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French Court Summons Ex-Guantanamo Chief in Torture

2015-04-03

*Sigh* [AnNahar] A French court on Thursday summoned former Guantanamo prison chief Geoffrey Miller over accusations of torture by two ex-detainees, in a move their lawyer said would open the door to further prosecutions. Nizar Sassi and Mourad Benchellali, both French citizens, were tossed in the calaboose ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... by U.S. forces in Afghanistan before being transferred to the notorious prison set up in Guantanamo Bay to hold terror suspects after the 9/11 attacks. They were held there from the end of 2001 until 2004 and 2005 respectively, before being sent home. A French probe into their case began after they filed a complaint in court. "The door has opened for civilian and military officials to be prosecuted over international crimes committed in Guantanamo," their lawyer William Bourdon said. "This decision can only... lead to other leaders being summoned." Despite promises by U.S. President Barack Obama teachable moment... to close the prison, which is located in Cuba's Guantanamo Bay -- an area on the east of the island under U.S. control since a treaty signed in 1903 -- it remains open and still houses detainees without charge. The U.S. presence at Guantanamo Bay, where it also has a naval base, is one of the major stumbling blocks in Washington and Havana's historic move towards normalizing ties. In an expert report submitted to a French judge last year, lawyers for Sassi and Benchellali accused Miller of "an authorized and systematic plan of torture and ill-treatment on persons deprived of their freedom without any charge and without the basic rights of any detainee." Miller, who was commander of the prison from 2002 to 2004 and is now retired, "bears individual criminal responsibility for the war crimes and acts of torture inflicted on detainees in US custody at Guantanamo," according to the report. Just before Miller became commander of Guantanamo in late 2002, president George W. Bush's administration approved so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, including placing detainees in stress positions, stripping them, isolating them for extended periods of time and exposing them to extreme heat and cold. Miller then implemented these methods. And even though then-secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld withdrew permission for the most controversial of these interrogation techniques shortly thereafter in January 2003, "under ... Miller's command at Guantanamo, these techniques continued to be used in certain cases," the detainees' lawyers said last year. "These acts constitute torture and violate, at a minimum, the Geneva Convention's prohibition on coercive interrogations." Sassi and Benchellali are not the only detainees alleging torture during their time at the prison. Former Syrian detainee Abdul Rahim Abdul Razak al Janko had wanted to sue the U.S. government for damages stemming from his treatment while held at Guantanamo for seven years until his 2009 release. In his complaint, Janko cited years-long solitary confinement, lengthy bouts of sleep deprivation, "severe beatings," threats against him and his family, sexually explicit slurs against his female relatives, deprivation of adequate medical and psychological care, as well as "continuous" humiliation and harassment. But last month, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal, as well as another by a U.S. rights group.

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Home Front: WoT

Portugal to resettle 2 Syrians now at Gitmo

2009-08-08

They're all yours. We have more if you want them ... Portugal announced Friday that it will resettle two Syrian men now held as detainees at the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, following France and Ireland in the humanitarian gesture. The six-paragraph statement posted on Portugal's Minister of Foreign Affairs website did not name the two men. But the joint foreign and interior ministries announcement linked the move to a broad European Union agreement to help the White House empty the prison camps that had been a source of tension between Europe and the Bush administration. It cast U.S. closure of the camps as "a milestone in revitalizing the transatlantic relationship and a victory for all those who advocate and promote respect for human rights in the fight against terrorism.'' Yeah, yeah, whatever, and remember, no give-backs ... The military holds fewer than a dozen Syrian men among its 229 foreigners at Guantánamo, including Abdul Rahim Abdul Razak al Janko, 31, whose detention was ruled unlawful in June by a federal judge in Washington, D.C. Ship him to Zimbabwe or Burma. It'll spite the judge, and in six months Abdul will be begging to come back ... President Barack Obama has ordered the prison camps emptied by Jan. 22 and Europe has been seen as key to a broad strategy that seeks to repatriate some, resettle others in third countries and put more on trial in either military or civilian courts. France has already taken in Algerian Bosnian Lakhdar Boumediene, who, like Janko, won an unlawful detention suit heard by Leon in a Washington court. Ireland interviewed two Uzbek citizens at the prison camps last month. The State Department confirmed the agreement Friday afternoon. "We are very grateful for the efforts of the government of Portugal . . . to join our effort to close Guantánamo through this humanitarian gesture and for the leadership it exhibited in achieving a common European position on resettling Guantánamo detainees,'' said deputy spokesman Robert Wood. Lisbon's announcement said that Obama's special envoy, Ambassador Daniel Fried, had presented a specific proposal to Portugal to take the two men. In response, it said, the government had balanced humanitarian and foreign relations considerations along with national security to forge the agreement, along with the prospects for a successful absorption of the two specific men selected for special entry visas. It did not specify whether the visas would allow the men to travel abroad, or simply remain in Portugal. The latest resettlement plans come as Fried is reportedly still negotiating with the Pacific island nation of Palau to provide asylum to some Uighur Muslims from China held in a prerelease camp at Guantánamo. It also comes as the White House is grappling with meeting the deadline as well as recent new congressional limitations and reporting requirements imposed on any future transfers, either abroad or to U.S. soil.

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