Gitmo Torture Chamber And The US-imposed ‘Rule-Based’ Order

Khadijah Ali

Muharram 26, 1446 2024-08-01

News & Analysis

by Khadijah Ali (News & Analysis, Crescent International Vol. 54, No. 6, Muharram, 1446)

American officials never tire of talking about the ‘ruled-based’ global order. This so-called order is not only determined by the US but even its own crafted rules are flouted to serve its interests. This is hypocrisy of the worst kind.

For proof one need look no further than the torture camp at Guantanamo Bay (aka Gitmo). It is still operational since it was opened in January 2002 when hundreds of innocent people were kidnapped from various locations worldwide and brought to Gitmo to be subjected to torture.

The US occupies Guantanamo Bay illegally. It belongs to Cuba but since the US follows no law, its illegal occupation of the Cuban island is compounded by keeping detainees outside the norms of any law, American or international.

At its peak, there were 780 prisoners from all over the world, including the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Mulla Abdus Salam Zaeef. More on him later. To get a glimpse into what the US and the Pakistani military regime of General Pervez Musharraf did, here are details of some of the detainees and their country of origin or citizenship.

Afghanistan: 219

Saudi Arabia: 134

Yemen: 115

Pakistan: 72

Algeria: 23

China: 22

In Afghanistan, the western-backed Northern Alliance kidnapped or snitched on their Taliban opponents for money (bakhsheesh) from the Americans. Not one Afghan was ever convicted of any wrongdoing. Ambassador Mulla Abdus Salam Zaeef was kidnapped by the Pakistani intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in violation of every tenet of international and diplomatic law. He was handed over to the Americans. Upon his release from Gitmo in September 2005, he wrote a book, My Life with the Taliban.

In it Zaeef details the torture and humiliation he suffered at the hands of his American captors. His most caustic comments are reserved for the Pakistanis, especially the ISI. Would anybody ever trust the ISI when it violates even diplomatic norms so brazenly to please their American masters?

It does not end there. The ISI head at the time, Lt. Gen. Ehsan was present when Zaeef was stripped naked, slammed to the floor and humiliated by the Americans at Peshawar airport. He was kidnapped from his official residence in Islamabad.

General Musharraf headed Pakistan’s military regime at the time. As a commando, he often raised his clenched fist in the air to project his macho image. But he surrendered to American demands on a single phone call from then US Secretary of State Colin Powell in the George Bush regime in Washington.

In his 2006 book, In the Line of Fire, written for him by Humayun Gauhar (son of Altaf Gauhar who ghost wrote another military dictator Ayub Khan’s book, Friends Not Masters), Musharraf proudly says on p.237:

“We have captured 689 [alleged terrorists] and handed over 369 to the United States. We have earned bounties totaling millions of dollars.” Such shamelessness would be hard to find elsewhere.

Among Musharraf’s other shameless deeds was the kidnapping of Abdul Rabbani and Ahmed Rabbani. The Rabbani brothers were kidnapped by the ISI from Karachi in 2002 and handed over to the Americans for money.

After spending 20 years in the notorious American gulag at Gitmo, they were released because they were completely innocent. Khalid Shaikh Muhammad, a Kuwaiti national, was also kidnapped in a joint US-Pakistani intelligence operation from Faisalabad (Pakistan). Accused of being the mastermind of 911, he was waterboarded repeatedly to the point of virtually choking.

But it was Abu Zubaydah, of Palestinian origin but carrying a Saudi passport, who was described by Musharraf as his “catch prize”. Abu Zubaydah was accused by Bush and his defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld as being the “most high valued al-Qaeda operative”.

He was mercilessly tortured—waterboarded 83 times in a single month, slammed against a concrete wall and subjected to other forms of torture first at various black sites and then at Gitmo. He lost sight in one eye due torture. Rumsfeld described such torture as “enhanced interrogation technique” and alleged it was not life-threatening!

But as Rebecca Gordon revealed in her brilliant piece in Counterpunch, “none of it [the allegations against Abu Zubaydah] was true.” Torture is torture, no matter what fancy labels it is described with. American officials blatantly lied to justify their crimes against Abu Zubaydah and other innocent people.

Most of the people imprisoned in the Gitmo torture camp were completely innocent, notwithstanding US claims that these people are the “worst of the worst”.

People like 74-year-old Saifullah Piracha (also of Pakistani origin running a small business in New York) and the Rabbani brothers, were released after spending years in the torture camp. Others continue to be held in appalling conditions. There are still some 30 detainees in Gitmo despite most of them being cleared for release by the Pentagon and other US departments and agencies.

Notwithstanding all the hype, a mere 10 persons have been charged with involvement in the 911 attacks. Yet, they have not been presented even before the kangaroo tribunal at Gitmo for trial. Most legal experts have denounced the tribunal as not meeting even the minimum standards of justice.

Nine prisoners—three Saudis, three Yemenis and three Afghans—died in Gitmo since 2002. Even those released were shipped to far off places—Serbia, for instance—where they have been denied basic rights including identity cards. Their only “crime” is that they spent time in Gitmo without charge.