Friday, March 30, 2007

10 Million Enemy Combatants

The latest transcript from the Combatant Status Review Tribunal hearings was just released today, and it's a bombshell. Here's the opening to the prepared statement that Abd Al Rahim Hussein Mohammed Al Nashiri presented to the tribunal:

The Detainee states that he was tortured into confession and once he made a confession his captors were happy and they stopped torturing him. Also, the Detainee states that he made up stories during the torture in order to get it to stop. The Detainee confessed under torture to the following events:

1. The French Merchant Vessel Limburg incident.
2. The USS Cole Bombing.
3. The rockets in Saudi Arabia.
4. The plan to bomb American ships in the Gulf.
5. Relationship with people committing bombings in Saudi Arabia.
6. Usama Bin Laden having a nclear bomb.
7. A plan to hijack a plane and crash it into a ship.

He goes on to describe specific acts of torture under questioning, all of which were redacted out. Also under questioning, he specified that his torturers were American, and that the torture began at the time of his capture in 2002 and continued until his transfer last year to Gitmo.

But while the torture allegation will certainly get most of the attention, Al Nashiri said a couple other things under questioning that are worth a mention. Talking about his reasons for leaving Yemen in August 2000, he offered the following insight:

In Saudi Arabia and Yemen are not really a whole lot different from Saddam Hussein. If they catch you, they put into a prison you never leave again or they kill you... So best thing is for somebody to leave. (sic)

Then there was this:

Member: Just one more question. Do you consider yourself an enemy comatant against the United States or our coalition partners?

Translator: (Translation of above).

Detainee (through translator): ... I don't know. The term enemy combatant is wide... If you think that anybody who wants the Americans to get out of the Gulf as your enemy, then you will catch about 10 million peoples in Saudi Arabia, that have same opinion (sic). That will mean, that I am one of those people... We need to get rid of people who are like Saddam in the Gulf. And let the people live their lives. Your policy is wrong. You come and support these governments. So the people are very angry at you. I have no idea how you classify us as enemy combatants. I don't understand that. I do not think of myself as an enemy to anybody.

It's not really the kind of statement you'd expect from a jihadist sworn to the destruction of not only America, but the values of freedom and democracy. Which is why our treatment of detainees, combined with the rhetoric used by the Bush administration, is so counter-productive.

Here's a guy who by his own admission travelled to Chechnya, Pakistan and other places "...to go to the battle fields. And witness how the fights were taking place." A guy who bought the boat used to blow up the USS Cole with money he personally borrowed from Osama Bin Laden. (He claims it was for a fishing venture and that he severed ties with Bin Laden when the latter suggested using the boat for an attack.) A guy who, despite denying any involvement in terrorist activities, had close contacts with just about everyone who's blown up a bomb in the vicinity of an American target in the past 10 years.

Seems like the kind of solid case that's a pretty safe bet in a legitimate legal proceeding. Indeed, it's the kind of solid case that has already landed convictions for other terrorists, including one who's cited in the charges against Al Nashiri.

But put him in a closed-door military tribunal, without a lawyer or any non-military personnel present, after five years of coercive interrogation that most everyone in the world besides the Bush administration considers torture, and he comes off sounding pretty reasonable, even a little sympathetic.

It's all downside, with no upside. And what's worse, any future attempts to re-route these cases through the legal system will now be permanently tainted by the allegations of torture and the lack of due process.

That's the real legacy behind the tough-talking rhetoric of the Bush administration: An ill-conceived, counter-productive, inflammatory approach to terrorism that's done as much for the enemy as the combatants it's supposed to confront.

Posted by Judah in:  Global War On Terror   Human Rights   

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