E&P: Pentagon Orders U.S. Reporters Out of Gitmo

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002687978

EXCLUSIVE: Pentagon Orders U.S. Reporters to Exit Guantanamo

By Greg Mitchell and Joe Strupp
Published: June 14, 2006 10:55 AM ET

NEW YORK In the aftermath of the three suicides at the notorious Guantanamo prison facility in Cuba last Saturday, reporters with the Los Angeles Times and the Miami Herald were ordered by the office of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to leave the island today.

A third reporter and a photographer with the Charlotte Observer were given the option of staying until Saturday but, E&P has learned, were told that their access to the prison camp was now denied. An E&P "Pressing Issues" column on Tuesday covered an eye-opening dispatch by the Observer's Michael Gordon carried widely in other papers. He had listened in, with permission, as the camp commander gave frank instructions to staff on how to respond to the suicides.

A Pentagon spokesman confirmed the order to leave the island this morning, but told E&P it was unrelated to the stories produced by the journalists, while admitting that Gordon's piece had caused "controversy." He asserted that the move was related to other media outlets threatening to sue if they were not allowed in.

"All three have been screaming like it is going out of style," he said.

A curt e-mail to reporters Carol Rosenberg of the Herald and Carol Williams of the L.A. Times mentioned a directive from the office of Rumsfeld, and stated: "Media currently on the island will depart on Wednesday, 14 June 2006 at 10:00 a.m. Please be prepared to depart the CBQ at 8:00 a.m.''

MORE

The reporters, with the approval of the base commander, covered the aftermath of the suicides, and interviewed attorneys who ripped the legal horrors for the inmates, few of whom have been formally charged with any crime. A lawyer who had tried to represent one of the dead men was accusing the U.S. government "of thwarting his efforts with bureaucratic maneuvers..."

Heck, if there were no reporters there, we probably would have heard that three inmates died of natural causes. About six months from now, if then. Lying bunch of nazi thugs.

reporters are doubleplusungood

from his article...

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/pressingissues_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002652570

<snip>

The article continued: "Bumgarner ordered a high suicide alert for 'the brothers,' the term used by the military personnel to describe the detainees. 'Brother' also is a term of Muslim endearment the inmates use among themselves. 'If any brother says he's going to kill himself ... or says the death chant, anything. That brother will immediately go to a suicide blanket and smock,' Bumgarner said."

The suicide blanket apparently is made of a tightly wound material that is hard to puncture or strip. The smock, Gordon explained, keeps a detainee from ripping apart his shirt, pants or underwear to knot a rope.

Later in the discussion, as Gordon recounted, Bumgarner ordered a smock for another detainee. "Sir," one of his officers said, "we're going to run out of smocks."

"Order some more," Bumgarner said. "I want them in the next 72 hours if I have to put you on a jet to get them."

:grr:

<snip>

In an earlier article this week, Gordon provided a balanced look at the prison and prisoners, then closed with this:
"Lawyers for some of the detainees said many captives have lost their will to live because they have been given indefinite detentions and little access to the courts. The lawyers said their clients have been told they will be held in Guantanamo 'forever.'

"'Nobody should be even slightly surprised by this,' said Josh Colangelo Bryan, who represents a detainee who attempted suicide in October. He said one of his clients told him, 'I would simply die than live here forever without rights.'

"Charlotte attorney Jeff Davis represents a Saudi jailed at Guantanamo Bay for four years. 'Quite frankly, we're behaving in an unconstitutional manner and it scares the hell out of me,' Davis said."

Now Gordon's further access to the camp has been denied.

And dwell in door-ways afraid to be exposed by the light of day

the 'murican way. Not sure if this was posted anywhere on DU, but here's an interview about the Aussie David Hicks at Gitmo that relates to why the media was banned.

How the hell are the Bushistas ever gonna keep a lid on this one.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hicks 'severely damaged', says CIA expert

Reporter: Tony Jones

TONY JONES: Well, Alfred McCoy is Professor of history at the University of Wisconsin. In 1972 he wrote The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade,, which is now regarded as a seminal work on the CIA's complicity in Asian drug trafficking. His latest book is A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation from the Cold War to the War on Terror, which examines the CIA's development of psychological torture over the past 50 years. And in an article in the latest edition of the Monthly magazine, he turns his attention to the treatment of David Hicks in Guantanamo Bay, which he says must be viewed through the lens of CIA torture techniques. Well, he joins us now from Madison Wisconsin. Thanks for being there and can I first get your reaction of the suicide deaths at Guantanamo Bay on the weekend?

PROFESSOR ALFRED MCCOY, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN: The two statements, one by Admiral Harris and the other by the State Department official that this is an act of asymmetrical warfare, that this is a good PR stunt, is indicative of the Guantanamo mentality. Guantanamo is not a conventional military prison. It's an ad hoc laboratory for the perfection of the CIA psychological torture. Guantanamo is a complete construction. It's a system of total psychological torture, designed to break down every detainee contained therein, designed to produce a state of hopelessness and despair that leads, tragically, sadly in this case to suicide. The statements by those American officials are indicative of the cruel mentality at Guantanamo.

TONY JONES: Those are pretty dramatic statements you are making. I would have to say, though, the Red Cross is about to go and do an urgent inspection of the prison and it does appear that their reports back in 2004 do back up a lot of what you are saying. They also decided that what was happening at Guantanamo Bay amounted to a system of torture.

PROFESSOR ALFRED MCCOY, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN: They argued that it wasn't just isolated cases. They said that the entire system of treatment of detainees, designed to do one thing, and one thing only - extract information - constituted a system of cruelty, a system of torture. No qualification, not tantamount to torture - a phrase they'd used before - but torture per se. Confinement at Guantanamo constitutes torture. The question is, what kind of torture? It is psychological torture. Not the conventional, physical, brutal torture, but a distinctively American form of torture - psychological torture.

more...

http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2006/s1662218.htm

Posted on Wed, Jun. 14, 2006
Observer journalists ordered to leave Guantanamo Bay
SCOTT DODD
sdodd@charlotteobserver.com

An Observer reporter and photographer have been sent home from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, amid what the Pentagon calls a "controversy" stemming from one of their reports.

Observer staffers Michael Gordon and Todd Sumlin were at the military prison on Saturday working on a profile of the jail's commander, Col. Mike Bumgarner of Kings Mountain, when three detainees hanged themselves.

Gordon was the only U.S. reporter at the base on Saturday. Reporters from the Miami Herald and Los Angeles Times later arrived at Guantanamo to report on the deaths, which have been front-page news around the world. All were told Tuesday that they had to leave.

The reporters from the Times and Herald received an e-mail citing a directive from Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, ordering them to leave on a military transport plane for Miami at 10 a.m. Wednesday.
(snip/...)

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/14816945.htm

nominating this for the awareness factor

(This is an official ACLU Press Release)

ACLU Slams Bush Administration for Ejecting Journalists from Guantánamo

(6/14/2006)

Calls for Immediate Independent Investigation into Reported Suicides at Guantanamo Detention Facility

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: media@aclu.org

NEW YORK -- Responding to reports that journalists are being forced to leave Guantánamo Bay naval base following the suicides of three detainees on Saturday, the American Civil Liberties Union today sharply criticized the Bush administration’s determination to further remove the conditions at the detention facility from public view.

“If the United States wants to restore its credibility as a democracy in the eyes of the world, it should be inviting journalists in, not kicking them out,” said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. “Our government insists it has nothing to hide, but its actions show otherwise,” he added, noting that according to news reports the government took nearly three days to notify the lawyers for the detainees of their clients’ deaths.

According to press reports, a two-sentence e-mail was sent to reporters for The Miami Herald and Los Angeles Times, citing a directive from the Office of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, which stated: “Media currently on the island will depart on Wednesday, 14 June 2006 at 10:00 a.m. Please be prepared to depart the CBQ at 8:00 a.m.”

Overcoming Pentagon objections, the correspondents went to the base on Saturday to cover the aftermath of the suicides at the invitation of U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Harry B. Harris, Jr., the admiral in charge of the prison. The Pentagon canceled the invitation Tuesday night, despite protests from the newspapers.

“The shroud of secrecy surrounding Guantánamo Bay must be lifted, with independent access to and monitoring of the facilities on an ongoing basis,” Romero continued. “This monitoring should not only include access by journalists and human rights experts, but medical treatment for the detainees, especially those who have chosen to engage in hunger strikes as a way to draw attention to their conditions of confinement.”

In an unexpected departure, earlier this week President Bush said at a press conference with the Danish prime minister that he believed the Guantánamo detainees “ought to be tried in courts here in the United States. We will file such court claims once the Supreme Court makes its decision as to whether or not -- as to the proper venue for these trials. And we're waiting on our Supreme Court to act.”

In fact, the Bush administration has vigorously urged the Supreme Court to block access to federal courts for the Guantánamo detainees, insisting that they appear before military tribunals that, in the ACLU’s view, do not guarantee either independence or impartiality and are inconsistent with the Geneva Conventions and international law.

The ACLU has long criticized the military commissions that have been used to try the 10 detainees at Guantánamo. The remaining 450 detainees have not been charged with any crime and are being held indefinitely.

“The military commissions set up by President Bush have been a sham from their inception,” Romero said. “They are not legal, not fair and not representative of the American system of justice. All detainees charged with crimes deserve an open and fair hearing, and those not charged should be immediately released.”

“The core underlying injustices of the Guantánamo Bay facility need to be remedied before other lives are lost,” Romero warned. “The detention and lack of fair trials goes against the America we hold in our hearts and our minds.”

<http://www.aclu.org/safefree/detention/25894prs20060614.html>

Military Officials Cancel Guantanamo Visits by Lawyers and Journalists

By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 15, 2006; Page A22

Lawyers who represent detainees held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been barred from visiting their clients at the base this week, apparently the result of an ongoing investigation into three suicides there on Saturday, according to officials with the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents hundreds of the detainees.

The cancellation of the regular visits was an unusual move for base officials and came at nearly the same time that the Pentagon decided to suspend the trips of three journalists who were at the base reporting for the Los Angeles Times, the Miami Herald and the Charlotte Observer.

Barbara Olshansky, a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights, said yesterday that she was suspicious of the sudden ban on visits and plans to file a motion in federal court in Washington today seeking immediate access to clients. In a teleconference with a magistrate judge in Washington yesterday, government officials said they were using all available guards at the prison to facilitate a Naval Criminal Investigative Service probe into the three suicides and could not supervise visits by lawyers, Olshansky said.

She said government lawyers indicated the base would reopen to lawyers on Monday, and Pentagon officials said planned visits by journalists likely would resume next week.
(snip/...)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/14/AR2006061402175.html