'I will never leave Guantanamo'

This is about a man, whom his lawyer calls "Joseph" for the faithful husband.  And it begins very bluntly:

"WE HAVE important news for you!"

Chained to the floor of a cell in Camp Six, Guantanamo, Joseph said nothing. But he had some news for us, too.

His news is a message for his wife:

"I want you to tell her that it is time for her . . .. to move on."

"You mean . . .?"

"Yes. I will never leave Guantanamo."

Even though he loves her, he wants to set her free. He has given up.  He never will leave, and she is getting older.

Please keep reading.
The title of this diary is the same as the title of this op ed in today's Boston Globe, written by Sabin Willett, a partner at Bingham McCutchen, which represents prisoners at the Guantanamo prison.  And in its simple retelling about the situation "Joseph" faces, it encapsulates what is wrong in our still continuing to violate our own principles in what we are doing at Guantanamo.

Willett was telling Joseph of a court decision issued in July, about which they could finally tell him in October.   Ponder that for a moment.  An appeals court has ruled in your favor, but you cannot even be given the newsw for a quarter of a year.  

But perhaps that delay does not matter, because his lawyers did not have the papers, so they could not tell him their contents:

The government had moved for reconsideration, filed affidavits, more briefs. There might be further appeals. It was complicated.

Perhaps this is why "Joseph" has given up.  Even those victories his lawyers can win do require the U.S. government to immediately respond, because it can appeal, perhaps to the Supreme Court, a court whose membership now includes two additional members who tilt in favor of the unitary executive.

We live in America, which is in theory a nation of laws and not of men, in which the government has its powers constitutionally limited and the people have many rights explicitly protected.  It is interesting that the same justices who insist on reading the Constitution literally and interpreting it as it might have been in the early years are willing to creatively read passages that say "person" and interpret that as "citizen, with such exceptions as the president may in his infinite wisdom choose to assert as the unitary executive who in commander in chief in a time of never ending even if undeclared war."  

His lawyers have not yet produced a page of the documents they sought.  And "Joseph?"  He listened to his lawyers in silence, because he has heard this sort of thing before, and had little faith in American courts:  

in Camp Six a man can't be sure that American courts exist at all, but if they do, it is certain that nothing ever comes of them but essays. No one alleges that Joseph was ever a terrorist, or a soldier, or a criminal. The military told him in 2002 he was innocent. Again in 2003. Again in 2006. He filed a habeas petition in 2005. He would be gone if the military could find a country to take him.

When Senator Joseph Lieberman and the other guardians of freedom in Congress stripped his habeas rights, he filed a Detainee Treatment Act petition. That was 11 months ago.

For two years and three months he'd been asking the federal judiciary to hear a few simple facts. No judge ever has.

Read that selection again, and note the following The military told him in 2002 he was innocent. Again in 2003. Again in 2006.

We have been holding a man who has been told he is innocent.  Chained to a floor in a cell in Guantanamo.  Denying him access to the Courts.  Ostensibly in our name.  Apparently because to allow access to the Courts would make clear how fucked up this entire process is.

Yes, I just dropped an f-bomb.   I do not normally curse, verbally or in writing.  My normal worst expression is to call someone who cuts my car off an asshole, muttering under my breath, and I have been struggling to rid myself of even that level of verbal and mental violence towards others.  And perhaps because I so rarely curse the impact of that phrase - fucked up - will appropriately indicate the rage and the sorrow I feel as I read this op ed.

But then I hear words from Bob Dylan in my mind.   They begin

William Zanzinger killed poor Hattie Carroll...

But you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears,
Take the rag away from your face.
Now ain't the time for your tears.

And then there is the final stanza, in which I will insert bold to make clear my my reason for using this song from the 60s:

In the courtroom of honor, the judge pounded his gavel
To show that all's equal and that the courts are on the level
And that the strings in the books ain't pulled and persuaded
And that even the nobles get properly handled
Once that the cops have chased after and caught 'em
And that the ladder of law has no top and no bottom,
Stared at the person who killed for no reason
Who just happened to be feelin' that way without warnin'.
And he spoke through his cloak, most deep and distinguished,
And handed out strongly, for penalty and repentance,
William Zanzinger with a six-month sentence.
Oh, but you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears,
Bury the rag deep in your face
For now's the time for your tears.

I have told you about Lierberman, about the military telling him he was innocent.  None of these are yet the occasion for our tears.

Nor is this:

Camp Six is complete isolation. The men call it the dungeon above the ground. He is held alone in a metal cell, denied any contact with companions, books, news, the world - with his wife or child.

North Korea used this isolation technique against our airmen in 1952. We know a good idea when we see it, so the taxpayers paid $30 million to Dick Cheney's former company to duplicate North Korea.

Joseph wants to set his wife free, because she is getting older, and he wants her still to be able to have a life.  

We are all getting older. Guantanamo is now far older than any World-War-II POW camp. Hope fled the sunless gloom of Camp Six long ago.

Joseph slips with the others down isolation's slope. He stands in the twilight. Beyond, the darkness of insanity beckons. He seems ready to surrender to it.

Are you ready yet for your tears?  

Somewhere in a file drawer in Guantanamo is a copy of the memo that clears Joseph for release. But it was written in 2006, and is as forgotten as he is. So the good husband did the last thing a man in isolation can do. He set his wife free from her husband's prison.

And what can his lawyers offer?  The final paragraph of the op ed expresses their frustration, the ridiculousness of what our nation has wrought:

Not to worry, Joseph! Our federal judges are at their posts! They are making important rulings in your case - earnestly debating the important question of which pieces of paper to look at!

We will hear voices that justify not responding to Joseph's simple request.  We will hear yet again the doctrine of 'state secrets" (although in my many years of reading the Constitution I have yet to encounter that phrase).  Those of us who challenge actions that are so much an unfortunate part of this administration will yet again be accused of being anti-American or merely seeking partisan political advantage.

I acknowledge it.  I am guilty.  I hate what America has become under this administration, and scream, with Langston Hughes, "Let America be America again."  And I absolutely seek the "partisan" advantage of human rights, of being on the political side of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

So let me end as does Dylan, repeating the end of that powerful song, written 43 years ago,which shows how little we have apparently learned from our own history:

Oh, but you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears,
Bury the rag deep in your face
For now's the time for your tears.

Peace?

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