Terrorizing Dissenters at the RNC - National Lawyers Guild

COMMITTEE AND CHAPTER UPDATES
Cornell NLG Creates Week of Awareness on
Torture, Law, and American Values
by Kathleen Rourke
According to NLG member
and Cornell grad Gita
Gutierrez, Guantánamo Bay
at Cuba was deliberately
chosen in 2002 as an interrogation
center, a place where it
was thought no U.S. law
would apply. Two years
after people first became
incarcerated there, she and
other lawyers were the first
civilian persons allowed in as
legal counsel for prisoners,
only after the Center for
Constitutional Rights, where
Ms. Guiterrez works, filed
habeas petitions on behalf of
prisoners at Guantánamo.
Finally, in June 2004, the
U.S. Supreme Court, in
Rasul v. Bush, held that the
habeas statute extends to
include Guantánamo Bay.
As part of a weeklong
series of events with the goal
of bringing awareness to the
Cornell Law School community
about the conditions at
Guantánamo, the local chapter
of the National Lawyers
Guild invited Ms. Gutierrez
to talk about her experiences
at the Guantánamo interrogation
center.
The students listening were
horrified at the facts presented
by Ms. Gutierrez, many
of which are not public
knowledge. The detainees
originally ranged in age from
10 years old to over 80 and
come from over 40 different
nations. Many of them were
turned in to the Americans
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and transferred to Cuba
simply on the word of local
people who were eager to
receive the U.S. bounty
money. 92% of the inmates at
Guantánamo are now classified
as non-Taliban fighters.
Although a number of them
have since been released to
their home countries through
diplomatic efforts, 260 men
remain incarcerated, all adults.
No one has yet been released
due to the ongoing habeas
process. Meanwhile, they
remain prisoners with little or
no mental stimulation or
interaction with each other.
What minimal contact they
have with their families
appears in heavily redacted
Red Cross letters.
Ms. Guiterrez believes
that the site was set up
purposely to allow torture
and intelligence gathering
outside of U.S. laws and with
no concern for human rights.
Some of the torture practices
include: water-boarding; sexual
humiliation; forced standing
for days; being held in darkness
for months; deprivation
of food, washing, and toilet
facilities; and being unable to
practice their Muslim religion.
The prisoners are totally
dependent on their captors
for everything they need to
survive, and these practices
have made the U.S. look like
a tyrannical super power on
the world stage.
It is important to remember
that torture is not an
American value. But at the
same time, we need to recognize
that it is also part of our
past. Our ability to dehumanize
people was demonstrated
at Guantánamo. Her message
to the law school community
is that, as a people, and as
new lawyers, we need to
know and understand our
history, and also learn from
it. Without our country’s
habeas corpus right, she and
other lawyers would not have
been allowed to meet the
prisoners. Habeas is still
important, but prisoners are
still being held. She urged
the students to “strive for
the ideal. There is never
justification for torture. It
should never be part of our
judicial system.”
Continuing the weeklong
events, students wore orange
ribbons, the color of the
Guantánamo prison uniforms,
to raise visibility about
on-going human rights issues
associated with Guantánamo.
The NLG chapter also
sponsored a screening and
discussion of the movie Road
to Guantánamo on October
30. The movie is about the
lives of four prisoners during
their years of relentless
interrogation and torture,
aimed at forcing them to
submit false confessions
of being terrorists. •
24 • GUILD NOTES • WINTER 2008