Guantánamo force-feeding videos released to US court in redacted form
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Version 0 of 1. The US government has provided a court with redacted versions of eight videotapes showing forced feeding at Guantánamo Bay that detainees describe as torture. Images on the tapes depict medical and security teams at Guantánamo restraining and feeding detainee Abu Wa’el Dhiab against his will. Dhiab has since been released. Lawyers for Dhiab and news organizations including the Guardian are attempting to get the videotapes released. If they succeed, the version of the tapes the Department of Justice (DoJ) has turned over is likely to be what the public will see. Although the DoJ continues to oppose public release of all 32 force-feeding videos, Dhiab’s attorneys said the new provision of the tapes – from which identifying information about Guantánamo personnel has been removed – indicates that national security would not be harmed by their disclosure. In October 2014, federal judge Gladys Kessler ordered the disclosure of the eight tapes, and the DoJ finally provided versions of them to her under seal on 31 August, according to court filings. Related: 'I have become a body without a soul': 13 years detained in Guantánamo | Pardiss Kebriaei The previous month, the department had asked Kessler to “reconsider” her order to disclose the Guantánamo tapes – a move which, if successful, would in effect restart the entire case. The case began as part of Dhiab’s challenge to his 12-year Guantanamo detention without charge, and included a challenge to the tube feedings as an abusive and punitive measure, rather than the medical necessity claimed by the Obama administration. Dhiab spent much of his detention on a protest hunger strike. In December 2014, the Obama administration released him to Uruguay, where he remains. Attorneys in the case have viewed the tapes, but said that classification restrictions prevent them from discussing the substance of their contents. They are said to show Dhiab being forcibly removed from his cell using a so-called “tackle-and-shackle” technique, as well as being fed through a tube inserted through his nose into his stomach while his limbs and head are restrained. Cori Crider, an attorney for Dhiab through the human-rights group Reprieve, called the behavior depicted on the videotapes “a national scandal”. Crider said: “If the American people could see the force-feeding tapes I’ve watched, they would understand that abuse in Guantánamo is not just in the ‘bad old days’ of the past, but continues right up to the present.” Although the US has provided Kessler with sanitized versions of eight of the 32 videos, it continues to resist their release to the public. Next month, attorneys for the government and for Dhiab are expected to discuss the manner of their disclosure with Kessler, but the DoJ still has legal options that can at minimum delay the release. In a 22 July filing, the then commander at the Guantánamo detention facility said that if the tapes were released, the information on them could “be provided to detainees, allowing them to manipulate the system, disrupt good order and discipline within the camps, and enable them to test, undermine and then threaten physical and personnel security”. Releasing the tapes beyond Guantánamo, rear admiral Richard Butler told the court, “would facilitate the enemy’s ability to conduct information operations and could be used to increase anti-American sentiment, thereby placing the lives of US service members at risk”. The DoJ declined to comment. Related: Guantánamo security clearance denied to lawyers of cooperating witness Crider agreed that the government needed to protect its personnel through redacting the videos but said it should not be permitted to cover up “what is really a national embarrassment”. “Those who wish us harm have no dearth of material for their propaganda already – and where does the logic of censorship end?” she asked. “Suppressing the Eric Garner footage? The Rodney King tapes? The Abu Ghraib photos? Guantánamo’s continued existence is one of the biggest recruiting sergeants of them all.” |