect information of value from the men we're holding today.

[Moazzam Begg, 20 months in isolation, Guantanamo] One of the reasons why I was held in isolation was

to do with this issue of witnessing these deaths in Bagram.

And they asked me which soldiers had been involved, and where they were at the time.

And so they brought in photographs of the people from the unit.

And I pointed out who I believed was involved.

They asked me...one of the strangest requests I've ever had during the time I was in incarceration

And that was, "Would I be willing to stand up as a witness for the prosecution in a trial against these soldiers?"

And I thought, "How ironic this is." You know.

"Is this the only court that I'm going to get to see after all these years in incarceration?"

The cruel ironies of the Dilawar story echoed an ongoing debate in the halls of Congress

about detainee abuse, national security, and the rule of law.

For one senator, John McCain, a former prisoner of war,

the matter of detainee abuse was both political and personal.

[John McCain, North Vietnam, 1968] I would just like to tell my wife I'm going to get well,

I love her, and I hope to see her soon.

And I'd appreciate it if you'd tell her that. That's all.

[Jack Cloonan, FBI Special Agent 1977-2002] If this man, after 6-1/2 or 7 years of torture, says that it's not efficient,

it's inhumane, and it breeds contempt for the United States,

He can stand up and be a moral voice on this issue.

[Senator John McCain] We sent them to fight for us in Afgan and Iraq.

We placed extraordinary pressure on them to extract intelligence from detainees.

But then we threw out the rules that our soldiers had trained on,

and replaced them with a confusing and constantly changing array of standards.

And when things went wrong, we blamed them. And we punished them.

I believe we have to do better than that.

I strongly urge you to do justice to your men and women in uniform.

Give them clear standards of conduct that reflect the ideals they risk their lives for.

On October 5, 2005, as increasing numbers of detainee abuse cases came to trial.

Senator John McCain proposed the Detainee Treatment Act.

The bill sought a total U.S. ban on torture. As well as cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

And it sparked a national debate. One in which the Devil was in the details.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes