[Mb-civic] Detainee Files Lawsuit against Rumsfeld Human Rights Watch

[Michael Butler]

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    Detainee Files Lawsuit against Rumsfeld
    Human Rights Watch

    Monday 08 August 2005

    Complaint provides first look at isolation and abuse.

    A lawsuit filed today against U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
reveals the gratuitous cruelty inflicted on a foreign student held without
charges for more than two years as an "enemy combatant" in a South Carolina
naval brig, Human Rights Watch said. Although three men have been confined
in the United States after being designated "enemy combatants" by President
George Bush, the complaint by Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri provides the first
look into the treatment of any of them in military custody.

    Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, a citizen of Qatar who had been studying in
Peoria, Illinois, before his arrest, asked the federal district court in
South Carolina to declare unconstitutional the severe and unnecessary
deprivations and restrictions to which he has been subjected since he was
placed in military custody in June 2003. Al-Marri had already initiated
habeas proceedings challenging the legality of his detention as an enemy
combatant. That case continues.

    "It is bad enough that al-Marri has been held indefinitely without
charges and incommunicado," said Jamie Fellner, director of Human Rights
Watch's U.S. Program. "Now we learn that his life in the brig has also been
one of cruelty and petty vindictiveness. Whatever the Bush administration
believes he has done or wanted to do, there's no excuse for how they are
treating him."

    Al-Marri's complaint describes virtually complete isolation from the
world. He has been confined round the clock in a small cell with an opaque
window covered with plastic. He has not been allowed to speak to his wife or
five children. He is allowed no newspapers, magazines, books (other than the
Koran), radio or television. He is allowed no personal property. His cell
contains a steel bed, a sink and a toilet. During the day, the mattress on
his bed has been removed.

    Out-of-cell time has been limited to three showers and three short
periods of solitary recreation a week - but al-Marri has frequently been
denied that out-of-cell time. Once he went 60 days without being permitted
to leave his cell at all. When bad weather prevents him from going outside,
he must remain in hand cuffs and leg irons during his indoor recreation. Leg
irons and handcuffs are placed on him when he goes to the shower.

    Al-Marri alleges that on occasion he has been denied basic hygiene
products such as a toothbrush, toothpaste, soap and toilet paper. When not
provided with toilet paper, he has had to use his hands to clean himself
after he defecates, and it has taken more than an hour before soap was
brought to him so that he could wash his hands. The water in his cell has
frequently been turned off. He has been denied socks or footwear for months
at a time, including during the winter months. Officers at the brig often
lower the temperature in his cell until it becomes exceedingly cold, but
they do not give him extra clothes or blankets to keep warm.

    According to al-Marri's complaint, he has not been formally interrogated
for almost one year. He states, however, that when he was interrogated,
government officials threatened he would be sent to Egypt or Saudi Arabia,
where they told him he would be tortured and sodomized and his wife would be
raped in front of him.

    For more than a year, al-Marri was not allowed to speak with any
non-governmental personnel other than representatives of the International
Committee of the Red Cross. Military personnel guarding him would not talk
to him other than to give him orders. In October 2004, the government
finally agreed to let him have access to counsel.

    Al-Marri is a devout Muslim. According to his complaint, military
officials have not permitted him to meet with a Muslim cleric, do not let
him have a prayer mat and punish him if he follows his religion's
requirement to cover his head while he prays (he uses a shirt for this
purpose). They do not tell him which way Mecca lies, so he does not know in
which direction to pray; nor do they provide him with a clock, so he does
not know when to pray.

    "It's the combination of restrictions imposed on al-Marri that offends
basic norms of decency," said Fellner. "There is no security justification
for them. The Pentagon apparently believes it can hold him under any
conditions they choose for as long as they choose."

    Al-Marri also claims he has been denied appropriate care for medical and
mental health symptoms he has developed while in the brig. Prolonged
solitary confinement pushes the boundary of what humans can psychologically
tolerate. It can cause serious mental damage.

    Al-Marri is a citizen of Qatar who lawfully resided in the United
States, having come with his wife and children to obtain a graduate degree
at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, the same university from which he
had earned a bachelor's degree 10 years earlier. The Federal Bureau of
Investigation arrested al-Marri at his home in December 2001 as a material
witness in the investigation of the September 11 attacks, and he was
subsequently indicted on federal charges of credit card fraud and lying to
the FBI.

    In 2003, President Bush designated al-Marri an enemy combatant, and
shortly before his criminal trial was to begin, the criminal charges against
him were dismissed, and he was sent to the Consolidated Naval Brig in North
Charleston, South Carolina. Lawyers for al-Marri immediately challenged the
President's actions in federal district court in Illinois, where his
criminal case had been pending, but the courts ultimately held that this
challenge had to be brought in the district where al-Marri was presently
confined. On July 7, 2004, counsel for al-Marri filed a writ of habeas
corpus in federal district court in South Carolina, challenging the
lawfulness of his detention. On July 8, 2005, the court ruled that President
Bush has the authority to detain non-citizens who had been residing in the
United States as enemy combatants.

    Human Rights Watch condemns the designation by presidential order of any
civilian as an "enemy combatant" when the individual was detained far from
any battlefield. Holding someone in military custody without charges because
of such a designation constitutes a violation of the prohibition against
arbitrary detention under international law. By treating al-Marri as an
"enemy combatant," the Bush administration made an end-run around the due
process and other constitutional guarantees of the U.S. criminal justice
system.

    Human Rights Watch disputes the government's contention that the laws of
war permit holding al-Marri indefinitely and without charges. Those laws are
not applicable outside areas of armed conflict and where there is no direct
connection to an armed conflict. In the case of a civilian detained within
the United States - whether or not affiliated with any terrorist
organization - international human rights and constitutional law require
that he be formally charged and given a fair trial before a civilian court.

    Al-Marri is one of three men whom President Bush has designated as enemy
combatants in the U.S. campaign against terrorism and who have been confined
within the territorial United States. Lawyers for all three went to court
challenging the lawfulness of their detentions. The government in each case
insisted the president has the authority to decide unilaterally who is an
enemy combatant and that anyone so designated is not entitled to a judicial
hearing.

    The first case was that of Yassir Hamdi, a U.S. citizen turned over to
U.S. forces during the fighting in Afghanistan. In June 2004, the Supreme
Court ruled that he was entitled to his day in court; the United States
chose not to proceed with a hearing and allowed Hamdi to go to Saudi Arabia,
where he also held citizenship.

    The second designated enemy combatant was Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen
detained at Chicago's O'Hare Airport upon his return from the Middle East.
According to the Bush Administration, Padilla had plotted with al-Qaeda to
commit terrorist acts in the United States. In June 2004, the Supreme Court
ruled he had to bring his case before the federal district court in South
Carolina, where he is being confined in the same navy brig as al-Marri. On
February 28, 2005, the federal district court in South Carolina ruled that
President Bush had "no power, neither express nor implied, neither
constitutional nor statutory" to hold Padilla as an enemy combatant.