Absolutely horrible. Why was the US involved? I've kept saying that closing
Guantanamo won't solve the problem. There are political prisoners in many
locations throughout the US.
Miriam
________________________________
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bob Hachey
Sent: Wednesday, February 10, 2016 7:34 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Guantanamo In the Big Apple
Hi all,
Below my name youll find an article that should disgust all Americans and
Brits alike. It tells the story of an unjustly accused and imprisoned young
man who grew up in London and was renditioned to where? Guantanamo? Saudi
Arabia? Somalia?
No, he was renditioned to New York City! Seems we have a black sight right
here at home including all of the horrible things that happen elsewhere and
are supposed to be counter to our Constitution, whatever that means anymore.
I sure do wish we could get our wimpy media to pose questions about this
place to all of those running for president.
Bob Hachey
PS. The existence of this place is very likely a powerful recruiting tool
for groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS.
https://theintercept.com/2016/02/05/mahdi-hashi-metropolitan-correctional-ce
nter-manhattan-guantanamo-pretrial-solitary-confinement/
The Guantánamo in New York Youre Not Allowed to Know About
The Intercept_
Glenn Greenwald
© First Look Media. All rights reserved
The Guantánamo in New York Youre Not Allowed to Know About
Arun Kundnani
Feb. 5 2016, 8:55 a.m.
Photo: Chris Hondros/Getty Images
BEFORE EVERY PHONE CALL that Fatuma Hashi has with her brother Mahdi, FBI
agents come on the line to tell her what she is not permitted to talk about.
Youre not allowed to speak about political issues. Or whatevers happening
in the outside world. Or his case, she told The Intercept.
Mahdi Hashi, a young man of Somali origin who grew up in London, had never
been to the United States before he was imprisoned in the 10-South wing of
the
Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan in November 2012, when
he was 23. For over three years, he has been confined to a small cell 23
hours
a day without natural light, with an hour alone in a slightly larger indoor
cage. He has had no physical contact with anyone. Apart from occasional
visits
by his lawyer, his human interaction has been limited to brief,
transactional exchanges with guards and a monthly 30-minute phone call with
his family.
Yet most of Hashis time in solitary confinement occurred before he had been
deemed guilty by the justice system. Prolonged isolation prior to or in the
absence of trial, sensory deprivation, and a lack of independent monitoring
are normally associated with the detention center at Guantánamo Bay and CIA
black sites overseas. But the MCCs 10-South wing, which houses terrorism
suspects, is no different in these respects. A former MCC prisoner and a
psychologist
specializing in trauma told The Intercept that the kind of extreme isolation
imposed on defendants there can pressure them to accept a guilty plea,
irrespective
of actual guilt.
For Hashi, who worked at a community youth organization in London,
everything changed
when he was approached by MI5, the U.K.s domestic intelligence agency. He
was pressured to become an informant, according to accounts he gave to
rights groups
and
local authorities,
but refused, despite being warned that doing so would make his life
difficult.
madhi-hashi
Madhi Hashi
Photo: Facebook
In 2012, while Hashi was visiting Somalia, the British government used
special powers to
strip him of his citizenship,
leaving him stateless. He crossed into neighboring Djibouti to visit the
British consulate there, he claims, and appeal the decision. U.S.
prosecutors
allege he was traveling to Yemen to join al Qaeda.
Upon entering Djibouti, Hashi was arrested by agents of the secret police
and forced to watch other prisoners gagged, blindfolded, and beaten for
hours,
he alleges in case filings, with the complicity of FBI agents and other
unidentified Americans. According to defense attorneys, Hashi was
threatened
with physical abuse and rape if he did not cooperate.
In November 2012, he was transported to New York by the U.S. government to
face charges of supporting al Shabaab, the Somali terrorist organization.
Prosecutors
say he traveled to Somalia to attend a training camp and fight with al
Shabaab in Somalias civil war. They
accept
that Hashi poses no specific threat to any Americans and that he received
harsh treatment in Djibouti.
In May 2015, after two-and-a-half years of isolation, Hashi entered a guilty
plea of conspiring to provide material support to al Shabaab. Last week, on
January 29, he was sentenced to nine years in prison. He will likely be
incarcerated at a Supermax facility in Colorado or a high-security
communications
management unit in Illinois or Indiana, all of which mean ongoing solitary
confinement.
Government prosecutors were seeking 15 years, but Judge John Gleeson of the
Eastern District of New York said the case was complicated, and accepted,
in part, Hashis position that he joined al Shabaab not to engage in violent
attacks but because he thought the group could restore peace to war-torn
Somalia.
I believe you believe this organization you joined was dramatically
different than what you thought or hoped it would be, Judge Gleeson said.
For Fatuma Hashi, the U.S. governments approach is hard to understand. He
was in his own country, she said. It had nothing to do with the United
States.
Why does this country that has nothing to do with us have a say in his
life?
Fatuma cannot fully share with journalists what she knows about her
brothers treatment in the MCC, a gray slab of a building that goes largely
unnoticed
by the office workers and tourists walking the streets near the Manhattan
end of the Brooklyn bridge. Government restrictions known as special
administrative
measures, or SAMs prevent prisoners, their attorneys, and family members
from describing the conditions inside the high-security unit to the wider
public, shrouding
New Yorks little Guantánamo in secrecy.
Psychological damage
In an account to be published in a new book on solitary confinement titled
Hell Is a Very Small Place
a Pakistani prisoner, Uzair Paracha, gives one of the most detailed
illustrations yet of incarceration at the MCC. He was held in isolation
there for
two-and-a-half years after he was arrested in 2003 at age 23.
The windows were huge but the glass was frosted so we had a lot of light
but couldnt see a thing, he said. It was a shade of white during the day,
blue in the evening and early morning, black at night, and yellow when it
snowed, as the snow reflected the streetlights. This was one way to estimate
the time since they didnt allow any watches.
Video cameras constantly monitored the inside of Parachas cell, including
the shower and toilet areas. Lighting was completely controlled from the
outside,
so that guards could deliberately leave the lights on at night to make
sleeping harder. With their metallic walls, the cells were like ovens in the
summer
and freezing in the winter.
The medical effects of Parachas imprisonment at the MCC were severe: a
weakening of his eyesight, brought about by having his entire world just a
few
feet away; a deterioration of physical coordination that made walking on
stairs harder; and breathing problems, especially while trying to sleep.
Dr. Kate Porterfield is a clinical psychologist at the
Bellevue/New York University Program for Survivors of Torture.
She has evaluated prisoners held at various sites in Americas war on
terror, including at Guantánamo. With isolation, theres a severing of the
orienting data
of our lives the stuff that makes us feel like we are on our feet, she
told The Intercept. This can result in paranoia, disorientation, feeling
confused
about whether your perceptions match reality, and not being sure who to
trust.
Thats very dangerous to someones psyche, she added. Its not just about
feeling depressed because youre in prison. The defendant ought to be
oriented
enough in the realities of their life and world that they can contribute to
their own defense. A sense of paranoia and suspicion hampers the defendant
in trying to connect with his or her legal team so that they can discuss and
investigate the case.
If a person has experienced torture or coercive interrogation before being
put in isolation, they are even more vulnerable, Dr. Porterfield said.
There
is then a greater likelihood of psychological damage and even less chance
for recovery in any real sense.
Indeed, virtually every academic study has
concluded
that solitary confinement has serious mental health consequences. These
begin after 60 days and resemble the acute reactions suffered by torture and
trauma
victims.
The average length of time that defendants in federal terrorism prosecutions
spend in solitary confinement prior to trial is 22 months, according to a
2014
report
by Human Rights Watch and the Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute.
Amnesty International has
stated
that pre-trial solitary confinement at the MCC amounts to cruel, inhuman,
or degrading treatment.
At least one prisoner who has been held at both the MCC and Guantánamo has
described the Manhattan jail as harsher. Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, who was
convicted
of involvement in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa,
told
his psychiatrist that Guantánamo is more pleasant and more relaxed than
the isolation section at the MCC. At Guantánamo, he said, prisoners were not
strip-searched and could associate together for recreational activities.
Joshua Dratel, an attorney who has represented clients at Guantánamo as well
as the MCC, has also
said
the New York jail is worse.
A tool for prosecutors
The one advantage that prisoners at the MCC are supposed to have over their
counterparts in Guantánamo is that they are subject to trial in a criminal
court rather than a military tribunal. However, the use of pre-trial
solitary confinement has become, in effect if not intent, a tool for
prosecutors to
skew the judicial process in their favor.
Experts like Dr. Porterfield emphasize how extreme isolation can induce a
desire to accept a plea. We find again and again that isolation in prisons
and
the experience of maltreatment have a huge impact to the point where people
do almost anything to get out of the coercive situation, she said. If
theres
one thing the last 14 years have shown us, its that abuse does not lead to
good information gathering.
Laura Whitehorn was held for two months in pre-trial isolation at the MCC in
1986 on allegations of passport fraud, part of a larger conspiracy case for
which she was later sentenced to 23 years in prison. The sense of
isolation, even after only two months, was so intense, she told The
Intercept. I think,
at that point, one would be ready to do almost anything to be back in human
contact.
What was particularly horrible was the constant watching and monitoring,
Whitehorn recalled. It was like being played with by the guards, a form of
psychological taunting. I felt at any moment I could have any part of my
being or body violated with impunity.
Peter Quijano has represented several clients facing federal terrorism
charges at the MCC, most of whom have been held in the jails isolation
unit.
It just seems obvious that if anyone, regardless of the mental state they
have going in, is housed and detained in such a manner for any period of
time,
it has to start having an effect on them, he said. Anecdotally, weve seen
increased deterioration over a period of time, especially in a pre-trial
situation.
It seems like a punishment and it affects their ability to assist in their
defense.
Legal visits at the MCC are hampered by the extreme temperatures in the
claustrophobic visiting room. Its hard to stay there for much more than
two
hours, Quijano said. Attorney and client remain in separate cages during
the visits, divided by a mesh grate that makes eye contact impossible.
Severe restrictions on communication
Mahdi Hashi divides his monthly phone call between his parents and siblings
in London and his wife in Somalia. His sister Fatuma described being
overwhelmed
with emotions on these calls after not hearing his voice for so long.
Every day Im in pain thinking about his situation, she said. Fatuma, who
is 24,
has not seen Mahdi for six years.
She says the family has sent him books that took eight months to arrive. He
never receives the letters and photographs they send. But there are strict
limits on what Fatuma can say publicly about his imprisonment due to the
SAMs applied in his case, which
prevent
Mahdi Hashi from any oral, written, or recorded communications with
another prisoner; restrict his monthly phone calls to immediate family
members;
and prevent his family from sharing the content of the calls with anyone
else.
Nor is Hashi allowed to communicate with journalists in any way, including
via his attorney. SAMs, which are issued by the attorney general, are
supposed
to be specific to individual prisoners who pose a substantial risk of
communicating messages that could result in death or serious bodily injury
to
persons.
One consequence of the SAMs is that protests by prisoners remain hidden from
public view. In September 2013, a
blogger
claimed that Hashi was on hunger strike to protest the conditions of his
imprisonment. He was reportedly hospitalized with jaundice and close to
liver
failure. But the protest could not be verified or discussed in more detail.
Its a last resort when you have so few resources to defend yourself, said
Whitehorn, the former MCC prisoner, on reports of Hashis hunger strike.
It has not been established whether Hashi was forced to undergo the
brutal force-feeding practices
used at Guantánamo, although force-feeding was applied in response to the
protest of another MCC prisoner. Oussama Kassir, a Swede who went on hunger
strike at the MCC eight years ago, was subjected to medical feeding,
according to his attorney.
The people best placed to shed light on Hashis hunger strike his lawyers
and his family were restricted by the SAMs, and prosecutors and prison
administrators
declined to comment. According to the blogger, the FBI cut off a phone call
from Hashi to his father in which Hashi described the protest after one
minute, but the SAMs mean we cannot know if this actually happened.
Saghir Hussain, Hashis British lawyer, has spoken with his client about the
conditions of his incarceration, but is prevented from sharing such
information.
Hashis American lawyer did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Mahdi Hashis prosecution provides one model of how the U.S. government
deals with Western citizens accused of fighting with jihadi organizations
overseas:
coercive interrogation outside of U.S. jurisdiction, transportation to the
isolation unit of a federal jail in New York, solitary confinement and
restricted
communication in conditions of secrecy until a guilty plea is made, then a
lengthy incarceration at a high-security prison.
From one perspective, this approach seems to respect the rule of law. But
look a little closer and it becomes clear that there are possibilities for
abuse
equivalent to or worse than at Guantánamo.
