Guantanamo: Not looking very hard

The US gulag at Guantanamo Bay is a sore upon the conscience of the world. Despite its claims that they are detaining "dangerous people" and "the worst of the worst", an independent study has shown that less than half of Guantanamo detainees are even accused of committing hostile acts against the US or its allies. So why are they still there? One reason is that the Combatant Status Review Tribunals which determine whether or not a detainee is an "enemy combatant" will accept any bullshit as "evidence". A second is that, despite the fact that detainees can call witnesses to verify their stories and prove their innocence, they are reliant on the US military - the very people who want to keep them indefinitely detained - to find those witnesses. Strangely, very few of these witnesses are ever located, and none has been brought to Guantanamo to testify. And according to today's Guardian, the reason for this is simple: the US just isn't looking very hard.

The Guardian cites the case of Abdullah Mujahid, a former Afghan police chief detained in Guantanamo since 2003. At his CSRT, he pleaded innocent, and called four witnesses from Afghanistan who could support his case. Several months later, the US said that the witnesses could not be contacted, and Mujahid has been languishing in Guantanamo ever since. So, the Guardian went looking:

The Guardian searched for Mr Mujahid's witnesses and found them within three days. One was working for President Hamid Karzai. Another was teaching at a leading American college. The third was living in Kabul. The fourth, it turned out, was dead. Each witness said he had never been approached by the Americans to testify in Mr Mujahid's hearing.

[...]

The witnesses largely corroborated Mr Mujahid's story, with some qualifications. Mr Jalali, the former interior minister, said Mr Mujahid had been fired over allegations of corruption and bullying - not for attacking the government. Mr Haider, the former defence official, said Mr Mujahid had contributed 30 soldiers to a major operation against al-Qaida in March 2002. "He is completely innocent," he said.

(Emphasis added)

So, he may have been corrupt in office, but he doesn't seem to have been a terrorist. And he's spent the last two years in a cell in Cuba because the US military couldn't be bothered spending a few days to find that out. But then, why would they? They'd already decided on his guilt, and the tribunal was just there to rubberstamp the decision.

In the wake of the Supreme Court's decision that detainees cannot be "tried" before a kangaroo court, the path is clear: Guantanamo delenda est. Guantanamo must be closed.