Iraq | PROBABLE CAUSE

Recidivism is defined as repetition of criminal behavior, i.e., an offender previously convicted and punished for an offence continues to offend once released. Recidivism is also a measure of the effectiveness of rehabilitation programs or the deterrent effect of punishment. Definitions are important when one considers the recent claims that 61 terrorists released from Guantanamo Bay have returned to the battlefield. An analysis conducted by Seton Hall law professor Mark Denbeaux reveals that those claims are widely distorted. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqXacCsGtKM

Professor Hall points out that the government has issued 43 statements regarding this issue (41 orally) and the number of “terrorists” alleged to have returned to the battlefield has changed nearly every time. The current list of 61 includes people who have written editorials in the New York Times criticizing Guantanamo Bay and those who have filmed documentaries critical of our government’s policies.

A previous analysis of 571 detainees conducted by Denbeaux found that 55% of them were determined not to have committed any hostile acts against the United States or its coalition allies. Only 8% of the detainees were characterized as al Qaeda fighters. Of the remaining detainees, 40% had no definitive connection with al Qaeda at all and 18% had no definitive affiliation with either al Qaeda or the Taliban. United States forces captured only 5% of the detainees. 86% of the detainees were captured by Pakistan or the Northern Alliance and were handed over to the United States at a time in which we offered large bounties for capture of suspected enemies. Finally, the population of persons deemed not to be enemy combatants – mostly Uighers – are in fact accused of more serious allegations than a great many persons still deemed to be enemy combatants.

At the present time, there are 245 detainees in Guantanamo Bay and only 21 of those have been charged with crimes. Investigators recently reported that there are no comprehensive case files on many of them despite the fact that most have been imprisoned for years.

Former Air Force counterintelligence agent Matthew Alexander, who conducted over 1300 interrogations in Iraq, and author of “How to Break a Terrorist,” has stated that the practice of not keeping comprehensive records on prisoners is called “ghosting” and violates the Geneva Convention. He also has stated that al Qaeda has used Guantanamo Bay as a major recruiting tool to expand the ranks of terrorists.

President Obama’s vow to close Guantanamo Bay is the right decision. The facility stands as a reminder of a justice system run amok. If our government has cases against 21 terrorists, then bring them to trial in the federal court system. If convicted, send them to maximum-security prisons. The idea that these prisoners are more dangerous than the countless murderers, serial killers and sociopaths we currently house in our prison system is as ridiculous as the claims brought against the majority of the detainees.

Yesterday’s indictment charging five Blackwater “security guards” with voluntary manslaughter in the deaths of 14 unarmed Baghdad civilians on September 16, 2007, reminded me of investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill’s excellent exposé of Blackwater USA, the private army of mercenaries hired and funded by the U.S. government.

In his 2007 book, Scahill pointed out that during the Gulf War in 1991, only 10% of people deployed in the war zone were private contractors. However, when George Bush came to power in 2000, the neocons led by Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney was determined to change that. By the time Rumsfeld left office, there were 100,000 private contractors on the ground, nearly a one-to-one ratio to active duty troops. In 2003, the job of protecting senior officials in Iraq was outsourced to Blackwater rather than the U.S. Army.

As of 2007 Blackwater had more than 2,300 private soldiers deployed in nine countries including inside the U.S. Most people are unaware that the Department of Homeland Security hired Blackwater armed mercenaries during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. U.S. taxpayers were billed $950 per day. In less than a year, the company collected more than $70 million in federal hurricane related contracts or $243,000 a day. Blackwater now has a database of 21,000 former Special Forces troops, soldiers and former law enforcement agents. It has a 7, 000 acre headquarters in Moyock, North Carolina, the world’s largest private military facility, and is run by Erik Prince, a radical right-wing Christian mega-millionaire.

Blackwater, which has not been charged in the Baghdad shootings, has previously declared that its forces are above the law and has resisted all attempts to subject its private soldiers to the Pentagon’s Uniform Code of Military Justice. At the same time, Blackwater has insisted their soldiers are civilians and thus immune from civilian litigation and prosecution in the U.S.

Separate investigations of the Baghdad shootings by the Iraqi government, the FBI and the U.S. military found that the Blackwater guards were the only ones who opened fire that day. One of the six guards charged has already pleaded guilty. The killings of innocent civilians have led to one of the key features of the recently signed U.S. Iraqi security agreement. The agreement now gives Iraq the primary right to exercise jurisdiction over U.S. forces and civilians (contracted by the U.S. Defense Department) for grave premeditated felonies when such crimes are committed outside their designated facilities and areas and while not on duty. Iraq also has the primary right to exercise jurisdiction over United States contractors and their employees.

Dwight Eisenhower once warned of the “grave implications” of the rise of “the military-industrial complex” and “misplaced power”. Scahill reminds us of the dangers of privatizing the military. One hopes that the next administration will listen to these warnings and sever government ties and taxpayer dollars with this group of mercenaries who pose a danger not only to other countries, but to the U.S. as well.