Guantánamo and Its Aftermath u.s. detention and interrogation practices and their impact on former detainees November 2008 Human Rights Center International Human Rights Law Clinic In partnership with University of California, Berkeley University of California, Berkeley Center for Constitutional Rights Guantánamo and Its Aftermath u.s. detention and interrogation practices and their impact on former detainees Laurel E. Fletcher Eric Stover with Stephen Paul Smith Alexa Koenig Zulaikha Aziz Alexis Kelly Sarah Staveteig Nobuko Mizoguchi November 2008 Human Rights Center University of California, Berkeley International Human Rights Law Clinic University of California, Berkeley, School of Law In partnership with Center for Constitutional Rights ISBN# 978-0-9760677-3-3 Human Rights Center and International Human Rights Law Clinic, University of California, Berkeley Cover photos: Louie Palu/ZUMA Design: Melanie Doherty Design, San Francisco Human Rights Center, University of California, Berkeley The Human Rights Center promotes human rights and international justice worldwide and trains the next generation of human rights researchers and advocates. We believe that sustainable peace and devel- opment can be achieved only through efforts to prevent human rights abuses and hold those responsible for such crimes accountable. We use empirical research methods to investigate and expose serious viola- tions of human rights and international humanitarian law. In our studies and reports, we recommend specific policy measures that should be taken by governments and international organizations to protect vulnerable populations in times of war and political and social upheaval. For more information, please visit hrc.berkeley.edu. International Human Rights Law Clinic, University of California, Berkeley, School of Law The International Human Rights Law Clinic (IHRLC) designs and implements innovative human rights projects to advance the struggle for justice on behalf of individuals and marginalized communities through advocacy, research, and policy development. The IHRLC employs an interdisciplinary model that leverages the intellectual capital of the university to provide innovative solutions to emerging human rights issues. The IHRLC develops collaborative partnerships with researchers, scholars, and human rights activists worldwide. Students are integral to all phases of the IHRLC’s work and acquire unpar- alleled experience generating knowledge and employing strategies to address the most urgent human rights issues of our day. For more information, please visit www.humanrightsclinic.org. Center for Constitutional Rights The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by at- torneys who represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is a non-profit legal and educational organization that has led the legal battle over Guantánamo for more than six years. For more information, please visit www.ccrjustice.org. iii table of contents List of Acronyms ..........................................................................................................................................VI Foreword .....................................................................................................................................................VII Executive Summary ......................................................................................................................................1 Conclusions .................................................................................................................................................1 Recommendations ......................................................................................................................................5 Chapter 1: Introduction: “The New Paradigm” .......................................................................................7 “The New Paradigm” Takes Shape ..............................................................................................................8 Guantánamo Bay ........................................................................................................................................8 “Enhanced” Interrogation Techniques .....................................................................................................11 Government Investigations of Abuse ......................................................................................................12 The Detainee Study ..................................................................................................................................13 Interviews with Former Detainees .....................................................................................................13 Interviews with Key Informants ........................................................................................................14 The Media Database ............................................................................................................................14 Limitations of the Study .....................................................................................................................15 Chapter 2: Afghanistan: The Long Journey Begins ...............................................................................17 Kandahar and Bagram: The Arrival ........................................................................................................19 Daily Life ...................................................................................................................................................20 Nudity ...................................................................................................................................................22 Desecration of the Quran ....................................................................................................................22 Physical Abuse .....................................................................................................................................23 Interrogations ...........................................................................................................................................25 Transport to Guantánamo ........................................................................................................................27 Chapter 3: Guantánamo: Pushed to the Breaking Point ......................................................................29 Camp Management ...................................................................................................................................29 The Cellblocks ..........................................................................................................................................32 Social Relations ........................................................................................................................................34 Relations among Detainees ................................................................................................................34 Relations between Detainees and Guantánamo Personnel ..............................................................34 Religious Practice ................................................................................................................................36 Interrogations ...........................................................................................................................................38 Abusive Treatment ....................................................................................................................................42 Short Shackling and Stress Positions ................................................................................................42 iv Environmental Manipulation .............................................................................................................42 Sexual Humiliation ..............................................................................................................................44 Interrogation and Intimidation by Foreign Governments ................................................................45 Chapter 4: Guantánamo: No Exit .............................................................................................................47 Punishment ...............................................................................................................................................47 Hunger Strikes and Other Collective Actions .........................................................................................50 Health ........................................................................................................................................................51 Physical Health ....................................................................................................................................52 Mental Health ......................................................................................................................................52 Sense of Futility ...................................................................................................................................54 Suicides and Suicide Attempts ................................................................................................................54 Lack of Due Process and Indeterminate Legal Status ...........................................................................55 Release .......................................................................................................................................................58 Chapter 5: Return: The Legacy of Guantánamo ....................................................................................61 Detention and Prosecution ......................................................................................................................61 Release Upon Arrival ................................................................................................................................62 Resettlement and Community Reception ...............................................................................................63 Family ........................................................................................................................................................65 Support and Livelihoods ..........................................................................................................................66 Employment ..............................................................................................................................................67 Physical Impairment and Trauma ...........................................................................................................67 Changes in Religious Belief .....................................................................................................................68 Beliefs about Accountability ...................................................................................................................69 Reparations and Restorative Measures ..................................................................................................69 Opinions and Attitudes of Former Detainees .........................................................................................70 Home Government ...............................................................................................................................71 The United States .................................................................................................................................71 Reflection ...................................................................................................................................................73 Chapter 6: Conclusions and Recommendations ....................................................................................75 Conclusions ...............................................................................................................................................75 Recommendations ....................................................................................................................................78 Appendices ...................................................................................................................................................81 Appendix A: Counter Resistance Strategy Meeting Minutes ................................................................81 Appendix B: Physical Pressures Used in Resistance Training and Against American Prisoners and Detainees ............................................................................................................................................85 Appendix C: Assessment of JTF-170 Counter-Resistance Strategies and the Potential Impact on CITF Mission and Personnel ..............................................................................................................89 Appendix D: Selected Reports and Media Accounts of Detainee Treatment ........................................93 Authors and Acknowledgments ...............................................................................................................97 Notes ..............................................................................................................................................................99 v list of acronyms ARB Administrative Review Board BSCT Behavioral Science and Consultation Team CCR Center for Constitutional Rights CIA Central Intelligence Agency CITF Criminal Investigative Task Force CSRT Combatant Status Review Tribunal DOD Department of Defense DOJ Department of Justice FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation FM Field Manual (Army) GC Geneva Conventions HRC H uman Rights Center, University of California, Berkeley ICRC International Committee of the Red Cross IHRLC I nternational Human Rights Law Clinic, University of California, Berkeley, School of Law IRF Immediate Reaction Force JAG Judge Advocate General MP Military Police NLEC No Longer an Enemy Combatant OIG Office of the Inspector General OLC U.S. Office of Legal Counsel POW Prisoner of War PTSD Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder SERE Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape SOP Standard Operating Procedure vi foreword by The Honorable Patricia M. Wald T h is sobering report by researchers at the time, over 500 have been released without formal University of California, Berkeley adds a charges or trial. So far, of the 200 or more who new chapter to the chronicle of America’s dismal remain in detention, only 23 have been charged descent into the netherworld of prisoner abuse with a crime. Stalwart defenders of the detention since the tragic events of September 11, 2001. program claim vital information has been elicited; Carefully researched and devoid of rhetoric, it they just can’t tell us what it is. traces the missteps that disfigured an interna- There are bound to be casualties when any nation tionally admired nation and tainted its self-pro- veers from its domestic and international obliga- claimed ideals of humane treatment and justice tions to uphold human rights and international for all. Through the voices of detainees formerly humanitarian law. Those casualties are etched on held at U.S. detention facilities in Afghanistan and the minds and bodies of many of the 62 former de- Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, the report provides new tainees interviewed for this report, many of whom insights into the lingering consequences of unjust suffered infinite variations on physical and mental detention and the corrupted processes developed abuse, including intimidation, stress positions, en- in the desperate months following 9/11. forced nudity, sexual humiliation, and interference In Afghanistan, military codes and international with religious practices. Indeed, I was struck by treaties fell victim to the innovative and sometimes the similarity between the abuse they suffered and bizarre thinking of a small band of Administra- the abuse we found inflicted upon Bosnian Muslim tion officials who needed a place where they could prisoners in Serbian camps when I sat as a judge hold detainees indefinitely and beyond the reach on the International Criminal Tribunal for the for- of civilian courts. In that place, Guantánamo, men mer Yugoslavia in The Hague, a U.N. court fully who posed no serious security threat to the Unit- supported by the United States. The officials and ed States—estimated by government sources at guards in charge of those prison camps and the ci- one third to one half of the total detainee popula- vilian leaders who sanctioned their establishment tion—suffered equally with Taliban fighters and Al were prosecuted—often by former U.S. government Qaeda terrorists. Effective screening processes to and military lawyers serving with the tribunal— separate the innocent from the dangerous (or even for war crimes, crimes against humanity and, in those with vital information relevant to future at- extreme cases, genocide. tacks against the United States) were nonexistent There are now more than 500 Guantánamo “vet- or, when belatedly instituted under pressure of a erans” living in 30 countries. A majority of those pending lawsuit, proved flagrantly unconstitu- interviewed for this report harbor distinctly nega- tional. Of the more than 770 detainees who have tive views of the United States. Only six of the 62 endured Guantánamo in its nearly seven-year life- former detainees have regular jobs. Many have lost vii homes, businesses, and assets, while others have Even the U.S. Federal Courts have been affected by been shunned by their neighbors or even suspect- these policies. The Bush Administration’s initial at- ed of being American spies. The “stigma of Guan- tempts to bar the courts from overseeing the treat- tánamo” infects their future prospects. Two-thirds ment of Guantánamo detainees failed—but only of the former detainees report residual psycholog- after several years of unsupervised abuse. Former ical and emotional trauma. With the exception of a detainees interviewed for this report commented program instituted in Saudi Arabia, no meaningful that the sense of “futility” that pervaded the camp help has been forthcoming from public or private was perhaps the most demoralizing aspect of their sources to reintegrate former detainees into their detention—for a long time there appeared no way communities. Nor have their U.S. captors apolo- out; no fair hearing nor neutral magistrate before gized—let alone provided compensation—for their whom to plead innocence or mistaken capture. De- treatment. nying Guantánamo detainees any outside contacts was a purposeful tactic meant to increase their Beginning with the Lieber Code in the American dependence on their captors to encourage confes- Civil War, the U.S. military championed the con- sions. Hunger strikes and suicide attempts (labeled cept of humane and responsible behavior toward “manipulative self-injurious behavior”) became the captured combatants and civilians in times of war. only recourse of detainees until lawyers finally ap- That there must be individual responsibility for peared on the scene and courts intervened. violations of international humanitarian norms was the singular contribution of military law to A tragic time indeed. The authors of this report con- the Nuremberg Principles. For over a century, the clude by proposing remedial measures apart from U.S. Army Field Manual has set out clear directions the widely agreed upon recommendation to close for the conduct of military personnel toward pris- Guantánamo. So far, no impartial and thorough oners in their custody. But when the “gloves came investigation of those responsible for the abuses off” at the direction of civilian and Pentagon lead- documented here and in other reports has taken ers after 9/11 (against the expressed will of the place, although the plethora of published stories, military Judge Advocate General Corps and some documentaries, and exposés provide some likely courageous military advisors), the tradition of the suspects. The authors urge formation of an “inde- military also became a casualty. Within months, pendent, nonpartisan commission” to investigate high-level officials in the Departments of Justice and publicly report on the treatment of detainees and Defense had approved “enhanced” interroga- in Afghanistan, Guantánamo, Iraq, and other lo- tion techniques and sidestepped our obligations cations. They wisely recommend such a commis- under the Geneva Conventions. Soon thereafter, sion be armed with subpoena power, full access interrogation became the raison d’être for U.S. de- to classified material, and the power to determine tention facilities in Afghanistan and later Guan- whether further criminal investigations of those tánamo where military officers were consigned to allegedly responsible are warranted. They also in- holding hearings on the status of detainees, who sist that the work of the commission must not be stood before them shackled, often unable to under- limited by the grant of pardons or other shields stand the proceedings, without access to lawyers from accountability. The focus of such a commis- or the power to call witnesses of their own. sion should be retrospective—to determine what went wrong and why and who was responsible— viii as well as prospective—to recommend new polices and best practices for screening, detaining, and in- terrogating those who pose a serious threat to the nation’s security. We, as a nation, must not only remember our past but strive not to repeat it. This report makes an invaluable start in that direction. THE HONORABLE PATRICIA M. WALD served on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (1979–99) and the Interna- tional Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (1999–2001). Judge Wald was also a member of the President’s Commission on the Intelligence Capa- bilities of the U.S. Regarding Weapons of Mass De- struction (2004–05). ix