U B L A W F O R U M • F A L L 2 0 0 8
84 As we go to press
On the scene
at Guantanamo Bay
By Julia Hall ’96 hooded and shackled,as he is bad- had been sexually harassed by a fe-
sama bin Laden’s driver, gered by his Arabic-speaking military male interrogator and subjected to
O Salim Hamdan,had been
at Guantanamo Bay for 61⁄2
years when his trial by mili-
tary commission commenced on July
21.My organization,Human Rights
interrogator in a dark room with one
dim light bulb overhead.
After removing the hood,the in-
terrogator begins the questioning,
only to be interrupted several times by
sleep deprivation in the days prior to
McFadden’s interrogation.But the
judge allowed McFadden to testify.
The defense did its best to cast
doubt on Hamdan’s role in al-Qaida
Watch,was granted permission to Hamdan,who asks if he can change and on the fairness of the military
monitor L’Affaire Hamdan,and I was positions,move his legs and rub his commissions process.I was struck not
the anointed monitor. foot.There is a sickening sense that only by the inconsistencies in the
Hamdan’s trial was the culmina- Hamdan,visibly scared,is trying out prosecution’s case,but by clear evi-
tion of a period in U.S.history marked ideas as they occur to him in an at- dence of governmental ineptitude.
by the tragedy of 9/11,but the victims tempt to avoid more abuse.
of that crime would not see account- The defense,dubbed “Team Ham- ould the jury be sur-
ability with a Hamdan conviction.
The military commission’s unfair
rules – and the abuse Hamdan suf-
fered in Afghanistan and at Gitmo –
doomed it from the start.
dan,” strenuously objected to the ad-
mission of these tapes as evidence.Ac-
cording to military commissions’
rules,evidence obtained through tor-
ture can’t be admitted.But although
W prised to learn that
Hamdan’s boss,Abdul-
lah Tabarak,had himself
been detained at Guantanamo Bay
but was sent home to Morocco in
The panel of military officers who Judge Allred acknowledged that 2004? Did they know that Khalid
eventually convicted Hamdan on Hamdan was subjected to “coercive Sheikh Mohammed,the alleged mas-
Aug.6 for providing material support treatment,” he said the rules allow co- termind of 9/11 currently in prison at
to al-Qaida (and acquitted him on erced testimony if it is deemed “reli- Gitmo,called Hamdan a “bedouin”
conspiracy charges) must have under- able”and in “the interests of justice.” not fit “to plan or execute”outside op-
stood how the deck was stacked That first week of trial,both prose- erations (code for terrorist activities
against him: Hamdan got 51⁄2 years, cution and defense made veiled refer- outside Afghanistan)?
but neither the lowly driver nor al- ences to a May 2003 interrogation of Given Hamdan’s partial acquittal
Qaida’s victims got real justice. Hamdan.Judge Allred had yet to de- and sentence,these revelations must
Judge Keith Allred,a Navy captain, cide whether the prosecution could have disturbed the jury.But the tram-
bounded into the courtroom every offer the fruits of that interrogation as pling of rights at Guantanamo Bay
morning in full black robes.He evidence,due to concerns about coer- has so permeated the national con-
winked at Hamdan every day as a rit- cion.The government wanted to put sciousness (if not its conscience) that
ual greeting.The courtroom scene Robert McFadden of the Naval Crim- such abuse seems almost common-
looked familiar: judge,jury,dark-pan- inal Investigative Service on the stand, place.
eled courtroom,“Objection,”“Over- claiming he could provide “clear and Salim Hamdan’s conviction and
ruled.” But the differences were surre- convincing evidence”that nothing sentence leave several questions unan-
al: an offshore prison camp for terror- elicited from that interrogation was swered.The judge gave Hamdan time
ism suspects not far away,many in- coerced. served from the point at which he was
mates subjected to “enhanced interro- The government made its case in formally charged in 2003,which re-
gation techniques”amounting to tor- the second week of trial.Human duced his sentence to five months.But
ture,a jury of military officers in full Rights Watch’s monitor for that week the Bush administration maintains
dress handpicked by the Pentagon, reported that McFadden described a that as an “unlawful enemy combat-
and rules that clearly violated due cordial,friendly and “free-flowing” ant,” Hamdan can be held until the
process. conversation in 2003,in which Ham- end of hostilities with al-Qaida,which
Watching the two Hamdan “cap- dan admitted he had pledged bayat may mean indefinitely.
ture videos”on the second day of the (an oath of loyalty) to Osama bin
trial was harrowing.The videos docu- Laden and that he was carrying mis- Julia Hall ’96 is senior legal counsel in
ment interrogations by U.S.military siles to bin Laden when he was cap- the Terrorism and Counterterrorism
personnel in Afghanistan.In the tured. Program at Human Rights Watch.
grainy black-and-white film,they Team Hamdan challenged McFad-
show Hamdan slumped on the floor, den’s testimony,arguing that Hamdan
A full version of this article can be found at http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/08/18/usint19700.htm