Front Page story for March 30, 2006
By Jim White, Editor
In reading Jimmy Carter's book Our Endangered Values, I was appalled by a chapter entitled “Attacking Terrorism, not Human Rights?” In this chapter, former President Carter cites several examples of torture committed by U.S. troops on those held as detainees in camps at various locations. As a Christian, these reports were enough to spur me to action-but where do you start?
Within a day of my determination to dig further into this matter, I discovered that the officer in charge of detainee tribunals at Guantanamo Bay was a member and deacon of Thalia Lynn Baptist Church in Virginia Beaach and was scheduled to return home sometime in February.
The following is my account of an interview with Navy Captain Pat Salsman, whose official title was officer in charge of the Guantanamo Bay detachment of the Office for Administrative Review of the Detention of Enemy Combatants (OARDEC).
Meeting with us were Whitey Hunt and Wayne Hatchett, both of whom are retired Naval officers and also members of the church, who had traveled to Guantanamo to visit Captain Salsman and who had observed conditions there. Also meeting with us was Prentis McGoldrick, pastor of Thalia Lynn.
After introductions, I was told to call Captain Salsman “Pat.”
White: Pat, thank you for meeting with me to tell from your first-hand experience what has been happening with the detainees. I'm not sure I can call someone with that many stripes on his sleeve by his first name, but I'll try.
Salsman: It's a pleasure to be able to talk to you and to try to set the record straight about what is happening-or not happening-with the detainees at Guantanamo. My job was to oversee the administrative review boards which met 464 times in the past year. These boards are convened before a three member panel consisting of military officers. Appearing before the panel is strictly voluntary and about half of the detainees choose not to appear. Those who do, have an interpreter on one side of them and an officer who explains the proceedings on the other. Of the 464 detainees we processed through the boards, about 300 are represented by U.S. lawyers, though the lawyers are representing them in the habeas corpus process, which is totally separate from the review board process. The habeas corpus process allows the detainees to challenge the legality of their detention at Guantanamo. The review board process is an administrative process and not a legal process, so the detainees are not allowed legal representation in the review board process. The review boards make one of three recommendations-release, transfer or continue to detain. The final decision is made by the secretary, Gordon England, who is currently the Deputy Secretary of Defense.
White: What has been the outcome of the boards?
Salsman: Well, we need to understand first of all that these are not nice people. It isn't as though the detainees held at Guantanamo were victims of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. To put it in perspective, over 74,000 people were initially taken into custody in Afghanistan. Of those, only 800 in round numbers were sent to Guantanamo. Over 300 of those have been released, leaving under 500 currently at the facility. Some of those at the facility are facing war crimes and are not eligible for the review boards. Of the 464 boards conducted last year, about 120 have been approved for transfer-usually back to their nation of origin, although in some cases they do not wish to return there; 14 were approved for outright release, and the remainder will continue to be detained. The panel looks carefully at the threat level and the intelligence value of each person before making their recommendation.
White: Pat, it's no secret to you that much has been said and written about prisoner abuse. Charges of torture have been leveled by some very influential people. Jimmy Carter, for example, wrote, “A large number of men and some young boys have been captured in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and transferred to an American prison camp in Guantanamo, Cuba, where about 520 people from 40 nations have been incarcerated and held incommunicado for more than three years, almost all without legal counsel and with no charges leveled against them. It has also been confirmed by U.S. officials that many have been physically abused.” How would you respond to these allegations?
Salsman: He got the number right, about 520. All of the detainees at Guantanamo were taken prisoner in Afghanistan. I would not dispute that some detainees have been physically abused, but it needs to be placed in context. The Joint Detention Group that oversees the facility has a very strict policy with zero tolerance that a guard is not allowed to strike a detainee. They caution the guards to protect themselves, but a practice of a small number of the detainees is to splatter their guards with a concoction of all conceivable bodily fluids and feces. There are documented cases of a guard fighting back. They are allowed to restrain detainees, but if they actually strike one they are immediately relieved of their duty and reassigned. So I could not say that no detainee has ever been struck or physically abused, but it is more likely that the detainees are abusing the guards. I can say categorically, however, that detainees are not subjected to torture as has been stated and implied. Also, with respect to some of the detainees being young, consider a young Canadian man by the name of Omar Khadr. He was 15 when he was captured in 2002. He is now about 6 feet tall and weighs about 200 pounds. He is facing charges of killing a U.S. soldier with a grenade.
White: Why would so much be said and written about it if it were not going on?
Salsman: The issue of a guard striking a detainee, I've already covered, so let's look at some of the other issues. First, some of the agencies reporting that torture is taking place have never even been there. The United Nations report was made without a single visit to Guantanamo having been made. The same is true of the World Council of Churches, which has issued statements on torture. The International Red Cross has full access to the detainees.
But here we come to a second issue: Can the detainees be trusted to tell the truth about their treatment? A document which has come to be known as the Manchester Document, because it was found in Manchester, England, is a kind of training manual for the al Qaeda. It advocates that detainees claim that they have been tortured and abused. It also advocates the use of hunger strikes. Just because a detainee claims to have been mistreated doesn't make it so.
A third issue related to the claim of torture is the context. For example, some have gone on hunger strikes. As a result, we take them to the hospital and force feed them, because we are not going to stand back and watch them die. You can imagine the stories that come out of the force feeding-about things being forced down people's throats. Another common torture claim is that detainees have been placed in freezing rooms. Again, consider the context. These detainees are not accustomed to air conditioning. They don't have it at home, and they don't have it in the detention center. But when they are taken into the room to meet with the panel, it is air conditioned. I'm sure that some of them felt like they were freezing. But again, just because they say it doesn't make it fact. You know, when you look at the physical layout of the detention facility, there just aren't places where they could be taken to be abused.
White: Tell me about Mohammad al-Qahtani, the so-called “20th Hijacker.”
Salsman: I don't know many details about him, but I know he has gotten all the services like medical help.
White: I read that he had some kind of medical problem and was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance.
Salsman: The detainees have their own medical services in the detention facility for routine kinds of problems, but when the situation warrants, they are taken to the base hospital where there is a special ward for their care. They get great medical care. I wish all Americans had access to the kind of routine care these guys are getting. Even preventative care. For example, everybody over 50 gets a routine colonoscopy. You don't have to have much of an imagination to think what they could make of that.
White: I read about a group of 24 Christians who are a part of a group called Witness Against Torture. According to reports, they marched 60 miles through Cuba to the gate of the detention center and were not allowed to enter even though they said they were responding to a statement made by President Bush last June, “You're welcome to go down yourself … and take a look at the conditions.”
Salsman: I heard about this group, but we didn't know anything about their plans to come. The Cuban government stopped them about five miles from the Guantanamo base. They didn't get to the gate. By the way, the media are allowed to visit, but what we've discovered is that many come with their minds already made up.
White: What about the religious beliefs of the detainees? Are these being respected?
Salsman: Both I and the Two-Star Admiral to whom I reported in Washington, D.C., are Christians. So religious beliefs are important to us and we understand how important they are to the detainees. Each detainee has a copy of the Koran in a cloth holder which were provided for them. As you know, prayer is one of their principle tenants. On the floor of every cell is an arrow pointing toward Mecca and they have a prayer mat. They are allowed prayer times five times a day and the boards are never convened during prayer times. A special kitchen was set up and was used specifically to prepare halal meals according to Islamic dietary restrictions.
White: What about your own faith? How did it shape what you did and how you went about your work?
Salsman: As Christians we are taught to be compassionate, but these are people who are not your ordinary citizens who happen to be from a different part of the globe. This created tension within me because we simply could not treat them the way we would like to be treated always. For example, in the board room the detainees were shackled to the floor to circumvent the possibility that one could do bodily harm to himself or someone else in the room. We could not afford to be compassionate and not shackle them.
I prayed a lot. I prayed about my work with the detainees. I asked for God's shield around me. And I really did try to treat people at least as good as I wanted to be treated. I attended worship and Bible studies.
Hunt: Let me jump in at this point. Pat is too modest to tell you how much of an impact his Christian witness had. There are about 9,500 people on base at Guantanamo, counting dependents. And Pat went out of his way to be kind to even the groundskeepers.
Hatchett:That's exactly right. About one-third of the people on base are what we call third-country nationals-like Filipinos, for example. Captain Pat was well-loved when he was there. He was a missionary.
White: Captain Salsman, is there anything else you would like to share with your fellow Virginia Baptists?
Salsman: I would just like to underscore that what we are doing now is unprecedented in history. We are fighting a war, but it is not a war against a country. We are holding combatants, but the war is not over. We are actually releasing people who have fought against us before the end of the hostilities. Pressure both from within the country and outside it is increasing to release the detainees, but can you imagine releasing German prisoners during World War II before the war ended so they could fight against us yet again? This is even more complicated because we are not at war with a nation that recognizes international law and toward which we could extend the same legal treatment. That is something I wish everyone in America understood.
I would simply say that the types of people we are holding are not innocent and they are being treated well. Beyond that, don't believe everything you read or hear.
I should also add a comment about Jimmy Carter's statement that we are holding these people without legal counsel and with no charges leveled against them for more than three years. There are two points I want to make: first, fairness to the American people requires that those in detention who still pose a threat should not be released and permitted to return to terrorist activities. Second, in fairness to the detainees, as well as the U.S.'s desire not to detain persons any longer than necessary, we have a process in place for those who no longer pose a threat to the United States or our allies to be released or transferred to their home countries.
There are some real heroes who are being generally maligned. These are the guards. These men and women do an amazing job. Women are allowed to escort detainees with a male guard, but they are never allowed to pair up with a detainee.
Another group is doing incredible work and deserves our attention and praise. These are the linguists who serve as interpreters. There are a dozen of them assigned to OARDEC, all American citizens. Some of them are first-generation Americans. Some have been in America only a few years and have families back home. They are patriotic and do what they do because they feel they have to give something back to America. They have sacrifices to make for their country.
White: Pat, thank you for your candor and for taking time to share your experiences and thoughts with us.
Salsman: My pleasure, Jim.