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Home > Uncovering America's Secret Prisons
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Uncovering America's Secret Prisons
By Sharmini Peries [1] / The Real News Network [2]
March 7, 2016
Little Guantanamos. This is the phrase that some are using to describe
prisons known as communications management units, CMUs, highly secretive and
dubious of legality. And they're right here in the United States. And an
estimated 70 people might be held there. CMUs, largely unknown to the
general public and media, are rarely granted access. Well, one journalist
was recently able to get inside one of them in Marion, Illinois. And he
joins us now to share what he saw. Will Potter is an investigative
journalist and TED senior fellow, and author of the book Green Is The New
Red: An Insider's Account of Social Movements under Siege.
Watch: Interview with The Real News Network. Full transcript below:
PERIES: So Will, I guess on everyone's minds is how did you manage to get
inside the prison? And of course, once you got inside, what did you see?
POTTER: Well, journalists are not allowed in CMUs. But I had been writing
about one prisoner in particular for quite some time. From the day of his
arrest I'd followed him all the way through the legal process, up through
his conviction. And so I was able to able to visit Daniel McGowan, who's an
environmentalist who is in the CMU, as a friend. And I was quite surprised
by that, even, because I'd uncovered evidence that the counterterrorism unit
had been monitoring my work and speeches about CMUs and writing about CMUs
that I had done. But I quickly found out how that happened. And it's because
Daniel was told that if I asked any questions or if I reported about our
visit that he would be punished for my work. And when I arrived at the
prison I was reminded of the fact that I was not allowed to ask him any
questions. Nevertheless, it was an important insight into how CMUs operate,
and an opportunity to see this from a perspective that other journalists
have not been able to.
PERIES: And what does one have to do to be relegated to one of these
prisons? How is the process determined?
POTTER: That's exactly the problem, is that we don't know. Even considering
lawsuits that are pending right now, we still don't have clear answers to
that question. All the prisoners I've talked to were transferred to the CMU
without any warning. They were just notified in the middle of the night or
early morning, and then sent off to this secretive unit without explanation.
When they asked for some opportunity to appeal their designation, or some
explanation for what has happened and why they're there, they were either
ignored or answered in very simplistic terms, and not really elaborated. For
some of them it was clearly because of their political beliefs. We found out
through legal proceedings and open records requests that the government sent
some people to CMUs because of their, quote, anti-government and
anti-corporate views. For other prisoners I think it is quite clearly
because of their race and religion. The majority of prisoners in CMUs are
Muslim, and many of them have connections to very dubious terrorism
prosecutions that involve FBI informants and potential entrapment, even. So
that's really the breakdown of these prison units right now.
PERIES: And the communications management units, why are they called that?
POTTER: I think that's a really good point. As a writer and someone who is
very careful about language, I admire the creativity and how benign that
title is, of communications management unit. It sounds very straightforward.
And it almost gives the perception that other prisoners do not have their
communications managed. That's simply not the case, though. Every
communication with every prisoner in a federal prison is monitored. It's
received by prison officials. The letters are reviewed. Phone calls can be
reviewed. All visitation is monitored. The question then is why are some
prisoners singled out for much harsher treatment? And like I said, we don't
have a good answer to that. But we've begun to see some of the government's
rationale. And that really boils down to their political beliefs.
PERIES: And the other curious term behind all of this is the term
'inspirational significance'. What does that mean, and how are prisoners
classified as such?
POTTER: So as I was saying, the CMUs were opened secretly, and in many
people's opinion, illegally. They didn't go through any administrative
oversight. And only until years later did we start seeing some language
describing what these prison units are supposed to do. And the government
described them as facilities for prisoners with, quote, inspirational
significance. And I think that's a very, again, very benign and quite
brilliant way of describing what I think in any other environment would be
considered political prisons for political prisoners. People are sent to the
CMU because of their race and their religion and their political beliefs. In
Daniel McGowan's case, for instance, I think he clearly has inspirational
significance in relation to the social movements that he advocates for on
environmental issues, on conservation, on climate change and things like
that. And all of this, his writings about this while imprisoned, ended up in
counterterrorism unit files and were used as evidence of why he should be
imprisoned in a CMU.
PERIES: And tell us a little bit more about his case. How did he end up in
this classified prison?
POTTER: So Daniel McGowan, like all the other prisoners in CMUs, has been
convicted of crimes. In his case he was convicted of participating in two
arsons in the name of the Earth Liberation Front, which is a clandestine
group which has used property destruction in the name of defending the
environment. But like all the other prisoners in the CMUs, or I should say
almost all the prisoners, he had no disciplinary violations, and he had no
communications violations. He was previously at a low-security prison. In
other words, he didn't have anything on his record prior to going to prison
or after being incarcerated that would reflect this need for heightened
security measures, which I think makes it even more clear of being singled
out because of his political beliefs.
PERIES: And how did you manage to convince the prison authorities to allow
you as a friend into the prison if he's under such surveillance, as far as
his communications is concerned?
POTTER: I was--it didn't take any convincing on my part. I mean, I just
submitted my request, just as any visitor would. It didn't take any
convincing on Daniel's part, either, which is quite surprising. It was
approved, really, without any fanfare until, like I said, McGowan was told
that if I wrote anything about our visit he would be punished. And then when
I arrived I was told they knew all about my work, they knew about interviews
on Democracy Now! and in places like that, and that if I asked him any
questions the visit would be immediately terminated.
PERIES: And how many of these kinds of prisons are there, and also answer
whether--why these are in Indiana and Illinois.
POTTER: There are two CMUs that we know about. One is in Marion, Illinois
and the other is in Terre Haute, Indiana. They both exist within larger
federal prisons. So they are really prisons within prisons. They were
opened, as I was saying before, without any oversight or accountability.
There are similar facilities, such as in Carswell, the prison in Texas for
women, but that are not being called communications management unit but seem
to restrict prisoners in similar ways. And really, the story is still
emerging on that, of how--what the government's plans are. If there will be
additional CMUs. There's a move to make these facilities permanent now
rather than experimental. And we don't know how that's going to play out.
PERIES: And the restrictive nature for the media is something that's
written, or did you, did anyone tell you as a journalist you're not allowed
to enter this prison? And if so, why?
POTTER: Yeah. It's communicated in several ways. It's through some of the
procedural moves that I mentioned about going through the official process
now to make these facilities permanent. It's also been communicated and
exposed through a lawsuit by the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is
taking on the case of Daniel McGowan and others, and advocating for
prisoners within the CMU. And as part of that they've obtained, must be
thousands of pages of documents through the discovery process, which I was
able to use in my presentation with TED to an extent as well. And also
through direct communication to me, when I was there at the facility.
PERIES: Right. And you say many of these prisoners are Muslim. Is there any
reason to believe that any of these prisoners, Muslim or otherwise, are any
security threat to us in the U.S.?
POTTER: No, not at all. I mean, I think that really speaks to the
discriminatory nature of these prison units, is that spectre and that fear,
that outright racist stereotyping, is being used to create this fear of this
community that frankly doesn't exist. The Muslim community that is
imprisoned in the CMUs are not the Zacarias Moussaouis of the world. They're
not the 9/11 hijackers, they're not anything like that. They're people like
[Yasin Arif] who is an imam from upstate New York who was asked to bear
witness to a loan, and it turned out one of the people that he was, that was
involved in that loan, was an undercover FBI agent who was trying to entrap
someone else in a fake attack. And Arif didn't know anything about it. So it
was really a manufactured plot that Arif found himself wrapped up in, and as
a result of that ended up eventually in the CMU. Those are the types of
cases that we're talking about here.
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Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Uncovering America's Secret Prisons
Uncovering America's Secret Prisons
By Sharmini Peries [1] / The Real News Network [2]
March 7, 2016
Little Guantanamos. This is the phrase that some are using to describe
prisons known as communications management units, CMUs, highly secretive and
dubious of legality. And they're right here in the United States. And an
estimated 70 people might be held there. CMUs, largely unknown to the
general public and media, are rarely granted access. Well, one journalist
was recently able to get inside one of them in Marion, Illinois. And he
joins us now to share what he saw. Will Potter is an investigative
journalist and TED senior fellow, and author of the book Green Is The New
Red: An Insider's Account of Social Movements under Siege.
Watch: Interview with The Real News Network. Full transcript below:
PERIES: So Will, I guess on everyone's minds is how did you manage to get
inside the prison? And of course, once you got inside, what did you see?
POTTER: Well, journalists are not allowed in CMUs. But I had been writing
about one prisoner in particular for quite some time. From the day of his
arrest I'd followed him all the way through the legal process, up through
his conviction. And so I was able to able to visit Daniel McGowan, who's an
environmentalist who is in the CMU, as a friend. And I was quite surprised
by that, even, because I'd uncovered evidence that the counterterrorism unit
had been monitoring my work and speeches about CMUs and writing about CMUs
that I had done. But I quickly found out how that happened. And it's because
Daniel was told that if I asked any questions or if I reported about our
visit that he would be punished for my work. And when I arrived at the
prison I was reminded of the fact that I was not allowed to ask him any
questions. Nevertheless, it was an important insight into how CMUs operate,
and an opportunity to see this from a perspective that other journalists
have not been able to.
PERIES: And what does one have to do to be relegated to one of these
prisons? How is the process determined?
POTTER: That's exactly the problem, is that we don't know. Even considering
lawsuits that are pending right now, we still don't have clear answers to
that question. All the prisoners I've talked to were transferred to the CMU
without any warning. They were just notified in the middle of the night or
early morning, and then sent off to this secretive unit without explanation.
When they asked for some opportunity to appeal their designation, or some
explanation for what has happened and why they're there, they were either
ignored or answered in very simplistic terms, and not really elaborated. For
some of them it was clearly because of their political beliefs. We found out
through legal proceedings and open records requests that the government sent
some people to CMUs because of their, quote, anti-government and
anti-corporate views. For other prisoners I think it is quite clearly
because of their race and religion. The majority of prisoners in CMUs are
Muslim, and many of them have connections to very dubious terrorism
prosecutions that involve FBI informants and potential entrapment, even. So
that's really the breakdown of these prison units right now.
PERIES: And the communications management units, why are they called that?
POTTER: I think that's a really good point. As a writer and someone who is
very careful about language, I admire the creativity and how benign that
title is, of communications management unit. It sounds very straightforward.
And it almost gives the perception that other prisoners do not have their
communications managed. That's simply not the case, though. Every
communication with every prisoner in a federal prison is monitored. It's
received by prison officials. The letters are reviewed. Phone calls can be
reviewed. All visitation is monitored. The question then is why are some
prisoners singled out for much harsher treatment? And like I said, we don't
have a good answer to that. But we've begun to see some of the government's
rationale. And that really boils down to their political beliefs.
PERIES: And the other curious term behind all of this is the term
'inspirational significance'. What does that mean, and how are prisoners
classified as such?
POTTER: So as I was saying, the CMUs were opened secretly, and in many
people's opinion, illegally. They didn't go through any administrative
oversight. And only until years later did we start seeing some language
describing what these prison units are supposed to do. And the government
described them as facilities for prisoners with, quote, inspirational
significance. And I think that's a very, again, very benign and quite
brilliant way of describing what I think in any other environment would be
considered political prisons for political prisoners. People are sent to the
CMU because of their race and their religion and their political beliefs. In
Daniel McGowan's case, for instance, I think he clearly has inspirational
significance in relation to the social movements that he advocates for on
environmental issues, on conservation, on climate change and things like
that. And all of this, his writings about this while imprisoned, ended up in
counterterrorism unit files and were used as evidence of why he should be
imprisoned in a CMU.
PERIES: And tell us a little bit more about his case. How did he end up in
this classified prison?
POTTER: So Daniel McGowan, like all the other prisoners in CMUs, has been
convicted of crimes. In his case he was convicted of participating in two
arsons in the name of the Earth Liberation Front, which is a clandestine
group which has used property destruction in the name of defending the
environment. But like all the other prisoners in the CMUs, or I should say
almost all the prisoners, he had no disciplinary violations, and he had no
communications violations. He was previously at a low-security prison. In
other words, he didn't have anything on his record prior to going to prison
or after being incarcerated that would reflect this need for heightened
security measures, which I think makes it even more clear of being singled
out because of his political beliefs.
PERIES: And how did you manage to convince the prison authorities to allow
you as a friend into the prison if he's under such surveillance, as far as
his communications is concerned?
POTTER: I was--it didn't take any convincing on my part. I mean, I just
submitted my request, just as any visitor would. It didn't take any
convincing on Daniel's part, either, which is quite surprising. It was
approved, really, without any fanfare until, like I said, McGowan was told
that if I wrote anything about our visit he would be punished. And then when
I arrived I was told they knew all about my work, they knew about interviews
on Democracy Now! and in places like that, and that if I asked him any
questions the visit would be immediately terminated.
PERIES: And how many of these kinds of prisons are there, and also answer
whether--why these are in Indiana and Illinois.
POTTER: There are two CMUs that we know about. One is in Marion, Illinois
and the other is in Terre Haute, Indiana. They both exist within larger
federal prisons. So they are really prisons within prisons. They were
opened, as I was saying before, without any oversight or accountability.
There are similar facilities, such as in Carswell, the prison in Texas for
women, but that are not being called communications management unit but seem
to restrict prisoners in similar ways. And really, the story is still
emerging on that, of how--what the government's plans are. If there will be
additional CMUs. There's a move to make these facilities permanent now
rather than experimental. And we don't know how that's going to play out.
PERIES: And the restrictive nature for the media is something that's
written, or did you, did anyone tell you as a journalist you're not allowed
to enter this prison? And if so, why?
POTTER: Yeah. It's communicated in several ways. It's through some of the
procedural moves that I mentioned about going through the official process
now to make these facilities permanent. It's also been communicated and
exposed through a lawsuit by the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is
taking on the case of Daniel McGowan and others, and advocating for
prisoners within the CMU. And as part of that they've obtained, must be
thousands of pages of documents through the discovery process, which I was
able to use in my presentation with TED to an extent as well. And also
through direct communication to me, when I was there at the facility.
PERIES: Right. And you say many of these prisoners are Muslim. Is there any
reason to believe that any of these prisoners, Muslim or otherwise, are any
security threat to us in the U.S.?
POTTER: No, not at all. I mean, I think that really speaks to the
discriminatory nature of these prison units, is that spectre and that fear,
that outright racist stereotyping, is being used to create this fear of this
community that frankly doesn't exist. The Muslim community that is
imprisoned in the CMUs are not the Zacarias Moussaouis of the world. They're
not the 9/11 hijackers, they're not anything like that. They're people like
[Yasin Arif] who is an imam from upstate New York who was asked to bear
witness to a loan, and it turned out one of the people that he was, that was
involved in that loan, was an undercover FBI agent who was trying to entrap
someone else in a fake attack. And Arif didn't know anything about it. So it
was really a manufactured plot that Arif found himself wrapped up in, and as
a result of that ended up eventually in the CMU. Those are the types of
cases that we're talking about here.
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[3] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Uncovering
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