8.2.13
Last week at Guantánamo, a farcical dance played out, as it does every six months or so. Representatives of the US mainstream media — and other reporters from around the world — flew to the US naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to witness the latest round of the seemingly interminable pre-trial hearings in the cases of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other men accused of masterminding, or otherwise facilitating the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 on New York and Washington D.C.
The farce of the Guantánamo trials is, by now, well established, although last week’s hearings introduced the novelty of a hidden hand, unknown even to the judge, flicking an invisible switch to silence potentially embarrassing testimony, and the proceedings also took place against the backdrop of two courtroom appeals that have dealt savage blows to the claimed legitimacy of the commissions.
In the case of the 9/11 trial, a permanent feature is the seemingly insoluble tussle between the prosecution and the defense. On the one hand are the attorneys for the accused, whose job is to try and ensure that their clients do not receive unfair trials. This involves attempting, incessantly, to point out the elephant in the room — the fact that all the men were held for many years in “black sites” run by the CIA, where they were subjected to torture, approved at the highest levels of the government during the Bush administration, even though torture is a crime. On the other hand are the prosecutors, whose job, above all, appears to be to hide all mention of torture. In the middle is the judge — in the case of the “high-value detainees,” Army Col. James L. Pohl, who replaced Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann as the Chief Presiding Officer for the Military Commissions on January 6, 2009.
During his four years in the job, Col. Pohl has not been able to demonstrate that the system of which he is the Chief Presiding Officer is credible. President Obama initially suspended the commissions on taking office in January 2009, while he reviewed them, but although he brought them back to life in the fall of 2009, little had changed from the system George W. Bush revived in the fall of 2006, after the Supreme Court had ruled that the first version introduced in 2001, after the 9/11 attacks — and the particular brainchild, it seems, of Dick Cheney and David Addington — was illegal.
Beyond the glaring fact that no coherent case can be made for holding military commission trials rather than trials in federal court, Obama’s revived commissions share one particular problem with the version approved by Congress in 2006 — war crimes invented by Congress, including providing material support for terrorism and conspiracy. In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee in July 2009, two senior Obama administration officials — Jeh Johnson, the Defense Department’s General Counsel (PDF), and David Kris, the Assistant Attorney General in the Justice Department’s National Security Division (PDF) — both argued that material support should be excluded from the list of crimes triable by military commission, because they thought it probable that an appeals court would reverse any successful conviction, concluding that material support is not a traditional violation of the law of war.
The warnings of Jeh Johnson and David Kris fell on deaf ears, but they were correct in their analysis, although it was not until October 16, 2012 that the Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. — a deeply conservative court — threw out the conviction of Salim Hamdan, a driver for Osama bin Laden, who had been convicted of “providing material support to terrorism” at his trial by military commission in August 2008.
The court stated, “When Hamdan committed the conduct in question, the international law of war proscribed a variety of war crimes, including forms of terrorism. At that time, however, the international law of war did not proscribe material support for terrorism as a war crime.”
The Hamdan embarrassment was followed by another court defeat, on the eve of the 9/11 hearings. As the New York Times pointed out in an article a month ago about the problems facing the administration regarding the legitimacy of the commissions, the charge of “conspiracy” was “another charge the Justice Department has agreed is not part of the international laws of war,” and was of relevance because the only other conviction in the commissions (as opposed to the four decisions reached through plea deals) was the conviction of Ali Hamza al-Bahlul, who received a life sentence in November 2008, after a one-sided trial in which he refused to mount a defense, for making propaganda videos for al-Qaeda.
Al-Bahlul was convicted of conspiracy and material support, but when the ruling was delivered on January 25, 2013, the Court of Appeals vacated his conviction for material support, conspiracy, and another charge, solicitation, citing a supplemental brief filed by the government on January 9, 2013, advising the Court that it took the “position that Hamdan requires reversal of Bahlul’s convictions by military commission.”
Various branches of the government now appear to be at loggerheads, with the Defense Department accepting defeat, while the Justice Department plans to appeal to the Supreme Court. No one quite knows what will happen to al-Bahlul, who can be held forever according to the twisted logic of the “war on terror,” even with a vacated conviction. It appears that he will have to be returned to the general population at Guantánamo, rather than being in the wing for those who have passed through the commissions system (which currently only holds two other men), but it remains to be seen if he will be tried again.
However, with conspiracy and material support now both demolished as valid charges by one of the most conservative courts in the land, the entire edifice of the military commissions looks hollow and ridiculous, and as representatives of the media flew out to Guantánamo for the 9/11 hearings, just days after the al-Bahlul decision, there was a heightened sense, amongst those paying attention to the important matters at stake, that the farce would be darker and more ridiculous than ever.
As a result of the al-Bahlul ruling, the exposure of fictional war crimes — and the terrible impact that has on America’s credibility — was added to the trials’ familiar problems; namely, that the military commission system is, patently, an untried system, full of holes, which splutters to life every few months, when the world briefly wakes up to it, and then proceeds to look like a shabby version of a real courtroom, where real crimes are prosecuted.
This time, however, a surprise awaited the reporters — and Judge Pohl.
Much debate has focused, in previous hearings, on the switch that the judge can use to silence testimony if he believes that those speaking are straying into forbidden territory — in other words, when the accused, or their attorneys, wish to mention torture. Last week, however, new depths of absurdity were plumbed when an unknown figure behind the scenes, acting independently of Judge Pohl, and without the judge’s knowledge, cut the audio feed using an unknown switch in an unknown location.
As the Miami Herald explained, “The role of an outside censor became clear when the audio turned to white noise during a discussion of a motion about the CIA’s black sites.” Judge Pohl, however, made clear that “neither he nor his security officer was responsible for the censorship episode,” and stated, publicly, “If some external body is turning the commission off based on their own views of what things ought to be, with no reasonable explanation, then we are going to have a little meeting about who turns that light on or off.”
The Miami Herald added, “His comments appeared to be aimed at the Pentagon prosecution team. Attorney Joanna Baltes, representing the Justice Department on secrecy matters in the case, advised the judge that she could explain what other forces have a hand in censoring the court proceedings. But not in open session.”
When even the judge is not safe from interference by a body — presumably the CIA — that cannot even be mentioned publicly, provoking a public outburst that reveals his frustrations at being undermined, it is time for all concerned to recognize that the farce must end.
With the commissions completely discredited, President Obama needs to bring the 9/11 defendants to New York to face a federal court trial, as Attorney General Eric Holder announced in November 2009, before the President beat a retreat in the face of critics sniveling that it was not safe to do so. That made America look cowardly and stupid, but the commissions are not improving matters in the slightest, and, it seems certain, are incapable of delivering anything that resembles justice.
Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK) and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed — and I can also be found on Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Flickr (my photos) and YouTube. Also see my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, updated in April 2012, “The Complete Guantánamo Files,” a 70-part, million-word series drawing on files released by WikiLeaks in April 2011, and details about the documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, and available on DVD here — or here for the US). Also see my definitive Guantánamo habeas list and the chronological list of all my articles, and please also consider joining the new “Close Guantánamo campaign,” and, if you appreciate my work, feel free to make a donation.
As published exclusively on the website of the Future of Freedom Foundation.
Investigative journalist, author, campaigner, commentator and public speaker. Recognized as an authority on Guantánamo and the “war on terror.” Co-founder, Close Guantánamo and We Stand With Shaker, singer/songwriter (The Four Fathers).
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12 Responses
Andy Worthington says...
On Facebook, Peter A. Dimitriou wrote:
Andy, keep fighting the good fight, the world is watching!!!
...on February 8th, 2013 at 10:39 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks, Peter. Those are very encouraging words!
...on February 8th, 2013 at 10:39 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Spencer Spratley wrote:
Great work, as always, Andy. Your contribution to the historical record has been, and continues to be, of the upmost importance and signifigance. I have been sharing your book with different people over the last few years and it has opened a lot of eyes.
...on February 9th, 2013 at 8:01 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thank you, Spencer. That’s very kind. You just made my day!
...on February 9th, 2013 at 8:02 pm
Jeff Kaye says...
Your continuing coverage and commentary is so important, Andy, as others keep pointing out. The M.C.’s have certainly left controversy status and sailed off into seas of the absurd. Unfortunately, the absurdity of it all is grounded in a long, long tradition of U.S. use of torture. assassination, and covert operations to destabilize countries around the world. Hence my only critique pertains to your headline, i.e. that America has “lost its way.”
Joyce famously wrote, “History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.” He could have written U.S. history (and that of its allies). Btw, have you read Caroline Elkins’ book, “Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in Kenya”? That history if quite apposite as regards the last decade-plus history in Guantanamo, Bagram, the Black Sites, etc.
...on February 9th, 2013 at 10:40 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Hi Jeff,
Great to hear from you, as ever, and I did have your critique in mind when I wrote about the US losing its way. I meant, as I’m sure you know, that America is not more lost than it was under Bush, but that wasn’t very soundbite-y.
I hadn’t heard of Caroline Elkins’ book. I’m sure it’s excellent, and there are many, many people for whom it should be required reading, but I don;t suppose it will pierce the mainstream ignorance about Britain’s role in the history of empire – the one that claims that “we,” uniquely, were not barbaric like all the other countries.
Keep up the great work, Jeff. You and a few others are America’s conscience, digging away while your country is in a deep slumber.
...on February 10th, 2013 at 2:35 am
Dave Pastern says...
Excellent article (I am yet to read your book on the subject though). It really does show how broken the US government is, and how corrupt the military court system. There is also no doubt in my mind that the civil court system (if it ever managed to get there) would be utterly corrupted by the powers that be.
I would raise a few other issues – the open calls for assassination of Julian Assange by various members of the American political system – is that not reason to charge said persons with attempted murder, and conspiracy to murder? And if that is the case, why have said persons not been charged? I mean, the US government charges several men for saying they want to murder Obama, how is that any different, especially since they lacked the ability and means to perform such an act (in reality)? http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/14/us-usa-colorado-crime-idUSBRE8AD07120121114 & http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/obama-twitter-death-threats-486712. Are these not invasions of freedom of speech? The church of westboro can seemingly do things like this and escape conviction based on freedom of speech.
I have no faith in the Australian judicial and governmental systems (look at their lack of assistance to Mr Assange), and even less faith in the US (or UK or German) counterparts. They are all utterly corrupt beyond saving imho. The time has come for wiping the slate completely clean, the sooner the better.
...on March 2nd, 2013 at 5:42 am
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks, Dave. Great to hear from you. I believe your analysis is spot-on, and that we need to sweep away the ancien regime, and start anew. While reading your comments about the hypocrisy regarding death threats and punishment, whether issued by US lawmakers of powerless nobodies, I was reminded of how the “war on terror” is so fundamental to that. Before 9/11, Muslims had often been regarded as freedom fighters, from Afghanistan to Croatia, and sometime supported by the West (most notoriously in Afghanistan, of course), but afterwards it all changed. Now there are no just causes for Muslims to defend other Muslims, it seems, as supporting the resistance to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, and supporting Muslims in Bosnia or Chechnya have all been painted, in Guantanamo, as being indicative of supporting terrorism.
Of course, things are now so bad that people are killed in drone strikes without any need to establish whether or not the supposed “intelligence” is reliable, and thought crimes are considered as real crimes. A slippery slope …
...on March 2nd, 2013 at 11:04 am
Franklin Lamb: US Must End Gitmo Prison Horrors + A Huge Hunger Strike at Guantánamo | Dandelion Salad says...
[…] prisoners were not regarded as war crimes when the trial system was established, and has thrown out the convictions against two men tried in […]
...on March 17th, 2013 at 10:22 pm
freedetainees.org – At Guantanamo, a microcosm of the surveillance state says...
[…] which has a 40-second delay in case the judge wants to censor classified information – was cut off without Judge Pohl’s knowledge. Farcically, he thought he was the only one with the authority to cut the feed, and he was not […]
...on October 1st, 2013 at 2:23 pm
Dave Pastern says...
Sorry Andy, I never remembered to follow up on any reply to earlier post.
We’re now seeing the issues between Israel & Palestine come to a boiling point. The other Arabic countries in the region are not happy with Israel’s tactics, and yet, the US government still does not openly criticise Israel of war crimes. The media doesn’t even report on it. Palestinian deaths are rising heavily, whilst Israeli deaths are limited to Israeli troops fighting this dirty war.
The real issue (and the media doesn’t seem to cover this) is that Israel illegally took land from Palestine, has never given it back, despite being ordered to by the UN, and in fact, keeps taking more and more land, whilst marginalising Palestine rights heavily.
If I was the Australian Prime Minister, the entire Israeli embassy would be booted, and full economic sanctions raised against Israel. Any Israelis with permanent residency visas for Australia would be immediately deported. Sadly, our politicians are not only corrupt, but inept and merely puppets for the corruption that is the USA.
...on July 26th, 2014 at 6:32 am
Andy Worthington says...
Very nice to hear from you again, Dave.
I wholeheartedly agree about Israel and Palestine. It is always profoundly shocking when Israel engages in its murderous campaigns, with little opposition from countries like ours that are supposed to be outraged when civilians are slaughtered so horribly.
...on July 28th, 2014 at 6:11 pm