The Badger Herald

OPINION & EDITORIAL

Captive journalist exemplifies Gitmo’s humanitarian woes

Looking for a print version?
Simply choose ‘Print’ on your computer and a printer-friendly document will be generated.

Also by Ammar Al Marzouqi:

Teachers, unions need detention time (January 30, 2008)
Americans doped-up on unnecessary perscriptions (December 11, 2007)
Islam's detractors wrong on Quran (November 27, 2007)
Modern media slave to entertainment, outrage (November 13, 2007)
Happiness is a warm gun... regulation (October 30, 2007)

by Ammar Al Marzouqi

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

With all the fuss surrounding the presidential race this year and all the different issues candidates are required to address, some issues are bound to be overlooked.

The military detention center at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba has been notably ignored by candidates from both parties even though its importance is undeniable. All remaining candidates in the race have expressed their willingness to shut down the facility; however, none of them have adequately explained how they plan to do so.

I am still consistently amazed when I hear the justifications given by many conservative pundits for the indefinite detention of those prisoners without charges or trial.

Instead of indulging in a logical and philosophical argument against the existence of Guantanamo, it’s time to put a face to the victims of this horrible injustice. Sami al-Haj is prisoner No. 345 at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. He is a Sudanese citizen who, before his detention, worked as a photographer for Al-Jazeera, a prominent Arabic news station.

On Dec. 15, 2001, Mr. al-Haj was arrested on the Pakistan-Afghan border while on assignment to cover the aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. At the time of his arrest, no explanation was given for his detainment. He was moved from Pakistani custody to the U.S. Air Force base in Bagram, Afghanistan, and subsequently to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

For more than six years he has been detained without any charges filed against him or any trial given to him. He has been on a hunger strike since Jan. 7, 2007, in protest of his detention and as a result, has been subject to daily force-feeding. He has also been subjected to sleep deprivation as a means of “enhanced interrogation” (aka torture). According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Mr. Al-Haj was subject to severe beatings by U.S. soldiers in Bagram who accused him of recording videos for Osama bin Laden.

Now, a person who has to go through all this agony for such a long time must have done something gravely wrong, one might assume. Not so, says his attorney Clive Stafford Smith, director of a London-based human rights group. “There is absolutely zero evidence that he has any history in terrorism at all,” says Smith, citing the vague and shifting accusations raised against Mr. Al-Haj and the virtual absence of any evidence to support them. But Mr. Smith asserts that the most persuasive evidence that the government’s case is a sham is that Mr. Al-Haj’s interrogators seem completely uninterested in addressing him with their accusations. Instead, almost all the 130 interrogations he has been subject to focused on Al-Jazeera in an attempt to tie the media company to al-Qaida.

He was questioned about the company’s finances, prominent journalists and several other subjects related to the company’s operations. His lawyer even reports that Mr. Al-Haj’s interrogators offered to release him under the condition that he would spy on Al-Jazeera, yet he refused to do so.

What adds fuel to the fire is the absurdity of some of the accusations raised against him. One such accusation is that he interviewed bin Laden and other self-proclaimed Al-Qaida members. Even if this accusation turns out to be true, the man has committed no crime. If interviewing self-proclaimed terrorists and bin Laden is a crime, then Christiane Amanpour of CNN and Peter Arnett, along with other prominent journalists, should be Mr. Al-Haj’s cellmates.

Throughout his detention, Mr. Al-Haj’s has maintained his innocence. His detention officers single him out for exceptionally good behavior, even though his hunger strike is against the detention center’s regulations. In the Middle East, Sami Al-Haj is a household name, due to an extensive campaign by Al-Jazeera to advocate his release. His case is often cited as a clear example of the injustice perpetrated by the U.S. government in Guantanamo. Yet his case has received virtually no coverage from major media outlets in the United States, which is quite puzzling. All Mr. Al-Haj and his lawyer are asking for is a fair trial. I’m sure anyone who looks at the facts of his case will agree that this is the least he deserves for all the suffering he has been through.

If we are confident that justice would be served by reevaluating the status of some of the detainees at Guantanamo and the image of United States would be enhanced in the eyes of the international community, then what would it take for the presidential candidates to start talking about this issue? One can only wonder.

Ammar Al Marzouqi (aalmarzouqi@wisc.edu) is a freshman majoring in computer engineering.

Add a comment

We welcome your thoughts, but please keep your feedback thoughtful, on-topic and respectful. Offensive language, personal attacks, or irrelevant comments may be deleted.