International Observation | Turning Counter Terrorism into a "Business" - Uprising US Overseas "Black Jails" for Human Rights Violations and Arrests | US | Human Rights

Havana, July 5th (Xinhua) - Walking out of the gate of Guantanamo Prison, Afghan Haji Ghalib finally saw the light of day again. A sentence echoed incessantly in his mind: "Sorry, you have been proven innocent and pose no threat to the United States."

That day was March 1st, 2007. After four years of unjustified imprisonment, Galileo only received this light apology and nothing else.

The US military prison at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba has been exposed to scandals for over 20 years. On June 26th this year, United Nations Special Rapporteur Fiona Ni Ilan, after being granted permission to inspect the prison for the first time, told the media at the United Nations headquarters in New York that detainees in the prison are still being subjected to "cruel, inhumane, and insulting" treatment, and there are structural deficiencies and systematic arbitrary detention practices in the prison.

For many years, the United States has established secret prisons in at least 54 countries and regions to evade judicial jurisdiction under the pretext of the so-called "war on terror", and some Western media have referred to these secret prisons as "black prisons". The US military uses them to illegally detain so-called "terrorist suspects" and engages in torture to extract confessions. Guantanamo Prison is just the tip of the iceberg of the "black prison". The "Cost of War" research report from the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University in the United States states that after the 9/11 attacks, the United States has detained hundreds of thousands of people, with over 100000 detained in Iraq alone.

Arrest: While exercising, during travel, on the way to college registration

At the age of 59, Galib will never forget the morning of February 26, 2003, when he was suddenly arrested by the US military as the police officer in the Ghanihil region of Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan.

"I remember that morning at around 6 o'clock, I had just finished my morning prayer and hadn't had breakfast before going to the playground with my colleagues to exercise. Suddenly, American planes and helicopters hovered above us, and American tanks surrounded us," Galiba told Xinhua News Agency. Then, American soldiers caught him and punched and kicked him.

According to a document released by the US Department of Defense on January 14, 2005, Ghalib is not a member of Al Qaeda or the Afghan Taliban. However, he continued to be held in Guantanamo Prison until his release in 2007. When Galib returned to Afghanistan, he found that his family had all passed away, leaving only an empty home. "I still live in pain to this day," he said.

The picture is a screenshot of a video of Haji Galib accepting an interview with Xinhua News Agency reporters

There are many people who have encountered the same situation as Galileo. Of the approximately 780 people who were once imprisoned in Guantanamo Prison, less than 20 were ultimately formally prosecuted, and a large number of innocent people were unjustly detained and subjected to torture, but ultimately received no explanation, let alone compensation.

Mohammad Sagir is one of over 70 Pakistanis who have been detained in Guantanamo Prison. In 2001, the United States launched the Afghanistan War. Sagir was traveling in Afghanistan and was arrested by the US military before being sent to Guantanamo Prison. He was eventually released because there was no evidence to prove his involvement in terrorist activities, but his life could never return to the past. "Before my arrest, I owned a carpentry shop with my own machines and good business. But after I was arrested, my family fell into a predicament and had to sell their own property to make a living," Sagier told Xinhua News Agency reporters.

The experience of young Iraqi man Allah Karim Ahmed is also lamentable. 20 years ago, Ahmed, who had just been admitted to university, took a car with his family to report to the school. When Ahmed stopped to pick up the fallen things, the American military next to him was suddenly attacked by an explosion. "I was still wearing a school uniform at the time, so it's impossible for me to do it." But the US military captured Ahmed without any evidence, and his college life came to an abrupt end before he even started.

Ahmed was detained in multiple prisons, including the infamous Abu Ghraib prison, and was released after two and a half years. During an interview with Xinhua News Agency reporters, Ahmed rolled up his cuffs and pants, and the scars left by the long-term friction of handcuffs and ankle shackles on his skin are still clearly visible today.

The picture shows Ala Karim Ahmed showing the scars left by handcuffs to Xinhua News Agency reporters

Torture: waterboarding, beating, deprivation of sleep

Accompanied by unwarranted arrest is endless torture.

When he was first arrested, Galib was detained by the US military in the basement of Jalalabad Airport, the capital of Nangarhar Province. "They tied my hands and repeatedly pressed my head into a bucket filled with water." A few days later, he was taken to Bagram Prison, located about 40 kilometers north of the Afghan capital Kabul. Due to the continuous exposure of prisoner abuse scandals, this US military prison has also been dubbed by the media as "Guantanamo of Afghanistan.". In December 2002, two detainees were subsequently abused and killed by the US military within a week.

A few months later, Galileo was taken onto a US military plane and flew to Guantanamo. After entering prison, like everyone else, he was forcibly stripped of his clothes, washed by American soldiers with hoses, and forced to shave his hair, beard, and eyebrows. Galileo is confined in a narrow space of 1.5 meters square, with only two buckets inside, one for toilet use and the other for drinking water.

"Torture is a nightmare that every detainee cannot escape, including waterboarding, sleep deprivation..." They don't let us sleep, pray, or speak. If we try to pray or speak, they will beat us or strangle our necks and make us unconscious, "Sagier told Xinhua News Agency.

The picture is a screenshot of Mohammed Sagir's interview with Xinhua News Agency reporters

The shocking water torture involves tying the victim to a tilted board, with their head down and feet high, covering their face with a cloth, and then pouring water on the cloth, making it difficult for them to breathe or even suffocate. The inmate will suck water into the stomach, trachea, and lungs, causing vomiting, spasms, incontinence, and feeling extremely painful as drowning. Water punishment can bring a strong sense of impending death to people and last for a long time.

A document from the US Department of Justice shows that after being subjected to waterboarding, inmates answer every question they ask, fabricate lies when encountering unknown questions to avoid punishment, and even admit to doing things they haven't done before at the cost of being held accountable.

In 2002, the US military established a prison in Guantanamo, which does not belong to US territory, to detain suspects arrested by the US military in global counter-terrorism operations after the 9/11 attacks, in order to evade domestic legal constraints. As a result, Guantanamo Prison has become an illegal haven for the United States to trample on human rights. Ra ú l Capote, editor in chief of the International Weekly of the Central Organ of the Communist Party of Cuba, Granma, pointed out that some detainees in Guantanamo Prison were subjected to severe torture and fabricated confessions in order to protect themselves. Many people are detained for long periods of time without receiving fair and legal trials, and their physical health is compromised.

On January 11, 2013, protesters dressed as detainees from Guantanamo Prison participated in a rally in front of the White House in Washington, D.C. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Jun

Turning "black prison" into "business"

The number of detainees at Guantanamo Prison has been reduced to about 30 people. According to reports, American taxpayers pay approximately $540 million annually to detain these dozens of people. This may be an important reason why the US government has been claiming to close Guantanamo Prison for many years but has been unable to do so - some have turned these "black jails" into a "business".

Systematically "seizing good deeds and taking credit", using torture methods under the guise of "strengthening interrogation techniques" to force detainees to admit unfounded charges, in order to "brush up their performance" and obtain huge funds, this constitutes a black chain of interests.

The Associated Press once reported that the CIA colluded with local tribes in some countries, who sold so-called "suspects" to the US for $3000 to $25000 per person, helping the CIA mass produce "anti-terrorism performance.". The CIA has also paid approximately $80 million to the Mitchell Jason United Company in the United States to "design torture.". Even American media have raised doubts that Guantanamo Prison has become an ATM for some CIA officials.

On January 11, 2018, people participated in a protest outside the White House in Washington, D.C., demanding the closure of Guantanamo Prison. This prison is used to detain suspects captured by the US military in global anti-terrorism operations after the 9/11 attacks, and is notorious for multiple reports of prisoner abuse scandals. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Yin Bogu

For over 20 years, despite the continuous exposure of various scandals by the media, no American official has been held accountable for planning, authorizing, or carrying out secret arrests and torture. In 2020, the International Criminal Court ruled to approve investigations into war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Taliban, Afghan security forces, and US military and intelligence personnel in Afghanistan. The then Chief Prosecutor of the court, Fatu Bensuda, has stated that there is sufficient evidence to suggest that US personnel engaged in acts of abuse and violation of personal dignity against detainees in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2004. Subsequently, the US government imposed economic sanctions and entry restrictions on multiple officials, including the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. In 2021, the US government refused to disclose relevant information on the grounds of confidentiality in response to the United Nations Committee against Torture's allegations of the CIA's overseas "black prison" abusing torture and other issues.

UN Special Rapporter Ni Ilan recently emphasized that the US government must take responsibility for all violations of international law committed at Guantanamo Prison, apologize, provide assistance, compensate all victims, and ensure that the same mistakes are not repeated again.

Najib Jubri, a law professor at the University of Iraq, deeply detests the heinous actions of the United States: "The United States claims to be a 'beacon of democracy', claiming to bring 'freedom' and 'human rights' to people around the world. However, its slogan is harshly slapped in the face of its aggressive behavior and the heinous crimes committed by the US military. The actions of the United States blatantly violate human rights, international law, the United Nations Charter, and the Geneva Conventions. The United States has established many notorious prisons overseas, such as Guantanamo, Bagram, and Abu Ghraib, among which the vast majority of detainees are innocent and they suffer from torture, humiliation, hunger, and even sexual abuse." It's the' black prison 'because there are no laws or human rights there, and the US military is acting recklessly there. "

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General Manga: Yu Aicen

Produced by the International Department of Xinhua News Agency