{"id":152682,"date":"2020-02-03T12:00:50","date_gmt":"2020-02-03T12:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=152682"},"modified":"2020-01-30T09:13:27","modified_gmt":"2020-01-30T09:13:27","slug":"at-guantanamo-bay-torture-apologists-take-refuge-in-empty-code-words-and-euphemisms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2020\/02\/at-guantanamo-bay-torture-apologists-take-refuge-in-empty-code-words-and-euphemisms\/","title":{"rendered":"At Guant\u00e1namo Bay, Torture Apologists Take Refuge in Empty Code Words and Euphemisms"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In this photo reviewed by U.S. military officials, the sun sets behind the closed Camp X-Ray detention facility on April 17, 2019, at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. Photo: Alex Brandon\/AP<\/p><\/div>\n

29 Jan 2020 – <\/em>The accused were escorted into the courtroom by guards wearing gloves made of blue latex. The men were placed in seats one behind the other in five rows next to their lawyers. The sixth row was empty, but a chain was still attached for shackling a defendant to the floor.<\/p>\n

Welcome to Guant\u00e1namo Bay, where an unused shackle is a small reminder of the abnormal fusing into the normal, nearly two decades after the first prisoners of the \u201cwar on terror\u201d began arriving here. The defendants now are not chained, and they appear for court in clothing of their choice, often camouflage jackets or traditional garments worn in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, or Yemen; there are no more government-issued jumpsuits.<\/p>\n

At the U.S. naval base that hosts the extraordinary military commissions for the prosecution of post-9\/11 detainees, a view of the Sierra Maestra in the distance is one of the few reminders that you are in Cuba. There\u2019s also a souvenir shop with trinkets that show sites in Havana you can\u2019t drive or fly to from here. This is not that Cuba.<\/p>\n

The U.S. military has attempted for years to devise a system for\u00a0trying the men accused of organizing or aiding the terror attacks against America, but without giving them the benefit of a trial in federal court. This case has dragged on for almost eight years without a trial formally getting underway. There have been 40 pretrial hearings and extended arguments over what evidence can be introduced \u2014 and, for instance, whether the word \u201ctorture\u201d can be used in relation to the interrogations that took place at the CIA\u2019s notorious \u201cblack sites.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related: Architect of CIA\u2019s Torture Program Testifies Just Yards From Accused 9\/11 Plotter He Waterboarded<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The two psychologists who helped design and execute the CIA\u2019s \u201cenhanced interrogation techniques\u201d are now at the center of the proceedings in Guant\u00e1namo. Last week, Dr. James E. Mitchell testified for four days, and on Monday and Tuesday his testimony continued. His colleague, Dr. Bruce Jessen, is expected to testify later this week. Their appearances constitute one of the most unusual\u00a0moments in the 18-year history of Guant\u00e1namo, because now the men who were at the center of one of the most controversial aspects of U.S. policy are defending their conduct in open court<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The psychologists were called in by attorneys representing defendant Ammar al Baluchi, nephew of co-defendant and alleged 9\/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. On Monday and Tuesday, the defense team for Mohammed, who was waterboarded<\/a> 183 times by Mitchell and Jessen, questioned Mitchell. Last week, it was attorney James Connell III, representing Baluchi, who spent three days questioning Mitchell. The psychologist started his first day of testimony defiant, then waxed emotional, choking up\u00a0at one point when asked about why he took the job. \u201cI felt my moral obligation to protect American lives outweighed the temporary discomfort of terrorists who voluntarily took up arms against us,\u201d\u00a0Mitchell said,\u00a0holding back tears. \u201cI\u2019d get up today and do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A view of Camp Justice at Guant\u00e1namo Bay. Photo: Margot Williams\/The Intercept<\/p><\/div>\n

The courtroom in Guant\u00e1namo is a place where your ears are ordinarily filled with details of interrogation sessions in secret locations: descriptions of belly slaps, facial grasps, stress positions, slams against a wall, and \u201capplications\u201d of waterboarding (simulated drowning). Some detainees at Guant\u00e1namo have been held for 18 years without charges against them, and others have been charged with crimes of terrorism. Forty men remain in custody of the 780 held here since January 2002, when the first prisoners of the 9\/11 era were brought to this island to be kept in American custody without being in America proper.<\/p>\n

Guant\u00e1namo is more than a courtroom and a prison, of course. It is also a town with galleys staffed by Filipino and Jamaican workers,\u00a0first-run movies, a school and hair salon, and neighborhoods with single family homes, along with the barracks, trailers, and tents for soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, Coast Guard members, and civilian workers. And it is\u00a0a tropical island with beaches, lizards, and iguana crossing signs. Food choices include McDonald\u2019s and Subway. The local pub is called O\u2019Kelly\u2019s.<\/p>\n

With only a handful of dining choices, it\u2019s no surprise that\u00a0legal teams, witnesses,\u00a0and visiting journalists turn up at the same place. Journalists who are covering the hearings kept bumping into the star witness at various locations last week. Walking past a table of reporters in the galley (Navy lingo for a chow hall), Mitchell mistook me for tireless New York Times reporter Carol Rosenberg<\/a>, who has covered Guant\u00e1namo far longer than anyone else<\/a>. I was greeted courteously by the chief prosecutor, Brig. Gen. Mark Martins, at the pizza joint next to the bowling alley; we used to hear from Martins somewhat regularly, until he stopped giving briefings to reporters in the media office.<\/p>\n

Last week marked the 40th pretrial hearings in the death penalty case against the five alleged perpetrators of the 9\/11 attack: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash, Ramzi bin al Shibh, Ammar al Baluchi,\u00a0and Mustafa al Hawsawi. These were the five defendants who were escorted into the courtroom by the gloved guards. Mitchell, the psychologist, sat across the room from them, in the witness box.<\/p>\n

The large courtroom<\/a> is crowded: five defense teams with several lawyers, paralegals, and interpreters on the left, and about a dozen prison escorts wearing camouflage uniforms. Most of the female defense attorneys and staff wear head coverings out of respect for their clients on the days when they are present; the male attorneys all wear the normal lawyer suits and ties. The military lawyers and staff are in uniform.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0large contingent of prosecution attorneys and staff are on the right, led by Martins, always crisply uniformed, with a chest full of medals and badges. His pedigree is unassailable: Martins has degrees from West Point, Oxford, and Harvard Law School. Air Force military judge Col. W. Shane Cohen, sitting on the bench, is the third judge to preside in this case; he was appointed last June.<\/p>\n

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The jury box is empty for now. These hearings on pretrial motions have been going on since 2012. When the trial begins, now set by Cohen for January 11, 2021, the panel will be made up of military officers flown in for the proceedings.<\/p>\n

At the rear of the court, behind a glass wall, is a gallery with four rows of seats for media, nongovernmental observers, and their military escorts. There is also a section reserved for the families of the victims of the attacks. Ten family members attended daily last week, and a curtain was drawn between them and the other observers.<\/p>\n

The gallery sees the live scene, but hears the proceedings on a\u00a040-second delay, with the exchanges switching to white noise if classified issues are mentioned. It\u2019s a confusing spectacle: Gestures seen on the monitors in the gallery, and the words that go with them, lag behind what\u2019s happening in front of your eyes. When the judge calls for a break, we\u2019re told by our escorts to rise, even though the monitors above our heads show the judge still seated.<\/p>\n

It is a strict atmosphere. Observers are\u00a0monitored by cameras mounted on the walls and military minders in the gallery. No electronic devices are permitted. Reporters scribble furiously in their notepads as a sketch artist wields her pastels (her sketches must be approved and stamped by an information security officer before she can take them out of the courtroom, and they can\u2019t be altered afterwards).<\/p>\n

Last week, Connell, the defense lawyer, pursued questions taken from Mitchell\u2019s 2016 book \u201cEnhanced Interrogation,\u201d and other books by former CIA employees which had undergone prepublication review by the agency. But in a strange twist, a new classification guidance redacts categories of information in those books. This means that although the books contain information that is available to anyone with\u00a0a library card or enough money to buy a copy, the defense lawyers\u00a0try not to mention the forbidden categories.<\/p>\n

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Detainees in orange jumpsuits sit in a holding area at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. CIA\u2019s savagery, kidnapping and torture.
Photograph: U.S. Navy\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

The countries where the accused and others were held at black sites are cloaked by the classification guidance as Location 2, Location 3, Location 4, and so on. They are\u00a0identified in the Senate\u2019s 2014 torture report by colors, for instance, COBALT, GREEN, and BLUE. News stories and books about the CIA torture program place those three black sites in Afghanistan, Thailand, and Poland (there were at least five others in various countries).<\/p>\n

The black site that held some of these prisoners in Guant\u00e1namo in 2003-2004 was only a rumor until the Senate\u2019s report, but now can be named in court. Mitchell was a debriefer at that site for several months, making a distinction from the locations\u00a0 where, in his words, \u201cenhanced interrogation techniques\u201d were \u201capplied.\u201d Mitchell and Jessen\u2019s multiple roles as interrogator, debriefer, and psychologist, and their status as contractors in the black sites, are questioned by the defense as potential conflicts.<\/p>\n

Euphemism is a foundation of the torture structure. Even Mitchell railed against some of the words used by the government to describe the program he was pursuing: \u201cYou want to watch the use of euphemism for what you\u2019re doing. Don\u2019t be fooled by \u2018enhanced interrogation,\u2019 you are doing coercive physical techniques,\u201d he said last week. So there is a euphemism for the euphemism, which in plain English is torture.<\/p>\n

Euphemism is a foundation of the torture structure.<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As the testimony continues, euphemisms abound. There are code words for locations as well as code numbers and pseudonyms for names. An overlay of psychological terminology tries to give method and reason to examples of physical abuse. These phrases are used: \u201cintelligence requirements,\u201d \u201cabusive drift,\u201d \u201ccountermeasures to resistance,\u201d \u201cPavlovian response,\u201d \u201clearned helplessness,\u201d \u201cnegative reinforcement,\u201d \u201cconditioning strategy,\u201d a chart of \u201cmoral disengagement.\u201d\u00a0Torturers used a technique known as \u201cwalling,\u201d in which a detainee is thrown against a wall that is described as \u201csafe\u201d because it is made of plywood and constructed to have \u201cbounce.\u201d When walling was used, a beach towel was protectively wrapped around the prisoner\u2019s neck and later became a \u201cPavlovian\u201d tool that the\u00a0detainee could be shown to remind him of the suffering he\u2019d endured. This is how torturers speak, cloaking their actions in anodyne language.<\/p>\n

During the hearings, CIA cables were either flashed on the overhead monitor if they had been declassified, or remained hidden from our view if they were still secret, recounting the number of slaps, the hours and days of sleep deprivation, the stopwatch counts of waterboard drownings, the rounds of \u201cwalling.\u201d The effect is deadening to the observer; it seems part of a bureaucracy of nightmares.<\/p>\n

Just yards away from the witnesses, the accused are listening to an Arabic translation of the proceedings. What are they thinking? A lawyer for Hawsawi, Walter Ruiz, said that when he asked his client for a reaction to Mitchell as a witness, Hawsawi said: \u201cArrogant.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Friday,\u00a0Hawsawi\u00a0had to leave the courtroom to receive\u00a0a dose of Tramadol for the pain he has suffered since his detention at a black site in Afghanistan (known as COBALT in the Senate report, or Location 2 in the courtroom\u2019s lingo). Other defense lawyers had no comment from their clients, but said that\u00a0seeing the interrogator was difficult for them, even more than a decade after their torture.<\/p>\n

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Palestinian Prisoner Abu Zubaydah claims that “a collar was used to slam him against a concrete wall.”
Photo: Department of Defense\/MCT via Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

Mitchell\u2019s testimony last week focused on the treatment of Ammar al Baluchi at a CIA black site in Afghanistan. Mitchell did not participate in that interrogation and was willing to discuss the \u201cabusive drift\u201d of another CIA interrogator. This man, who died soon after his retirement in 2003, was identified by the Washington Post more than five years ago<\/a> as Charlie Wise, but was not named in court during multiple questions and answers about his actions. In court he was referred to only as \u201cNX2,\u201d and Mitchell called him the \u201cnew sheriff.\u201d Wise conducted this session of \u201cwalling\u201d along with four of his trainees.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looked like they used your client as a training prop,\u201d Mitchell\u00a0told Baluchi\u2019s lawyer. Mitchell sought to\u00a0put distance\u00a0between his team and\u00a0Wise, saying: \u201cWe didn\u2019t have them practice on detainees.\u201d<\/p>\n

A declassified CIA report, shown to the witness and on monitors in the courtroom and gallery, described what happened that day: \u201cAfter the session Ammar was returned to his cell naked and placed in the standing sleep deprivation position, hands at eye level, where he will remain until the next interrogation session the following day.\u201d Baluchi\u00a0apparently stood in that position\u00a0for 44 hours.<\/p>\n

On Friday, after many allusions to an October 2001 statement by an anonymous George W. Bush administration official that \u201cthe gloves are off,\u201d the word \u201ctorture\u201d was finally spoken by Ruiz, learned counsel for Hawsawi, over objections by the prosecution.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know torture\u2019s a dirty word,\u201d Ruiz said. \u201cI\u2019ll tell you what, judge, I\u2019m not going to sanitize this for their concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ruiz described what was done to Hawsawi during his interrogations (not by Mitchell, but allegedly by\u00a0another CIA interrogator). Hawsawi underwent a \u201cbath\u201d where his \u201cass\u201d and \u201cballs\u201d (the words used by\u00a0Ruiz in court) and then face were scrubbed with a stiff brush; he was hung naked from the ceiling; his face was slapped; he was placed in stress positions; and he was doused with cold water. Mitchell subsequently participated in a psychological assessment of Hawsawi, which was displayed\u00a0in the courtroom. Hawsawi was the only defendant in the courtroom watching at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid it matter in your assessment that Mr. Al Hawsawi had been tortured in this many ways?\u201d Ruiz asked. \u201cDid it matter to you?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Mitchell objected to the characterization of Hawsawi\u2019s treatment as \u201ctorture.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Cohen, the judge, responded, \u201cOf course he says no because he doesn\u2019t think it is torture.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Ruiz then showed a video clip of a 2018 podcast<\/a>\u00a0in which Mitchell said: \u201cWe never used the word torture. Because torture\u2019s a crime.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Guant\u00e1namo is on a tropical island that tends to be balmy, but extreme weather is not unknown<\/a>. On Wednesday and Thursday last week, the canvas tents housing nongovernmental observers and journalists were whipped by apocalyptic winds, and on Tuesday at 2:10 pm, tremors from an earthquake in the Caribbean sea rocked the courtroom<\/a>. After a brief pause, the hearing continued.<\/p>\n

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Related:<\/em><\/p>\n