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Documentary "Inside Guantanamo" Is Blind to War Crimes
BY Michael Haas
April 7th, 2009
During the week of April 5, 2009, a documentary was available for viewing on the National Geographic cable channel under the title Inside Guant‡namo. Although the film is publicized as evenhanded, serving to dispel myths about the prison, in fact most of the180 minutes in the program serve to document war crimes. Yet the term "war crime" is not used, and no effort is undertaken to point out violations of international law that are caught naked on camera.
Whereas former Bush administration official Bradford Berenson is quoted as saying that murdering a prisoner would be contrary to international law, he is obviously unwilling to admit the vast extent of war crimes violations at Guant‡namo. Indeed, the documentary could be used as evidence in court of the violation of some provisions of the Geneva Conventions and related international agreements about the treatment of prisoners.
Some of the most obvious war crimes are evident when cells are photographed. During 2008, Amnesty International provided a replica of such a cell in a tour around selected cities in the United States, albeit without an accompanying leaflet indicating how prisoners held in solitary confinement, as portrayed in Inside Guantanamo, are victims of war crimes. Any viewer of the television series Hogan's Heroes would immediately note several of the following specific violations in the National Georgraphic film:
á Solitary confinement, which is not allowed for punishment (Article 111, Geneva Convention III of 1949) - WC#87*
á Repeated punishment (Article 90, Geneva Convention III of 1949) - WC#110
á Punishment exceeding thirty days (Article 90, Geneva Convention III of 1949) - WC#115
á Indefinite imprisonment of a child, Mohammad Jawad (Article 37(1) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989) - WC#195
á Punishment without following procedures (Article 116, Geneva Convention III of 1949) - WC#96
á Close confinement instead of communal housing (Article 65, Geneva Convention III of 1949) - WC#21
á Inadequate shelter, as compared to American soldiers (Article 7, Hague Convention II of 1907) - WC#64
á Unequal treatment of prisoners, most of whom are not in solitary confinement (Article 88, Geneva Convention III of 1949) - WC#114
á Improper cooling, sometimes kept at 50? (Articles 3, 25, Geneva Convention III, 1949) - WC#48,68
á Improper lighting, sometimes left on 24/7 (Article 25, Geneva Convention III of 1949) - WC#69
á Solitary meals (Article 36, Geneva Convention III of 1949) - WC#73
á Inability to prepare own meals (Article 36, Geneva Convention III of 1949) - WC#71
á Lack of prison canteens (Article 28, Geneva Convention III of 1949) - WC#74
á Failure to allow prisoners to receive & spent funds (Articles 59-60 63-64, Geneva Convention III) - WC#75
á Failure to post the Geneva Convention text (Article 41, Geneva Convention III of 1949) - WC#127.
Outside the solitary confinement cells, the documentary Inside Guant‡namo portrays many more violations. Some balance in the film results when attorneys and former prisoners note several war crimes, and there is also reference to three Supreme Court decisions that found circumstances at Guant‡namo in violation of the Geneva Conventions. But the documentary fails to make the elementary point that violation of a provision of the Geneva Conventions is a war crime.
Among the juridical violations stated by the lawyers, prisoners, and others are the following:
á Interrogation beyond name, rank, serial number (Article 5, Prisoner of War Convention of 1929) - WC#51
á Coercive techniques, such as strapping prisoners in fetal position (Article 5, Prisoner of War Convention of 1929) - WC#52-53
á Torture, specifically: being strapped alone in fetal positions for 24 hours in cold rooms (Article 3, Geneva Convention III of 1949) - #55
á Failure to prevent torture (Article 2, Torture Convention of 1985) - WC#57
á Complicity or participation in torture (Article 4, Torture Convention of 1985) - WC#58
á Failure to protect prisoners from intimidation (Article 13, Geneva Convention III or 1949) - WC#59
á Secret detainees in Camp 7 (Article 14, Hague Convention II of 1907) - WC#118
á Imprisonment without first determining probable cause (Articles 3 & 5, Geneva Convention III of 1949) - WC#123
á Denial of the right to counsel up to 2004 (Article 62, Prisoner of War Convention of 1929) - WC#120
á Failure to try accused persons (Article 3, Geneva Conventions of 1949) - WC#121
á Unlikelihood of impartial trials after Bush's declaration of their guilt (Article 84, Geneva Convention III of 1949) - WC#132
á Prisoners forced to renounce their rights (Article 7, Geneva Convention III of 1949) - WC#124
á Failure to transmit legal documents to prisoners (Article 77, Geneva Convention III of 1949) - WC#130
á Failure to allow lawyers to visit prisoners (Articles 77 & 103, Geneva Convention III of 1949) - WC#131, 139
á Forced self-incrimination before release (Article 99, Geneva Convention III of 1949) - WC#133
á Denial of speedy trials (Article 103, Geneva Convention III of 1949) - WC#134
á Failure to inform prisoners promptly of charges against them (Article 105, Geneva Convention III of 1949) - WC#143
á Failure of supervisors to disseminate Geneva Convention provisions to subordinates (Article 39, Geneva Convention III of 1949) - WC#126.
Other practices are revealed in the film, again without noting that they are war crimes:
á Strapping a prisoner to a gurney (Article 4, Hague Convention II of 1899) - WC#43
á Displaying prisoners in cages and on a gurney (Article 2, Prisoner of War Convention of 1929) - WC#46
á Force-feeding (Article 16, Protocol 1 to the Geneva Conventions of 1977) - WC#98
á Lack of privacy, outraging personal dignity (Article 3, Geneva Convention III of 1949) - WC#49.
In short, Inside Documentary could easily be viewed with an overlay of titles indicating which war crimes are being documented as the film footage rolls. Until then, the above analysis can serve as a "Cliff Notes" for the film.
*The numbers for each War Crime (WC) are found in the text of Michael Haas, George W. Bush, War Criminal? The Bush Administration's Liability for 269 War Crimes (Praeger, 2009).
