UPDATE: An earlier statement from the Center for Constitutional Rights (by same title) has been made into a NYTimes article.
September 14, 2012
The Face of Indefinite Detention
By BAHER AZMY
BEFORE he died on Sept. 8, Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif had spent close to 4,000 days and nights in the American prison at Guant?namo Bay, Cuba. He was found unconscious, alone in his cell, thousands of miles from home and family in Yemen.
Eleven years ago, he found himself in Afghanistan at the wrong place and the wrong time. It was an unusual set of events that took him there. Years earlier Mr. Latif had been badly injured in a car accident in Yemen. His skull was fractured; his hearing never quite recovered. He traveled to Jordan, seeking medical treatment at a hospital in Amman; then, following the promise of free medical care from a man he met there, journeyed to Pakistan, and eventually to Afghanistan.
Like so many men still imprisoned at Guant?namo, Mr. Latif was fleeing American bombing ? not fighting ? when he was apprehended by the Pakistani police near the Afghan border and turned over to the United States military. It was at a time when the United States was paying substantial bounties for prisoners. Mr. Latif, a stranger in a strange land, fit the bill. He was never charged with a crime.
The United States government claims the legal authority to hold men like Mr. Latif until the ?war on terror? ends, which is to say, forever. Setting aside this troubling legal proposition, his death and the despair he endured in the years preceding it remind us of the toll Guant?namo takes on human beings.
Adnan Latif is the human face of indefinite detention.
In the landmark 2008 case Boumediene v. Bush, the Supreme Court ruled that Guant?namo detainees were entitled to ?meaningful judicial review? of the legality of their detentions, via the writ of habeas corpus ? a constitutional check obligating the government to demonstrate a sufficient factual and legal basis for imprisoning someone. The Boumediene decision, in principle, ought to have given hope to Mr. Latif and men like him.
And it was under such principle that two years later, a United States District Court judge hearing Mr. Latif?s habeas corpus petition ordered him released, ruling that the accusations against him were ?unconvincing? and that his detention was ?not lawful.? By that time, Mr. Latif had been cleared for release from Guant?namo on three separate occasions, including in 2009 by the Obama administration?s multiagency Guant?namo Review Task Force.
Nevertheless, the Department of Justice appealed the district court?s decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ? which has ruled in the government?s favor in nearly every habeas corpus appeal it has heard. The appellate court reversed the trial judge?s release order, effectively ruling that evidence against detainees must be presumed accurate and authentic if the government claims it is.
A strong dissenting opinion criticized the appellate court majority for not just ?moving the goal posts,? but also calling ?the game in the government?s favor.?
But Mr. Latif didn?t see it as a game. He was dying inside. Like other men, he had been on a hunger strike to protest his detention. After losing the appeal of his case, he told his lawyer, ?I am a prisoner of death.?
Three months ago, the Supreme Court declined to hear the appeals of Mr. Latif and six other detainees, who pleaded for the court to restore its promise of meaningful review of their cases.
But what is unsaid in all of the court rulings is that Mr. Latif was imprisoned not by evidence of wrongdoing, but by accident of birth. In Guant?namo?s contorted system of justice, the decision to detain him indefinitely turned on his citizenship, not on his conduct.
With Mr. Latif?s death, there are now 56 Yemenis who have been cleared for release by the Guant?namo Review Task Force since 2009 but who remain in prison. President Obama, citing general security concerns, has imposed a moratorium on any and all transfers to Yemen, regardless of age, innocence or infirmity.
It is fair, and regrettable, to assume that some of these detainees will die there as well.
Mr. Latif, after all, was the ninth man to die at Guant?namo. More men have died in the prison camp than have been convicted by a civilian court (one) or by the military commissions system in Guant?namo (six). In 2006, Salah al-Salami, a Yemeni, and Yasser al-Zahrani and Mani al-Utaybi, both Saudis, were the first men to die at Guant?namo. Their deaths were called suicides, even though soldiers stationed at the base at the time have raised serious questions about the plausibility of the Defense Department?s account. (Full disclosure: the Center for Constitutional Rights represents the families of two of the men who died.)
According to the government, three more detainees committed suicide and two others died of natural causes. There has been no independent investigation into any of the deaths, however; there has been no accountability for a range of constitutional and human rights violations at Guant?namo.
The government has not yet identified the cause of Mr. Latif?s death, but it is Guant?namo that killed him. Whether because of despair, suicide or natural causes, death has become an inevitable consequence of our politically driven failure to close the prison ? a natural byproduct of the torment and uncertainty indefinite detention inflicts on human beings.
The case of Adnan Latif should compel us to confront honestly the human toll of the Guant?namo prison ? now approaching its 12th year in operation. We can start this reckoning by releasing the 86 other men at Guant?namo who the United States government has concluded no longer deserve to be jailed there.
Baher Azmy is the legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights.
Find the original statement by the same title from 11 Sep 2012 at Center for Constitutional Rights here
Find the url for the NYTimes article here
Yet another OP Ed on this solitary death in NYTimes Sunday GO here and see more in a post several days ago with Adnan Latif's heart-breaking poem on this oneheartforpeace site "Tragic Injustice". Also find one on 12 September from the Executive Director of Amnesty I/USA here
Too late for Adnan; What about for others?
A RECENT RULING (find as HEDGES vs OBAMA) by Judge Katherine Forrest* (with the likes of Noam Chomsky, Daniel Ellsberg & other just as KEY players backing this up!)is a major win for the movement to end indefinite detention, which for OVER TEN years has been a hallmark of the human rights vaccum at Guant?namo and was codified in U.S. law last year by President Obama and Congress. NOTE: Shamefully, the Obama administration has appealed.
Why care about indefinite detention? Imagine you were locked up, accused of?but never charged with?a crime, and denied a fair trial to make your case. Seem farfetched? That?s exactly what happened to Adnan Latif. He?s the Guantanamo detainee who died Saturday after being held over 10 years without charge?despite a judge?s order that he be released.
What happens next? The case against indefinite detention in the NDAA?brought by journalist Chris Hedges, Professor Noam Chomsky and others?could go all the way to the Supreme Court. It would be interesting to see how the Court would rule, especially given that opposition to indefinite detention does not divide along party lines. Protest against the NDAA has brought Republicans and Democrats together, because indefinite detention is a blatant assault on human rights.
And that?s why President Obama and Congress should change course and work together to repeal the detention provisions in the NDAA?Sections 1021 and 1022?and ensure that anyone accused of a crime is charged and fairly tried, or released. If you agree, then let your Senators know? they?ll be working on the 2013 NDAA later this year: www.amnestyusa.org/ndaa
This RECENT RULING may make a difference but we MUST get behind this effort NOW. FIND the above and more on Judge Katherine Forrest's recent 112 page ruling at this AmnestyUSA blog -- GO here
Speak OUT against Indefinite Detention NOW. HOW TO MAKE your voice count? FIND GUIDELINES at AMNESTY USA BLOG here
GO often to this blog for updates: SEND this active blog to others as http://blog.amnestyusa.org/ OR CLICK here
SEE the 112 page ruling by Katherine Forrest available by pdf link -- it's in the public domain -- ask a lawyer for it or simply GO to nysd.uscourts.gov for Sep 12, 2012 HEDGE vs OBAMA and see the high profile folk who initiated this ruling. CLICK here
Read, Study, Quote IT USE IT --SPEAK ABOUT IT while this window is still open.
(* Katherine Bolan Forrest is an American lawyer and judge, serving on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.)
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FOR those who want to STUDY/WRITE/TALK about this shameful CASE, find more reports on this and related cases by expert lawyers, journalists and activists here:
"Hope Dies at Guantanamo". The Jurist. Archived from the original on 2012-09-11. "The tragic case of Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif hit a dead end when the US Supreme Court issued an order refusing to hear his case last week. Latif, a Yemeni man, has been imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay since January 2002, after being detained while traveling to seek medical treatment."
"U.S. military reviews 'enemy combatant' use". FIND in The JURIST by Jurist Contributing editor, MARJORIE COHN (co-writer of perhaps the quite recent definitive book with legal corroboration on the US and torture) Professor of Law at Thomas Jefferson School of Law. San Diego, CA GO here evidently originally pbl. 2012-06-20
Joe Wolverton (2011-11-14). "D.C. Court of Appeals Overturns Release of Gitmo Prisoner". New American. Archived from the original on 2012-09-13. "In an opinion streaked with black marks of redaction, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned the release order previously entered for Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif."
Benjamin Wittes (2011-11-09). "Latif: A Very Big Deal". Lawfare.
"Judge orders longtime Gitmo detainee released for lack of evidence". CNN. 2010-08-17.
Yemeni psych patient ordered freed - Guant?namo - MiamiHerald.com Archived 15 February 2011 at
Tom Ramstack (2008-09-23). "Federal court won't hear plea for blanket". Washington Times. "While the Supreme Court's decision in Boumediene gives [Latif] the right to challenge the fact of his confinement, it says nothing of his right to challenge the conditions of his confinement."
Thomas F. Hogan (2008-09-22). "Guantanamo Bay Detainee Litigation: Doc 471" (PDF). United States Department of Justice.
"Guantanamo prisoner who died challenged his confinement, was rebuffed by Supreme Court". Newser. 2012-09-11. Archived from the original on 2012-09-11. "The Guantanamo Bay prisoner who died over the weekend was well-known in legal circles. The prisoner's lawyer identifies him as Adnan Latif, a 32-year-old from Yemen who has been held without charge at the U.S. base in Cuba since January 2002."
"New abuse claims at Guantanamo". Al Jazeera. 2009-04-17. Archived from the original on 2009-04-17
"US says a prisoner has died at Guantanamo; investigation pending into cause". Washington Post. 2012-09-10. Archived from the original on 2012-09-10. "Wells Dixon, a lawyer who has represented a number of Guantanamo prisoners, said the sense of despair among prisoners overall seems to have worsened since the Supreme Court announced in June that it would not review the way courts were handling the men?s individual challenges to their confinement."
Ben Fox (2012-09-10). "Ninth prisoner dies at Guantanamo". Seattle Times. "He was the ninth prisoner to die at the facility since it was opened in January 2002 to hold men suspected of terrorism or links to al-Qaida and the Taliban. The military has said two of those deaths were by natural causes and six were declared suicides."
"Another prisoner dies in Guantanamo". New Zealand Herald. 2012-09-11. Archived from the original on 2012-09-10. "The prisoner's name and nationality were not released. But US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release his identity, said he was from Yemen."
Charlie Savage (2012-09-10). "Detainee Dies at Guant?namo Prison". New York Times. Archived from the original on 2012-09-10. "The military provided no immediate details about the scene of the death, including whether there were any signs that the death may have resulted from something other than natural causes. Press officials at the base and at the Southern Command did not immediately respond to a request for such information."
Another Desperate Letter from Guant?namo by Adnan Latif: ?With All My Pains, I Say Goodbye to You? Andy Worthington A Cry for Help from Guant?namo: Adnan Latif Asks, ?Who Is Going to Rescue Me From the Injustice and the Torture I Am Enduring?? Andy Worthington Guant?namo Is ?A Piece of Hell That Kills Everything?: A Bleak New Year Message from Yemeni Prisoner Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif by Andy Worthington // Who Are the Remaining Prisoners in Guant?namo? Part Three: Captured Crossing from Afghanistan into Pakistan Andy Worthington, September 22, 2010
Source: http://oneheartforpeace.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-tragedy-and-face-of-indefinite.html
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