Showing posts with label Prisons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prisons. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
An Unfortunate First
Abdul Razzaq Hekmati, anti-Taliban fighter, dies of cancer at Guantánamo, his case never settled by law, his story either unheard or unbelieved by his captors. Hekmati was the first man to die of natural causes at at Guantánamo.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Closing with Buchman
Lynn R. reads of a man who confessed to trying to kill Osama Bin-Laden. The Taliban caught him. The U.S. found him and promised to release him. Then they sent him to Guantánamo. He was there for some time, then released two years ago. His poem is very, very short.
Now the Redgraves stand to bow. The reading is over? Wow, that was fast. Good - well-produced - but fast.
The applause goes on and on, not abating for a full minute and a half.
Allan Buchman takes the stage again and announces that Culture Project is in the process of producing an event for the United Nations, for Human Rights Day (I think?). December 10, 2008 - save the date.
And... we're done. Gotta get that book.
Now the Redgraves stand to bow. The reading is over? Wow, that was fast. Good - well-produced - but fast.
The applause goes on and on, not abating for a full minute and a half.
Allan Buchman takes the stage again and announces that Culture Project is in the process of producing an event for the United Nations, for Human Rights Day (I think?). December 10, 2008 - save the date.
And... we're done. Gotta get that book.
Guantánamo Poetry, read by the Redgraves
Corin Redgrave reads "They Fight For Peace," by a poet who's name I can't type quickly or accurately enough.
Very short, abstract, powerful poem.
Lynn Redgrave takes the stage and reads a short history of the poet's life. The poet, Ameer, a Saudi, was detained because he worked in Afghanistan for a charity. He is a leader at Gitmo. Just after a Grievance Commission was formed, the government disbanded it, put Ameer in solitary confinement, and is shipping him off to Saudi Arabia, where he will be held in a secret prison and almost certainly killed.
***
Abdul Aziz, last name withheld, from Riyadh, S.A., wrote "O Prison Darkness."
"We love the darkness
For after the dark hours of the night, pride will rise.
...
We know, God has a design.
...
The morning is about to break forth."
He also wrote, "I Shall Not Complain," an exhortation to Allah (always translated God, I suppose to make it more marketable?) to grant him patience; he will complain to none but God.
***
Jemma Redgrave speaks of a poet named Dossari, who has tried to kill himself twelve times, sometimes via multiple methods at once. He appears in Inside the Wire.
Jemma R. reads "Death Poem," a very strong work asking everyone to watch the poet die ("at the hands of the protectors of peace"). (See an earlier post for full text.)
***
Lynn R. speaks of Dost (sp? all of these sp?), an author of many, many books, a known poet and scholar. He was released, wrote a book detailing his detention at Gitmo, and was then re-arrested by Pakistani officials. He as not been heard from since.
A poem asking why he is deprived of the love of his father. "I," the poet syas, "continue to beat with life... I know a greater freedom."
Cup Poem #1
What kind of spring is this
where there are no flowers
and the air is filled with a miserable smell?
"They Cannot Help"
"Consider what might compel a man to kill himself, or another?"
***
Jemma R. reads of a young man who was hung by his wrists and beaten by the Pakistanis. He was overjoyed to be handed to the U.S. He was stripped and beaten by the U.S., too. He was one of the first round of "enemy combatants."
"This Is My Life," I think is the name of the first poem. It details what happened to him: He came to Pakistan (from Chad) to pursue an education (to learn about information technology and English). He was arrested leaving a mosque; he was not allowed to use the bathroom during a sixteen-hour trip to prison. "We saw such insults from them." The prisoners were beaten and insulted, kept drunk and rich (by the Americans?). "They carried us afterwards to Cuba, because it is an afflicted isle. Their war is against Islam, and justice."
Talk about bad P.R. I mean, if Bush's regime beats up every captured Muslim, of course the other non-captured Muslims are going to hate Bush (and thus you and me - he's our leader).
***
Corin R. loudly reads of a man "Humiliated in the Shackles," writing a letter in his head to his son as he listens to the birds outside his cell, alive, free. He is offered money and land and freedom if he betrays "other" al-Qaeda members. "America - you ride on the backs of orphans and terrorize them daily," Corin/the poet yell. He directs his grievances to Allah and asks his son to be strong, though he himself is humiliated. "How can I write? My soul is like a roiling sea. I am captive, but the crimes are my captors'."
(One feels these poems are going to take on a perhaps unwelcome degree of similarity as they concatenate...)
***
Vanessa R. reads of a man who lost both his legs due to American bombings, not even at the same time. He has been forced to walk at Gitmo on prosthetic limbs held together with duct-tape.
"To My Father"
"Two years have passed in faraway prisons
Two years my eyes untouched by cold" [or kohl?]
Forced confession, defense of honor that needs no apology. Deal-making - "if all Arabs were to sell their faith, I would not sell mine."
***
Corin R. reads of Hassan, a prolific poet taken in Pakistan while studying at a university. He remains at Gitmo, though the U.S. government does not allege that he has participated in any violence whatsoever.
"The Truth"
Inscribe your letters in laurel trees
from the cave all the way to the city of the Chosen
...
Are these lights that I see real?
The Devil leads them (Americans) around in the darkness; they have exchanged piety for cheap commodity. Will you get up and question events?
Illusions soar all around...
(The blog itself necessarily grows more poetic as the scraps well up from Corin's majestic voice - I recommend readers watch the performances on Blip [thanks to the Kunstlers and crew] tomorrow.
These poems are somewhat insular and melodramatic, moreso than other Arabic poems I've read. They are almost all addressed to Allah and speak in vague terms of justice and injustice. Some of this rally-speak is very powerful; the shorter poems, in particular, stick to specifics and turn very clear arguments against the logic of torture - with chilling, image-driven specifics. Their sadness is overwhelming and infectious.)
***
Lynn R. reads about Kabir, a poet detained primarily because he was caught wearing a Casio watch, a brand favored by terrorists (according to the U.S. government?). His poem, "Is It True?," asks if the grass still grows, if he will ever leave prison and see his wife and children again.
***
Jemma R. reads of a Yemeni, Mohammed, a religious teacher. He saw a Qur'an being thrown into a barrel of human waste in prison. "I Am Sorry, My Brother."
***
Corin R. reads of Akhmed, a man who studied at a college in the U.S. and went home after a bad break-up. He was detained, help for years in Guantánamo, then released, November, 2005.
"My Heart Was Wounded By The Strangeness"
Do not blame the poet who comes to your land inspired, arranging rhymes
...
O brother... If you blame yourself, my poem will appease you
...
I will offer advice from pure cordiality.
A quiet poem of fatalistic but not unhappy acceptance, an exhortation to be generous, to forgive. The poem's great power comes from its dwelling on separation (from the brother), not on the daily horrors of imprisonment (though that route works in so many other of these poems).
***
Vanessa R. reads of Ibrahim, a religious scholar and candidate for judgeship who was captured and sold to the United States. When asked why he should be released, he replid: "In the world of international courts, the person is innocent until proven guilty. Why, here, is the person guilty until proven innocent?" His poem asks a lot about Cuba, how Cuba could help the U.S. "What have you gained?" Poetry...
(Here I break to post...)
Very short, abstract, powerful poem.
Lynn Redgrave takes the stage and reads a short history of the poet's life. The poet, Ameer, a Saudi, was detained because he worked in Afghanistan for a charity. He is a leader at Gitmo. Just after a Grievance Commission was formed, the government disbanded it, put Ameer in solitary confinement, and is shipping him off to Saudi Arabia, where he will be held in a secret prison and almost certainly killed.
***
Abdul Aziz, last name withheld, from Riyadh, S.A., wrote "O Prison Darkness."
"We love the darkness
For after the dark hours of the night, pride will rise.
...
We know, God has a design.
...
The morning is about to break forth."
He also wrote, "I Shall Not Complain," an exhortation to Allah (always translated God, I suppose to make it more marketable?) to grant him patience; he will complain to none but God.
***
Jemma Redgrave speaks of a poet named Dossari, who has tried to kill himself twelve times, sometimes via multiple methods at once. He appears in Inside the Wire.
Jemma R. reads "Death Poem," a very strong work asking everyone to watch the poet die ("at the hands of the protectors of peace"). (See an earlier post for full text.)
***
Lynn R. speaks of Dost (sp? all of these sp?), an author of many, many books, a known poet and scholar. He was released, wrote a book detailing his detention at Gitmo, and was then re-arrested by Pakistani officials. He as not been heard from since.
A poem asking why he is deprived of the love of his father. "I," the poet syas, "continue to beat with life... I know a greater freedom."
Cup Poem #1
What kind of spring is this
where there are no flowers
and the air is filled with a miserable smell?
"They Cannot Help"
"Consider what might compel a man to kill himself, or another?"
***
Jemma R. reads of a young man who was hung by his wrists and beaten by the Pakistanis. He was overjoyed to be handed to the U.S. He was stripped and beaten by the U.S., too. He was one of the first round of "enemy combatants."
"This Is My Life," I think is the name of the first poem. It details what happened to him: He came to Pakistan (from Chad) to pursue an education (to learn about information technology and English). He was arrested leaving a mosque; he was not allowed to use the bathroom during a sixteen-hour trip to prison. "We saw such insults from them." The prisoners were beaten and insulted, kept drunk and rich (by the Americans?). "They carried us afterwards to Cuba, because it is an afflicted isle. Their war is against Islam, and justice."
Talk about bad P.R. I mean, if Bush's regime beats up every captured Muslim, of course the other non-captured Muslims are going to hate Bush (and thus you and me - he's our leader).
***
Corin R. loudly reads of a man "Humiliated in the Shackles," writing a letter in his head to his son as he listens to the birds outside his cell, alive, free. He is offered money and land and freedom if he betrays "other" al-Qaeda members. "America - you ride on the backs of orphans and terrorize them daily," Corin/the poet yell. He directs his grievances to Allah and asks his son to be strong, though he himself is humiliated. "How can I write? My soul is like a roiling sea. I am captive, but the crimes are my captors'."
(One feels these poems are going to take on a perhaps unwelcome degree of similarity as they concatenate...)
***
Vanessa R. reads of a man who lost both his legs due to American bombings, not even at the same time. He has been forced to walk at Gitmo on prosthetic limbs held together with duct-tape.
"To My Father"
"Two years have passed in faraway prisons
Two years my eyes untouched by cold" [or kohl?]
Forced confession, defense of honor that needs no apology. Deal-making - "if all Arabs were to sell their faith, I would not sell mine."
***
Corin R. reads of Hassan, a prolific poet taken in Pakistan while studying at a university. He remains at Gitmo, though the U.S. government does not allege that he has participated in any violence whatsoever.
"The Truth"
Inscribe your letters in laurel trees
from the cave all the way to the city of the Chosen
...
Are these lights that I see real?
The Devil leads them (Americans) around in the darkness; they have exchanged piety for cheap commodity. Will you get up and question events?
Illusions soar all around...
(The blog itself necessarily grows more poetic as the scraps well up from Corin's majestic voice - I recommend readers watch the performances on Blip [thanks to the Kunstlers and crew] tomorrow.
These poems are somewhat insular and melodramatic, moreso than other Arabic poems I've read. They are almost all addressed to Allah and speak in vague terms of justice and injustice. Some of this rally-speak is very powerful; the shorter poems, in particular, stick to specifics and turn very clear arguments against the logic of torture - with chilling, image-driven specifics. Their sadness is overwhelming and infectious.)
***
Lynn R. reads about Kabir, a poet detained primarily because he was caught wearing a Casio watch, a brand favored by terrorists (according to the U.S. government?). His poem, "Is It True?," asks if the grass still grows, if he will ever leave prison and see his wife and children again.
***
Jemma R. reads of a Yemeni, Mohammed, a religious teacher. He saw a Qur'an being thrown into a barrel of human waste in prison. "I Am Sorry, My Brother."
***
Corin R. reads of Akhmed, a man who studied at a college in the U.S. and went home after a bad break-up. He was detained, help for years in Guantánamo, then released, November, 2005.
"My Heart Was Wounded By The Strangeness"
Do not blame the poet who comes to your land inspired, arranging rhymes
...
O brother... If you blame yourself, my poem will appease you
...
I will offer advice from pure cordiality.
A quiet poem of fatalistic but not unhappy acceptance, an exhortation to be generous, to forgive. The poem's great power comes from its dwelling on separation (from the brother), not on the daily horrors of imprisonment (though that route works in so many other of these poems).
***
Vanessa R. reads of Ibrahim, a religious scholar and candidate for judgeship who was captured and sold to the United States. When asked why he should be released, he replid: "In the world of international courts, the person is innocent until proven guilty. Why, here, is the person guilty until proven innocent?" His poem asks a lot about Cuba, how Cuba could help the U.S. "What have you gained?" Poetry...
(Here I break to post...)
Vanessa Redgrave
...abruptly takes to the mic and recounts growing up in England during World War II. She found a book demonstrating egregious torture against prisoners in Germany. She knew, even as a little girl, why England was at war: To stop torture. To end concentration camps.
She reads a definition of torture, discusses the recent questions of what is torture, what should be allowed, what prohibited. She recommends Condie Rice reread Gulag Archipelago.
We are on the eve of international Human Rights Day. She raises the question, is extremist Jihadi terrorism today somehow worse than the terrorism of Hitler and Stalin? The idea behind the laws banning torture - laws formerly endorsed by the U.S., still endorsed, at least in theory, by every other enlightened democracy - were created during and just after WWII. The idea was that nothing, absolutely nothing should allow any sane government to use horrible torture. That is why we fight wars against dictators - to stop torture. To
She speaks about another book, Five Years of My Life.
British PM Gordon Brown formally requested the return of five British detainees, the sons of British citizens; the U.S. denied some.
Gitmo = a concentration camp.
She reads a definition of torture, discusses the recent questions of what is torture, what should be allowed, what prohibited. She recommends Condie Rice reread Gulag Archipelago.
We are on the eve of international Human Rights Day. She raises the question, is extremist Jihadi terrorism today somehow worse than the terrorism of Hitler and Stalin? The idea behind the laws banning torture - laws formerly endorsed by the U.S., still endorsed, at least in theory, by every other enlightened democracy - were created during and just after WWII. The idea was that nothing, absolutely nothing should allow any sane government to use horrible torture. That is why we fight wars against dictators - to stop torture. To
She speaks about another book, Five Years of My Life.
British PM Gordon Brown formally requested the return of five British detainees, the sons of British citizens; the U.S. denied some.
Gitmo = a concentration camp.
Still waiting - then - Buchman, Ratner, Falkoff, Redgraves
Eating sour candy (thanks to the Kunstlers). Live feed going to the lobby. People watching in the lobby. Out of coffee. Slight delay, perhaps caused by a minor hip-pain in one of the guests. Audience jovially chatting. The murmur through the booth-wall (I'm again in the booth - it's really crowded) is warm and pleasant. Outside, cold and rainy. Daresay like London in the Holmes books.
Clapping, Allan Buchman takes the stage, wearing a vibrant (extremely vibrant) pink scarf. The Redgraves follow, clapping throughout. The Redgraves sit. Allan grabs the mic and orates, gives props to Michael Ratner from the Center for Constitutional Rights (one wonders if he read Sean Penn's wonderful speech yesterday). Short speech, more clapping. Ratner takes the stage.
Ratner notes that the CCR first took the risk of representing the 300-something detainees at Gitmo. Twice the CCR has won Supreme Court cases; twice Congress has overridden those victories. Another case goes to the S.C. soon. Half the detainees have been released, but there remain over 300. Lawyers interviewed detainee Maji Khan (sp?), but the CCR isn't allowed to know what was said in the interview...
"When we were out front, on the legal front... it was incredible to see the Redgraves, early on, start the Guantánamo Human Rights Commission in the United Kingdom... Most of the U.K. Guantánamo detainees have been freed." He introduces Mark Falkoff, a Gitmo lawyer who put together the book of poetry the Redgraves will read.
Falkoff is a lawyer for sixteen clients at Guantánamo. None of his clients have been charged with crimes. They've been interrogated hundreds of times. Mostly, the lawyers have been asking for a simple hearing to question the legality of the clients' detention; these requests have been denied.
Falkoff was in D.C. one day at a "secure facility," a special locked office where the information on all his clients' cases must be kept - by the government. All the Gitmo writing is automatically classified material, all Falkoff's notes and writings and interviews, since the notes might have something to do with terrorism. Falkoff had translators translate the Arabic notes; he discovered some weren't notes, but poems.
Falkoff read Brian Turner's amazing book Here, Bullet. (I've met Turner; he's one of the most humane, interesting men I've encountered, and his poetry is top-notch.) Falkoff asked around and found that all his lawyer friends with clients at Gitmo had come across such poetry, and he decided to put together a book. [Long aside about life at Gitmo, origins of detainees.]
Only 5% of the Gitmo detainees were captured on the battlefield; the vast majority were picked up by Pakistani mercenaries. (Our government used to pay bounties for "al-Qaeda" representatives, not that we could tell the difference or have even tried, in three years.)
When not given paper, the detainees, would write on their Styrofoam cups - so that at least their fellows could see short haiku about their small, terrible world...
Falkoff had to get special permission to allow the poetry to leave the secure location; at first, this was no problem. Obviously, the poems weren't terrorist details. Later, the government decided that the poems constituted a special threat, since they might inspire people against the U.S. (Well, hell yeah; that's rather the idea. We must become a better United States.)
***
Here, Bullet
by Brian Turner
If a body is what you want,
then here is bone and gristle and flesh.
Here is the clavicle-snapped wish,
the aorta’s opened valves, the leap
thought makes at the synaptic gap.
Here is the adrenaline rush you crave,
that inexorable flight, that insane puncture
into heat and blood. And I dare you to finish
what you’ve started. Because here, Bullet,
here is where I complete the word you bring
hissing through the air, here is where I moan
the barrel’s cold esophagus, triggering
my tongue’s explosives for the rifling I have
inside of me, each twist of the round
spun deeper, because here, Bullet,
here is where the world ends, every time.
Clapping, Allan Buchman takes the stage, wearing a vibrant (extremely vibrant) pink scarf. The Redgraves follow, clapping throughout. The Redgraves sit. Allan grabs the mic and orates, gives props to Michael Ratner from the Center for Constitutional Rights (one wonders if he read Sean Penn's wonderful speech yesterday). Short speech, more clapping. Ratner takes the stage.
Ratner notes that the CCR first took the risk of representing the 300-something detainees at Gitmo. Twice the CCR has won Supreme Court cases; twice Congress has overridden those victories. Another case goes to the S.C. soon. Half the detainees have been released, but there remain over 300. Lawyers interviewed detainee Maji Khan (sp?), but the CCR isn't allowed to know what was said in the interview...
"When we were out front, on the legal front... it was incredible to see the Redgraves, early on, start the Guantánamo Human Rights Commission in the United Kingdom... Most of the U.K. Guantánamo detainees have been freed." He introduces Mark Falkoff, a Gitmo lawyer who put together the book of poetry the Redgraves will read.
Falkoff is a lawyer for sixteen clients at Guantánamo. None of his clients have been charged with crimes. They've been interrogated hundreds of times. Mostly, the lawyers have been asking for a simple hearing to question the legality of the clients' detention; these requests have been denied.
Falkoff was in D.C. one day at a "secure facility," a special locked office where the information on all his clients' cases must be kept - by the government. All the Gitmo writing is automatically classified material, all Falkoff's notes and writings and interviews, since the notes might have something to do with terrorism. Falkoff had translators translate the Arabic notes; he discovered some weren't notes, but poems.
Falkoff read Brian Turner's amazing book Here, Bullet. (I've met Turner; he's one of the most humane, interesting men I've encountered, and his poetry is top-notch.) Falkoff asked around and found that all his lawyer friends with clients at Gitmo had come across such poetry, and he decided to put together a book. [Long aside about life at Gitmo, origins of detainees.]
Only 5% of the Gitmo detainees were captured on the battlefield; the vast majority were picked up by Pakistani mercenaries. (Our government used to pay bounties for "al-Qaeda" representatives, not that we could tell the difference or have even tried, in three years.)
When not given paper, the detainees, would write on their Styrofoam cups - so that at least their fellows could see short haiku about their small, terrible world...
Falkoff had to get special permission to allow the poetry to leave the secure location; at first, this was no problem. Obviously, the poems weren't terrorist details. Later, the government decided that the poems constituted a special threat, since they might inspire people against the U.S. (Well, hell yeah; that's rather the idea. We must become a better United States.)
***
Here, Bullet
by Brian Turner
If a body is what you want,
then here is bone and gristle and flesh.
Here is the clavicle-snapped wish,
the aorta’s opened valves, the leap
thought makes at the synaptic gap.
Here is the adrenaline rush you crave,
that inexorable flight, that insane puncture
into heat and blood. And I dare you to finish
what you’ve started. Because here, Bullet,
here is where I complete the word you bring
hissing through the air, here is where I moan
the barrel’s cold esophagus, triggering
my tongue’s explosives for the rifling I have
inside of me, each twist of the round
spun deeper, because here, Bullet,
here is where the world ends, every time.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Jonathan Hafetz
Jonathan Hafetz testifies as to the existence of "black sites," secret prisons where "high-value detainees" are held incommunicado; even the Red Cross can't meet with them. These sites exist throughout Eastern Europe. These are the places where water-boarding has been practiced - even against detainees ultimately proven innocent.
Two very short interludes:
...The story of a man held without trial, tortured - a man who eventually confessed to whatever his torturers implied he did, just to avoid further torture.
...A statement by Condie that the U.S. will not/does not use torture.
Hafetz points out that of course if the U.S. it torturing, it has to tell everyone, "We're not torturing."
The President doesn't believe that international law restricts his actions (para).
"There are no legal restrictions." --> On what Bush can do with suspected terrorists.
Discussion of the order that led to Bush's powers to torture and use evidence gained via torture. (Read Hafetz's article about it in The Nation.)
Discussion of problems even Alexander Hamilton, not the most liberal of founding American dudes, foresaw regarding executive privilege and its extension to torture.
Bush spoke in support of the victims of torture and called upon the community of law-abiding nations in prohibiting torture.
Ratner: "Mr. Hafetz, was the president speaking the truth...?"
Hafetz: "Absolutely not."
(Just some background, Hafetz works at the Brennan Center with Aziz Huq, a Culture Project alum from a talk-back after Larry Wright's My Trip to Al-Qaeda. Protecting our right not to be tortured, among many other little legal things-you'd-like-to-keep-around, is something the Brennan Center thinkers know quite a bit about.)
Discussion of Bush's rejection of the Geneva Conventions, which previous president's found quite worth defending. But the president "cannot dispense with the Geneva Conventions."
Final question: Should B&C be impeached? Hafetz: Yes.
Two very short interludes:
...The story of a man held without trial, tortured - a man who eventually confessed to whatever his torturers implied he did, just to avoid further torture.
...A statement by Condie that the U.S. will not/does not use torture.
Hafetz points out that of course if the U.S. it torturing, it has to tell everyone, "We're not torturing."
The President doesn't believe that international law restricts his actions (para).
"There are no legal restrictions." --> On what Bush can do with suspected terrorists.
Discussion of the order that led to Bush's powers to torture and use evidence gained via torture. (Read Hafetz's article about it in The Nation.)
Discussion of problems even Alexander Hamilton, not the most liberal of founding American dudes, foresaw regarding executive privilege and its extension to torture.
Bush spoke in support of the victims of torture and called upon the community of law-abiding nations in prohibiting torture.
Ratner: "Mr. Hafetz, was the president speaking the truth...?"
Hafetz: "Absolutely not."
(Just some background, Hafetz works at the Brennan Center with Aziz Huq, a Culture Project alum from a talk-back after Larry Wright's My Trip to Al-Qaeda. Protecting our right not to be tortured, among many other little legal things-you'd-like-to-keep-around, is something the Brennan Center thinkers know quite a bit about.)
Discussion of Bush's rejection of the Geneva Conventions, which previous president's found quite worth defending. But the president "cannot dispense with the Geneva Conventions."
Final question: Should B&C be impeached? Hafetz: Yes.
Tara McKelvey
McKelvey, a writer for The American Prospect, takes the stage to talk about her investigations of torture. Dogs used to chase and bite young boys, etc.
So many people she's interviewed - many Iraqis - were tortured, including children. The U.S. hadn't been screening for T.B.; a child died of it; McKelvey points out that this, too, is a violation of the Geneva Conventions.
She talks about the people who committed the crimes made famous by photos from Abu Ghraib; she implicates the highest orders of government as well as the lowliest orders of human sadist.
So many people she's interviewed - many Iraqis - were tortured, including children. The U.S. hadn't been screening for T.B.; a child died of it; McKelvey points out that this, too, is a violation of the Geneva Conventions.
She talks about the people who committed the crimes made famous by photos from Abu Ghraib; she implicates the highest orders of government as well as the lowliest orders of human sadist.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
The Gathering
When I walked into the Culture Project theater tonight to see Harry Belafonte's The Gathering, I had no idea what was coming. Project Director Malia Lazu (who ran for President in 2004 as part of RJ Cutler's amazing documentary series The American Candidate) began talking about the need for prison reform. Then they screened a short film about their work. It followed Harry Belafonte and Malia and their colleagues around the country as they tried to teach their communities about the prison industrial complex. The numbers are staggering - in South Carolina for instance, black people make up 35% of the population, but over 80% of the prison population. We are incarcerating children, mostly minority children, at a growing and astonishing rate all across the nation. Mr. Belafonte began this group when he saw a news clip of a 5 year old black girl in Florida being arrested for "being unruly" - and he knew something had to be done. The event tonight was eye-opening and heartbreaking, and I'm incredibly proud that Olivia brought this important message and messengers to our theater. I urge you all to learn more about The Gathering, as well as PMP (Prison Moratorium Project). It will be a long long time, if ever, before I forget the image of that terrified little girl screaming and pleading in handcuffs.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Shame On Colonel Morris Davis
The New York Times today published a rebuttal not only of justice but of moral practice in its most forgiving sense.
The article, an op-ed piece by Morris Davis, an Air Force lawyer, generously and insipidly defends the existence of and practices within America's Guantánamo Bay detention facility.
Culture Project does not stand for everyone. But many, many people stand with us in our fight to close Guantánamo, now, and to end the Bush regime's suspension of habeas corpus ("Latin: [We command that] you have the body") that has kept hundreds of men locked in cages in Cuba, wondering why they are there and when they are going to go home, go to jail, or even die.
The questions we continue to have with regard to Guantánamo and all attendant persons and practices are not, are emphatically not: "Are the prisoners kept there particularly comfortable; do they have the Qur'an [not 'Koran,' Mr. Davis]; are their meals hot enough, fibrous enough, etc.?"
The lingering question that we have is this: Is it right to keep men detained for indefinite periods of time without charging them, in a foreign country, on the pretext that they are or may be "terrorists" or "enemy foreign combatants" or some other jargon, as opposed to ordinary, respectable criminals? If a man commits a crime - if the government thinks a man commits a crime - that man should be jailed, according to the rule of law, and given a swift and fair trial. He should not be detained forever in another country, no matter how hot his meals are (now, after our play and others like it and a general shitstorm of media attention).
Mr. Davis seems uninterested in justice in the grand, ideal, popular sense - the sense of "justice" that we think many of you out there are most interested in. Not the justice of which Geneva Conventions article specifies what number of hot meals must be provided for which class of "enemy combatant," but the kind of justice that would never hold so many men without trial for so long.
It is right that the United States should respect international law regarding the detention of prisoners. It is more right that we should not detain them indefinitely, caged like dogs, and call ourselves heroes for closing Camp X-Ray five years ago, or for admitting that not every inmate is guilty, or for handing out Qur'ans.
From wikipedia and MSNBC.com:
Most of the detainees still at Guantánamo are not scheduled for trial. As of November 2006, according to MSNBC.com, out of 775 detainees who have been brought to Guantánamo, approximately 340 have been released, leaving 435 detainees. Of those 435, 110 have been labeled as ready for release. Of the other 325, only "more than 70" will face trial, the Pentagon says. That leaves about 250 who may be held indefinitely.
The article, an op-ed piece by Morris Davis, an Air Force lawyer, generously and insipidly defends the existence of and practices within America's Guantánamo Bay detention facility.
Culture Project does not stand for everyone. But many, many people stand with us in our fight to close Guantánamo, now, and to end the Bush regime's suspension of habeas corpus ("Latin: [We command that] you have the body") that has kept hundreds of men locked in cages in Cuba, wondering why they are there and when they are going to go home, go to jail, or even die.
The questions we continue to have with regard to Guantánamo and all attendant persons and practices are not, are emphatically not: "Are the prisoners kept there particularly comfortable; do they have the Qur'an [not 'Koran,' Mr. Davis]; are their meals hot enough, fibrous enough, etc.?"
The lingering question that we have is this: Is it right to keep men detained for indefinite periods of time without charging them, in a foreign country, on the pretext that they are or may be "terrorists" or "enemy foreign combatants" or some other jargon, as opposed to ordinary, respectable criminals? If a man commits a crime - if the government thinks a man commits a crime - that man should be jailed, according to the rule of law, and given a swift and fair trial. He should not be detained forever in another country, no matter how hot his meals are (now, after our play and others like it and a general shitstorm of media attention).
Mr. Davis seems uninterested in justice in the grand, ideal, popular sense - the sense of "justice" that we think many of you out there are most interested in. Not the justice of which Geneva Conventions article specifies what number of hot meals must be provided for which class of "enemy combatant," but the kind of justice that would never hold so many men without trial for so long.
It is right that the United States should respect international law regarding the detention of prisoners. It is more right that we should not detain them indefinitely, caged like dogs, and call ourselves heroes for closing Camp X-Ray five years ago, or for admitting that not every inmate is guilty, or for handing out Qur'ans.
From wikipedia and MSNBC.com:
Most of the detainees still at Guantánamo are not scheduled for trial. As of November 2006, according to MSNBC.com, out of 775 detainees who have been brought to Guantánamo, approximately 340 have been released, leaving 435 detainees. Of those 435, 110 have been labeled as ready for release. Of the other 325, only "more than 70" will face trial, the Pentagon says. That leaves about 250 who may be held indefinitely.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Lessons from The Exonerated
DNA evidence continues to land the guilty in the slammer (for better or for worse) and to set the innocent free (though often after years of incarceration). We applaud Governor Spitzer's foresight, determination, and plain good thinking regarding such evidence and its collection.
NYTimes, May 14, 2007, "New York Plan for DNA Data in Most Crimes," By PATRICK McGEEHAN:
NYTimes, May 14, 2007, "New York Plan for DNA Data in Most Crimes," By PATRICK McGEEHAN:
Gov. Eliot Spitzer is proposing a major expansion of New York’s database of DNA samples to include people convicted of most crimes, while making it easier for prisoners to use DNA to try to establish their innocence.
Currently, New York State collects DNA from those convicted of about half of all crimes, typically the most serious.
The governor’s proposal would order DNA taken from those found guilty of any misdemeanor, including minor drug offenses, harassment or unauthorized use of a credit card, according to a draft of his bill. It would not cover offenses considered violations, like disorderly conduct.
In expanding its database to include all felonies and misdemeanors, New York would be nearly alone, although a handful of states collect DNA from some defendants upon arrest, even before conviction.
Mr. Spitzer is also seeking mandatory sampling of all prisoners in the state, as well as all of those on parole, on probation or registered as sex offenders.
That expansion alone would add about 50,000 samples to the database, at a cost of about $1.75 million, his office said. It did not provide an estimate of the cost of taking DNA samples in all future convictions.
“This legislation will help us bring the guilty to justice and exonerate those who have been wrongly accused,” Mr. Spitzer said in a statement. He plans to introduce his bill this week.
The bill would make it easier for prisoners and defendants to obtain court orders to have their DNA tested against evidence collected in their cases and to have that evidence tested against the entire database of DNA, aides to the governor said.
It also would allow prisoners who have pleaded guilty to seek DNA testing that might prove them innocent, the aides said; some judges now decline such requests.
Police officials and prosecutors nationwide have trumpeted DNA collection as one of the most effective tools in law enforcement. New York’s database, for example, now contains almost 250,000 samples and has produced matches in almost 4,000 cases, according to the state’s Division of Criminal Justice Services.
At the same time, DNA has become a useful tool for defense lawyers whose clients proclaim their innocence long after their convictions.
According to the Innocence Project, a legal clinic affiliated with the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University in Manhattan, DNA testing has led to the exoneration of 23 people in New York who had been convicted of crimes, and more than 200 nationwide.
By addressing concerns about access for the wrongly convicted, Mr. Spitzer may have a better chance of gaining support among state lawmakers for an expansion of DNA collection, said Assemblyman Joseph R. Lentol, a Brooklyn Democrat who is chairman of the Codes Committee, which deals with criminal justice.
“I’ve always been in favor of the expansion of the database to all crimes, but I want these protections to be put in place so that there’s a balance between protecting the innocent as well as prosecuting the guilty,” Mr. Lentol said. “I think the governor is on the right track doing it this way.”
Mr. Lentol acknowledged that his support for DNA testing in all convictions was not in line with his colleagues in the Democratic majority in the Assembly, who have repeatedly blocked bills passed by the Republican-controlled State Senate that would have expanded DNA collection. The Senate passed such a bill again this month.
Charles Carrier, a spokesman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, said he could not yet comment on Mr. Spitzer’s proposal.
He said that in the past, Assembly Democrats have been reluctant to approve wider DNA testing because of concerns about “the way evidence was cataloged and stored, handled and controlled and processed.”
Some civil liberties groups oppose broader collection of DNA samples, out of concerns about how they might be used beyond the justice system.
“Because DNA, unlike fingerprints, provides an enormous amount of personal information, burgeoning government DNA databases pose a serious threat to privacy,” said Christopher Dunn, associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “They must include strict protections to assure that DNA is collected and used only for legitimate law enforcement purposes, such as exonerating the innocent or convicting the guilty.”
John McArdle, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, said that Mr. Bruno had not seen the governor’s bill and would not comment on it until he had.
But Mr. McArdle said that Mr. Bruno supported the expansion of DNA collection to the perpetrators of all crimes, as well as another proposal Mr. Spitzer has included in his bill: giving prosecutors up to five more years to bring charges in cases where DNA evidence has been collected but not yet matched to a particular person.
New York has had a DNA database since 2000. Originally, it included samples from people convicted of sex offenses and only certain felonies.
But it has been expanded twice in the last three years to include all felonies and some misdemeanors, aides to the governor said.
Still, only about 46 percent of people convicted of crimes in the state are required to submit to the collection of a DNA sample, which now is usually done by swabbing the inside of the mouth.
Mr. Spitzer, a Democrat in his first year as governor, is not the first political leader in the state to call for such an expansion. His predecessor, George E. Pataki, a Republican, pushed for an “all crimes” bill.
Last year, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, a Republican, also campaigned for the testing of everyone who is convicted, saying that murderers and rapists also commit petty crimes and that mandatory DNA collection could lead to their convictions for the more serious offenses.
But Mr. Spitzer is wrapping his proposal for expanding the database together with ideas that are more likely to appeal to those who believe many defendants are wrongly convicted.
He is seeking to require that prosecutors notify the court if they learn that there may be DNA evidence that could exonerate a prisoner. Currently, state law does not obligate prosecutors to volunteer that information, a lawyer in the governor’s office said.
Mr. Spitzer’s proposal also calls for the creation of a state office that would be responsible for studying all cases that resulted in exonerations and looking for flaws in the system that led to those wrongful convictions. That office would not be an independent body, often referred to as an “innocence commission,” but a part of the Division of Criminal Justice Services.
Assemblyman Michael N. Gianaris, a Queens Democrat, is sponsoring a bill to create an “innocence commission,” which is part of a package of legislation relating to DNA testing that was introduced this month. The package includes a bill proposed by Mr. Lentol that would expand prisoners’ access to the DNA database.
Barry Scheck, the co-director of the Innocence Project, said that many of the people his organization had helped to exonerate would have been freed much sooner, or would not have been convicted at all, if the changes sought by Mr. Lentol and his colleagues had been in place.
Mr. Scheck and his co-director, Peter Neufeld, were not prepared to comment on Mr. Spitzer’s bill.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
