Bush's bitter legacy

The administration's response to September 11 was to entrench injustice at
home and around the world. Now, this must change

Andy Worthington 
guardian.co.uk, Thursday September 11 2008 19:35 BST 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/11/september11.humanrights

Today, as we pause to remember the 3,000 people who died in the dreadful
attacks of September 11 2001, it is also important to remember that, in
terms of the Bush administration's response, the bitter legacy of that day
remains a deep stain on America's moral standing.

In order to pursue a "war" against a group of terrorist criminals, the
administration flouted the US Constitution and the bill of rights,
dismissed the Geneva conventions, endorsed imprisonment without charge or
trial, created a system of show trials for terror suspects out of thin air,
granted themselves the right to spy on American citizens with impunity, and
invaded a sovereign country without justification.

Although it is reassuring that both presidential candidates have pledged to
close Guantánamo, and Barack Obama has signalled that he will act to
withdraw US forces from Iraq, neither Obama nor John McCain has yet spelled
out in detail how Guantánamo will be closed.

In addition, there has been no talk of what lies behind the notorious
offshore prison in Cuba: a network of unaccountable prisons in Afghanistan
and Iraq, and the hundreds of other prisoners, subjected to "extraordinary
rendition", who are languishing in jails in third countries or in secret
facilities run by or overseen by the CIA.

Decisive leadership is now required to correct these mistakes, and to revive
the United States as a country founded on the rule of law. 

Some of this can be accomplished with a few pieces of crucial legislation –
upholding the absolute ban on torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment, prohibiting the use of "extraordinary rendition", holding
prisoners seized in wartime in accordance with the Geneva conventions, and
bringing criminals to justice within the US court system.

Other problems, however, require painstaking attention to the details, as my
colleagues at Reprieve, the legal action charity, understand only too well.
Reprieve's lawyers represent 31 of the 263 prisoners still held in
Guantánamo. One of these men, British resident Binyam Mohamed, is facing a
trial by military commission at Guantánamo (a system condemned by Lord
Steyn as a "kangaroo court"). 

Mohamed is a victim of rendition and torture, and his lawyers are currently
attempting, through the high court, to persuade the British government to
release potentially exculpatory evidence in its possession relating to his
case. Their reasons are simple: without this information, they will be
unable to prepare an adequate defence, as a steady flow of information
relating to the trials has demonstrated that they are designed to secure
convictions, and to prevent all mention of torture. Until this system is
closed down, and the trials transferred to the mainland, Guantánamo will
remain as a beacon of injustice.

Nine of Reprieve's other clients have been cleared for release from
Guantánamo, after multiple review boards, because the authorities have
concluded that they do not pose a threat to the US, but they remain in
Guantánamo either because of treaties preventing the return of foreign
nationals to countries where they face the risk of torture, or, in other
cases, because they are, literally, stateless. 

Examples include: several Italian residents (pdf) of Tunisian origin, whose
return to Tunisia would be a human rights disaster; two Saudi residents,
born in Saudi Arabia but spurned by the government because their parents
are from Chad and Palestine; and Ahmed Belbacha, an Algerian who has
launched a court appeal to prevent his repatriation, because of legitimate
fears about his safety. Although Belbacha lived in the UK and had applied
for asylum, he was not technically a resident when he took a holiday in
Pakistan in 2001 that led to his kidnapping and transportation to
Guantánamo.

Until these cases are resolved, and new homes found for these men,
Guantánamo will remain open as an affront to US justice, and a corrosive
reminder of the grave errors – the lack of screening, the presumption of
guilt, and the bounty payments for "al-Qaida and Taliban suspects" – that
led to the prison being filled with innocent men and Taliban foot soldiers
who had no knowledge of al-Qaida or the 9/11 attacks.
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