-
8.Guantánamo beyond Cuba:A Global Detention System outside the Law
- NYU Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
361 8 Guantánamo beyond Cuba: A Global Detention System outside the Law Guantánamo was never simply a prison but was part of an effort to create a globalwide system of prisons beyond the law. Although these prisons varied in some respects, they shared the core features of Guantánamo: indefinite detention without charge or due process, torture and other abuse, pervasive secrecy, and a desire to avoid meaningful judicial review. Guantánamo Comes to America Through three important cases—those of Jose Padilla, Ali al-Marri, and Yaser Hamdi—the Bush administration sought to bring the Guantánamo detention system to the United States. Donna R. Newman: What the F—— Is an “Enemy Combatant”? In May 2002, when it seemed that the smell of the debris and smoke from the demise of the Twin Towers had just cleared, I received a call from the courtroom deputy to the Honorable Michael B. Mukasey, then chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He asked me to appear in court the following week for an assignment representing a grand-jury material witness who was being held in connection with the grand-jury sitting to investigate 9/11. As in my practice, I came intending to argue for my client’s release pending his appearance before the grand jury. When I arrived in court, the assistant U.S. attorney handling the case handed me the government’s affidavit. I learned that my client’s name was Jose Padilla, that he was a citizen of the United States, and that he had been arrested when he arrived at Chicago O’Hare Airport on a grand-jury material-witness warrant issued by Judge Mukasey. Although the affidavit stated that Padilla was involved in what was later publicized as a plot to 362 Guantánamo beyond Cuba detonate a “dirty bomb” in the United States, I was not deterred from arguing for the setting of reasonable bail. I didn’t think the application was ridiculous because the allegations in the affidavit were based on double and triple hearsay, and the affiant admitted that some of the information on which the affiant relied was procured by torture. I thought (perhaps naively) that bail could be secured. In other words, at first I simply saw this case as one of many cases I have had in which the government exaggerates or takes liberty with some facts. But this was not a run-of-the-mill case. For the first three or four weeks of my representation of Padilla, no special attention was given to the case by the court. It was not in the public eye. I visited my client on a regular basis at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. I filed motions objecting to his status as a material witness and once again sought bail on his behalf. The court scheduled a hearing on my motions. The day before the hearing, I was driving to another court when I received a call from the prosecutor informing me that President Bush had just signed an order declaring Jose Padilla an “enemy combatant.” When I asked, “What the [expletive] is an ‘enemy combatant’?” the prosecutor referred me to a Supreme Court case—In re Quirin—from World War II. “Are you serious?” I responded. He assured me he was. He then told me that Judge Mukasey had signed an order vacating Padilla’s material-witness warrant. I was informed that Padilla was no longer at the Metropolitan Correction Center because the military had seized him from his cell and was now holding him incommunicado at a military brig. My inquiry as to where my client was being held was met with silence. In dismay and disbelief , I lamely said, “But Padilla is not in the military. How is it possible that he is now in military custody?” The prosecutor told me to turn on the radio and listen to Attorney General John Ashcroft’s statement from his press conference in Russia. I turned on the radio. A replay of the statement that had been given earlier that morning was on the air. Jose Padilla, Ashcroft announced, was found to have been part of a plan to detonate a “dirty bomb” in the United States. As a result, President Bush declared Padilla an enemy combatant. He further explained that Padilla was being held for interrogation. I felt like I was having an out-of-body experience. I was confident that...