A typical Guantanamo story goes like this: Mohamed Ould Slaha spent 14 years behind bars in Guantanamo. They tortured him for 70 days, and for three years he was interrogated, 18 hours a day. Every day.
Slahi lived in Germany before his arrest. They suspected him of having played one of the leading roles in the ranks of Al Qaeda, that is, of being involved in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Evidence for this, however, was never found.
During all the time he spent in Guantanamo, Slahi was never charged. That's why he was never convicted. Today, that citizen of Mauritania is 50 years old. In the meantime, he was released from prison in Cuba, but never received compensation for his time in prison.
Attorney Nancy Hollander says she is still haunted by that case, the most famous of her career. A film was also made about Slahi's fate, it was recently shown in cinemas. His sin was that he once participated in the work of a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan, that is, that he once answered a call from Osama bin Laden's satellite phone. There is no doubt that all of this does not cast the best light on Slahi, but there was still not enough evidence to file an indictment.
Thanks to Guantanamo, the USA has become a country that "does not respect the principles of the rule of law", according to Nancy Hollander. The situation, he says, is "catastrophic" - and not only for the 13 prisoners who are still being held in the camp without charges, and these are people who should have been released a long time ago. "It is also disastrous for those suspected of being involved in the 11/20 attacks, for the so-called 'eternal prisoners', people who are still waiting for their trials to begin, XNUMX years after those attacks."
Rule of law?
Those deficiencies in respecting the principles of the rule of law are no coincidence, this was in fact the goal of the former US government during the term of President George W. Bush, claims Daphne Eviatar from the organization "Amnesty International". "The US government created an 'offshore prison' to specifically disable the legal system of the United States of America," says Eviatar.
An Amnesty International report on the situation in Guantanamo extensively criticizes human rights violations. Among other things, it is mentioned the indefinite detention of people without indictment, i.e. the torture of prisoners. There is no publicly available information about all of this, but Eviatar refers to various investigations, including that of the US Senate's Secret Service Committee, which talks about the brutal torture of several dozen men at Guantanamo.
The US military base Guantanamo Bay in Cuba has been a naval base for more than 100 years. It wasn't until January 2002, just months after the 11/XNUMX attacks, that the base became a prison for suspected terrorists. Since then, Guantanamo has gained notoriety around the world.
Anthony Nuttall, who is defending suspected al-Qaeda terrorist Abd al-Rahim in court, speaks openly of his disappointment: "We have given up everything that makes this country free, a country where everyone has equal rights."
Media censorship
Those who want to get information about Guantanamo on the spot have to overcome several obstacles, the first of which is usually – Cuban airspace. The American planes that arrive from Washington once a week are not allowed to enter that area, and that's why they first bypass Cuba from the eastern side, and then land directly at the airport in the military base.
The first impressions of the infamous camp in Guantanamo Bay are already obtained from the air. There is an airport, to the east of the camp is a naval base, and there is also a military court, "Camp Justice", that is, a prison.
We received permission to enter Guantanamo in the short term, after a security check that lasted several weeks. Before going to Cuba, we had to sign the "Grand Rules", a document based on which the rules of conduct in the field are defined: journalists do not have freedom of movement, and the principle of media freedom does not apply in Guantanamo.
We were not even allowed to tour the prison from the outside, and all information from its interior is the strictest secret. This is what infuriates prisoners' lawyers in the first place. For seven years, Nancy Hollander has been fighting in court for her client Mohamed Ould Slahi to be allowed to publish his "Diary from Guantanamo".
Life in the shadow of the torture chamber
When you think of Guantanamo, you probably think of torture or barbed wire. In reality, the prison camp, or court martial, is only a small part of the camp. For the most part, that military base looks like an American town.
During the tour, they show us the new high school that cost 65 million dollars and was recently opened. It is equipped with the most modern technology and in it 220 children of different ages should spend as normal a childhood as possible - although only five kilometers away the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 assassination is still waiting for the trial to begin. The director of the school, Emilio Garza, says that the curriculum does not deal with the prison camp.
There is also a supermarket in the military base, there are residential areas reminiscent of the idyll of American suburbs, and there is also the only McDonald's on Cuban soil. Radio GTMO plays Latin American pop music, and in the souvenir shop visitors can buy t-shirts that say "Rockin in Fidels Backyard" - the spirit of Fidel Castro still lives in Guantanamo.
Analis Candelaria is in military uniform and in front of the microphone. She hosts the morning program. Entertainment, music, here and there some serious topics like suicide... The aim of the show is above all to "strengthen the morale of the units", says Candelaria.
Radio GTMO does not report on ongoing trials before the military court, nor on the prison in Guantanamo, it is simply not "part of the culture" of the military base, says the host. Indeed, most of the approximately 6.000 people living in Guantanamo have no access to courthouses or prisons at all. "We only know about it from what we read in the media anyway," says Candelaria.
Plans, plans, plans…
Today, January 11, 2022, marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Guantanamo Bay prison. It is a date that raises the question of how it is possible for that camp to still exist, despite the obvious violation of human rights and the rule of law? Even though the "fight against terror" ended no later than the withdrawal of military forces from Afghanistan, which was in fact the justification for the opening of that prison camp.
Plans to close Guantánamo existed as early as the end of the term of President George W. Bush. His successor, Barack Obama, repeatedly promised to close it, but then lost his majority in Congress. After that, the Republicans started the process of passing a law with the help of which it was supposed to "prohibit any person who was captured at Guantanamo from ever coming to the United States again, for any reason," says Nancy Hollander. In this way, it is in fact legally impossible to transfer prisoners to US soil.
From Trump to Biden
President Donald Trump made a U-turn in his attitude towards Guantanamo and announced that the prison should continue to function. Judging by the statements from the Republican Party, Guantanamo still "protects the USA from terrorist attacks", that is, according to their opinion, transferring prisoners to the USA is - "too dangerous". On the other hand, opponents of Guantánamo continue to point out that the very existence of the camp is "one of the reasons for the radicalization of young Muslims".
A new turn in policy towards Guantanamo followed when Joseph Biden was elected president. After taking office, he said through his spokeswoman that during his mandate he wants to close that camp. But, when the Committee on Secret Services in the US Senate was in session recently, and Guantanamo was on the agenda, there was no representative of the Biden government at the session. It just shows what their priorities are, says Nancy Hollander, adding that the US government has so far "not done anything concrete about its promises" regarding Guantánamo.
Arrests without evidence
The Biden administration has clearly much bigger problems than Guantanamo right now. His administration's infrastructure program has failed, and ahead of the upcoming congressional elections, according to public opinion polls at least, the Democratic Party has a bad rating.
It is quite open what will happen to Guantanamo in the future. One part of the prisoners could, as planned, be released, and the others could be returned to their countries of origin. Dafne Eviatar from "Amnesty International" is an optimist: "As the number of detainees decreases, it becomes increasingly clear how absurd it all is."
If we leave aside the already well-known moral reasons, it is clear that each prisoner in Guantanamo costs the American taxpayers about 13 million dollars a year. It would cost less if they were in prisons in the US, but that's not a solution either, and not only because of legal obstacles, Nancy Hollander believes.
She demands the immediate release of prisoners from Guantánamo: "We simply cannot hold people captive for 20 years without indicting them, because there is not enough evidence - and at the same time claim that these people are still dangerous."
The question about the future of Guantánamo has long been impossible to answer only with rational arguments. He, like so much in the US, has become a toy in the hands of politics. And in their shadow "eternal prisoners" have been awaiting trial for 20 years.
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