U.S. Gov't denies and defends —

Detention, rendition, torture, secrecy —
No cease and desist order, no apology for  breach of law, abuse of human rights past or present
Editing with comment by Carolyn Bennett of an American Civil Liberties Union account of fallout, continuing abuses connected with the United States’ protracted global war on terror and related cover-ups

Mohamedou Ould Salahi spent months in total-isolation detainment at Guantánamo. While there, he was —

Kept in a freezing cold cell
Shackled to the floor Shackled to the floor
Sexually abused by female interrogators
Deprived of food
Made to drink salt water
Forced to stand for hours at a time in a room with strobe lights and heavy metal music
Threatened with harm to his family
Forbidden from praying
Beaten and subjected to ‘frequent flyer’ tactics — awakened every few hours and moved to a new cell.

A 2009 Senate Armed Services Committee report that investigated allegations of detainee abuse at Guantánamo confirmed and documented the abuse of Mohamedou Ould Salahi.

Mohamedou Ould Salahi had been “captured far from any battlefield. [He] never took part in any hostilities or attack against the United States. [He] has been in U.S. custody for nine years.”

Mohamedou Ould Salahi had been arrested initially in 2001 in Mauritania on suspicion of ties to al Qaeda. The U.S. government then rendered Salahi to Jordan where, for eight months, he suffered detention, interrogation, and abuse. From Jordan, the U.S. officials rendered him to Bagram, Afghanistan; then to Guantánamo, where he has languished since August 2002.

So tainted by torture were Mr. Salahi’s self-incriminating statements that one military attorney gave up, saying the statements “could not ethically be used against Salahi.” Marine Corps Lt. Col. Stuart Couch told his supervisors that he [Couch] was ‘morally opposed’ to Salahi’s treatment and for that reason he would not participate in the prosecution before military commissions.

ACLU cooperating attorney, Jonathan Hafetz, says, “Mr. Salahi’s treatment presents a case study of all that is wrong with Guantánamo [and that] upholding the order directing Salahi’s release would demonstrate the vital role of the courts in remedying these wrongs and restoring the rule of law.”

We must burn neither liberty nor law

in the searing rhetoric of “security.”

We cannot allow government to yell terrorism as fire
spreading through a madding crowd,

instilling fear;

shoring up its campaign of global lawlessness.

“Like the Bush administration,” the ACLU notes in its call for a return to the rule of law, “the Obama administration has claimed the authority to hold terrorism suspects in indefinite military detention — even suspects captured far away from any battlefield who have never taken up arms against the United States.

“The so-called ‘war on terror’ is no traditional war. It has no geographic or temporal limitations. How will it end? How would we know if it did? Where is it taking place? So far, individuals have been captured in more than 50 countries and the list is sure to grow.

“This system is illegal and un-American.

“We must uphold the Constitution and the rule of law. That means treating suspected terrorists as suspected criminals, not warriors; charging them and prosecuting them in ordinary federal courts. We cannot let our government use the threat of terrorism to justify a system in which individuals picked up anywhere in the world [U.S. included] can be held indefinitely by the military without charge or trial”  [http://www.aclu.org/theworldisnotabattlefield/].

Sources and notes
The American Civil Liberties Union and attorneys are urging higher courts to uphold Guantánamo prisoner Mohamedou Ould Salahi’s successful challenge to his unlawful detention. The U.S. government is appealing the ruling.
“Lawyers For Guantánamo Prisoner in Court To Defend Successful Challenge To Detention — Appeals Court Should Uphold Ruling That Salahi Be Released, says ACLU, ”September 17, 2010, http://www.aclu.org/national-security/lawyers-guantanamo-prisoner-court-defend-successful-challenge-detention
In addition to Theresa Duncan and Jonathan Hafetz of the law firm Freedman Boyd Hollander Goldberg Ives & Duncan P.A., other attorneys on the case are Melissa Goodman and Jonathan Manes of the ACLU National Security Project, Nancy Hollander of Freedman Boyd Hollander Goldberg Ives & Duncan P.A., and Linda Moreno of Linda Moreno P.A.

See also ACLU’s “Justice Denied — what happens when the rule of law is broken and true justice is denied?”


ACLU video series ‘JUSTICE DENIED — Voices from Guantánamo’ — features former detainees U.S. officials held in Afghanistan and Guantánamo for years without charge or trial, without any meaningful opportunity to challenge their detention.


“In the American system of justice, suspects are tried and prosecuted based on the constitutional principle of due process. People are presumed innocent (they are supposed to be) until proved guilty. Not swept up, tortured and indefinitely detained.”


The men whose stories are told in the video series ‘JUSTICE DENIED were captured, abused, held and released — without explanation or apology [http://www.aclu.org/indefinitedetention/video.html].
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Bennett's books available at New York independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Present Tense books and gifts: presenttensebooks.com [Batavia, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]