Taxi to the Dark Side Page #6

Of course I'm familiar with it, but they didn't go over that in any kind of detail.

[PFC. Damien Corsetti, Mil-Intel, Bagram] I didn't know what the Field Manual for Interrogation,

I didn't know the proper nomenclature for it. I'd seen it.

There was a copy lying around, I'm sure, somewhere.

And if I had chosen to, I could have picked it up and read it. But I was working 16-hour days.

To sit down and read a Field Manual was not top of my priorities over there.

[Vice-President Dick Cheney] It is a mean, nasty, dangerous, dirty business out there.

And we have to operate in that arena.

I'm convinced we can do it. We can do it successfully.

But we need to make certain that we have not tied the hands,

if you will, of our Intelligence Communities in terms of accomplishing their mission.

[Fox News] These terrorists play by a whole different set of rules.

It's going to force us...in your words...to get mean, dirty and nasty? in order to take them on?

[Vice-President Dick Cheney] Uh-hmm. Right.

Guided by a legal opinion from John Yoo,

The Bush Administration began shipping some high-value detainees

to the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

[Rear Admiral John Hutson (Ret.), Former Judge Advocate General, 30 Years Military Experience] Initially I thought, "Good, safe place! Put them there, barbed wire all over."

Then it became apparent the reason we were doing it was because we were going to argue that there's no law.

You know, Cuban law didn't apply. U.S. law didn't apply.

Well, that was a big step down the slippery slope.

[John Yoo, Dept. of Justice, Office of Legal Counsel 2001-2003] I think what the policy makers are trying to do

was to try and find a place that was physically close to the United States

so it can be well-protected but still would benefit from the rule

that the United States Military has ultimate say and control over any prisoners held outside the country.

["President" George W. Bush] One by one the terrorists are learning the meaning of American "Justice."

The Government argues unpersuasively that abstention is appropriate under Councilman, which concluded that,

As a matter of comity, federal courts should normally abstain from intervening in pending courts-martial against service members, see 420 U. S., at 740.

Neither of the comity considerations Councilman identified weighs in favor of abstention here.

First, the assertion that military discipline and, therefore, the Armed Forces efficient operation, are best served if the military justice system acts

without regular interference from civilian courts, see id., at 752, is inapt because Hamdan is not a service member.

Second, the view that federal courts should respect the balance Congress struck when it created an integrated system of military courts and review procedures is inapposite,

since the tribunal convened to try Hamdan is not part of that integrated system. Rather than Councilman, the most relevant precedent is Ex parte Quirin,

where the Court, far from abstaining pending the conclusion of ongoing military proceedings, expedited its review because of (1) the public importance of the questions raised,

(2) the Courts duty, in both peace and war, to preserve the constitutional safeguards of civil liberty, and (3) the public interest in a decision on those questions without delay, 317 U. S, at 19.

The Government has identified no countervailing interest that would permit federal courts to depart from their general duty

to exercise the jurisdiction Congress has conferred on them Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, decided by the United States Supreme Court on June 29, 2006

The appeals court relied on a statement in Johnson v. Eisentrager, 339 U. S. 763 , n. 14, suggesting that this Court lacked power even to consider the merits of a Convention argument

because the political and military authorities had sole responsibility for observing and enforcing prisoners rights under the Convention.

However, Eisentrager does not control here because, regardless of the nature of the rights conferred on Hamdan, cf. United States v. Rauscher, 119 U. S. 407,

They are indisputably part of the law of war, see Hamdi, 542 U. S., at 520~521, compliance with which is the condition upon which UCMJ Art. 21 authority is granted

Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, decided by the United States Supreme Court on June 29, 2006

In December, 2001, a man named Mohamed al-Kahtani [Muhammed al-Qahtani] was swept up in Afgan and sent to Guantanamo.

After eight months in detention, the Army "discovered" that he "may have" trained to be the 20th hijacker.

Suddenly, Kahtani became the most important detainee in Guantanamo.

[Brigadier General Jay Hood, Commander Joint Task Force, Guantanamo 2004-2006] Here we had a man who was supposed to have been

on that plane that was flown into the Pennsylvania countryside.

So I think there was a sense of urgency to find out what this guy knew in order to be able to prevent any future attacks.

[Lt. General Randall M. Schmidt, Author of "Schmidt Report"] He successfully resisted standard interrogation techniques at Guantanamo for eight months.

And he is the genesis for the request by the Joint Task Force at Guantanamo for more techniques

that might be able to get past his resistance training.

In September 2002, John Yoo and Alberto Gonzales traveled to Guantanamo.

Soon after their visit, and just before Dilawar's arrival at Bagram,

Donald Rumsfeld personally approved a new menu of psychological interrogation techniques for use on Mohamed al-Kahtani.

Exactly how the techniques would be applied was often left to the imagination of the interrogators.

[Gita Gutierrez, Lawyer for Mohammed al-Qahtani] His interrogations are well documented in a log,

and from November, 2002 until early January, 2003,

He was subjected to this regime.

It involved very severe sleep deprivation.

He was only permitted to sleep 4 hours a day

From 7:
00 in the morning to 11:00 in the morning. and that lasted for 50 days with one exception.

He was held in severe isolation and sensory deprivation.

There are a number of instances in the log where you will see the phrase "invasion of space by a female."

And that was actually an interrogation tactic designed to break his faith.

[Lt. General Randall M. Schmidt, Author of "Schmidt Report"] The Interrogator approached Detainee from behind,

and rubbed his back, whispered in his ear, and ran fingers through his hair.

That was authorized under the utility technique.

[Gita Gutierrez, Lawyer for Mohammed al-Qahtani] He was subjected to what I would call "sexual assault" by female interrogators.

[Lt. General Randall M. Schmidt, Author of "Schmidt Report"] He was forced to wear women's lingerie.

There were multiple allegations of homosexuality, and that his comrades were aware of that.

He was forced to dance with a male interrogator.

Subject to strip searches for control measures, not for security.

And he was forced to perform dog tricks. All of this to lower his personal sense of worth.

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