3/30/06, Opinion-Editorial, printed in The Forum (Claremont McKenna College)

(Printed in The Forum (Claremont McKenna College), March 30, 2006, as an Opinion-Editorial)

“The Gruesome Truth at Guantanamo Bay”

By Ataul Malik Khan

On March 20, former military public relations officer at the detainee cell in Guantanamo Bay, Lee Reynolds, made a guest appearance in Professor Robert Kirkland’s weekly seminar on Comparative Military Systems. Reynolds painted a grim image of the life of the detainees in Cuba -- males ranging from the ages of 16 to 70 -- while firmly asserting that the facility was a necessary and justified entity in light of the United States’ goal of eradicating terrorism.

The facility dates back to the Spanish-American War when the United States purchased the 42-square mile stretch of land for $2,000 in gold. In 1934, a mutual agreement was reached between Cuba and the United States in which the U.S. would pay $4,000 in U.S. dollars in order to operate the base. Reynolds told students that Fidel Castro refuses to cash these check payments. Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States converted a portion of the base into a detainment facility to prevent the spread of terrorism both domestically and abroad. It has housed up to 740 detainees, and currently holds roughly 450.

Detainees are kept in eight feet by six feet rooms that contain a metal bunk, toilet, sink, and running water. As all detainees are Muslim, the mats issued for sleeping must also be used to perform the prescribed five daily prayers. When asked about the unsanitary nature of this prayer arrangement Reynolds remarked, "I do not see any problem with that," adding that, "we are not going to make it comfortable for them, it is a detention facility."

Reynolds made the distinction between a "prisoner of war" and a "detainee," repeatedly referencing the Geneva Convention as the justification for the United States’ actions in Guantanamo Bay. "Many people ask why these detainees are not awarded lawyers," remarked Reynolds, "but there is nothing a lawyer can do to help them, they do not have that right according to the Geneva Convention."

A board assesses each detainee’s case annually and decides whether he is to be released or withheld for another year. Though the act of releasing 250 detainees shows signs of clemency on the part of the United States, it also points to the inefficient manner in which innocent men have been detained for no substantiated reason.

Reynolds mentioned that all United States citizens affiliated with the detainee facility underwent "cultural sensitivity" training in order to learn the basic tenets and traditions of Islam. I asked Reynolds if he learned about the five pillars of Islam and he remarked, "I do not remember them; I remember learning that Muslims cannot eat pork, and about the Prophet Muhammad." Upon further inquiry, the unsatisfactory attempts of the U.S. at cultural sensitivity were glaringly obvious as he mentioned that one of their torture tactics included disorienting detainees to give them a false sense of night and day, an act which would invariably prevent them from accurately performing their five daily prayers – the second pillar of Islam.

Reynolds affirmed many students’ suspicions who had heard gruesome tales of the facility in the news. He confirmed that on one occasion, a soldier who was mistreated and spat upon retaliated by flushing the detainee’s copy of The Holy Quran down the toilet. In another instance, a female soldier spread ketchup on her hands and rubbed it upon a detainee’s crotch claiming it was vaginal blood.

He reminded the students, however, that perhaps not is all dismal in Guantanamo Bay. "We reward those detainees who cooperate with us," Reynolds remarked as he described a more upscale, dormitory-style facility for the tacitly compliant detainees. "I heard one story where the good detainees were rewarded with a ‘Big Mac’; seriously, we brought them McDonalds, and they all seemed to know what a ‘Big Mac’ was."

The essential questions regarding the justification of such detainment, its success in preventing further acts of terror, and its ability to live up to standards of international human rights were all answered in the affirmation of the United States’ position on terror. In other words Reynolds claims that the facility is both necessary and appropriate according to the tenets of the Global War on Terror (GWOT), and that its existence is justified by agreements reached at the Geneva Convention.

I asked Reynolds for his definition of "terrorist," and he told me that it was, "an individual who is not properly supervised and inflicts pain upon another without regard for government." I then asked him if, by his definition, Lyndie England, the woman accused of heinous acts in Abu Ghraib, would be classified as a terrorist. He told me, "Well, obviously, that is an entirely different situation; she is not a terrorist."

I was not seeking to prove that the English woman was a terrorist, but rather make a point that acts of terror are not contingent upon the support of any institution or organization, but upon the attitude and actions of an individual, and that perhaps those detained in Guantanamo Bay were simply placed there because of the color of their skin or their affiliation with Islam.