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EDWARD CONLON: THE POLICE-ENTERTAINMENT COMPLEX

HARPER’S MAGAZINE / MARCH 2010 $7.95

◆ THE GUANTANAMO “SUICIDES” A Camp Delta Sergeant Blows the Whistle By Scott Horton MAMMON FROM HEAVEN The Prosperity Gospel in Recession By Benjamin Anastas THAT’LL BE TWO DOLLARS AND FIFTY CENTS PLEASE A story by Myla Goldberg Also: William H. Gass and Philip Levine ◆ REPORT

THE GUANTANAMO “SUICIDES” A Camp Delta sergeant blows the whistle By Scott Horton

1. “ASYMMETRICAL WA RFA R E” Late on the evening of June 9 that following day, the camp quickly went year, three prisoners at Guantánamo into lockdown. The authorities or- When President took died suddenly and violently. Salah dered nearly all the reporters at offi ce last year, he promised to “restore Ahmed Al-Salami, from Yemen, Guantánamo to leave and those en the standards of due process and the was thirty-seven. Mani Shaman Al- route to turn back. The commander core constitutional values at Guantánamo, Rear Ad- that have made this coun- miral Harry Harris, then try great.” Toward that end, declared the deaths “sui- the president issued an ex- cides.” In an unusual ecutive order declaring that move, he also used the an- the extra-constitutional nouncement to attack the prison camp at Guantána- dead men. “I believe this mo Naval Base “shall be was not an act of despera- closed as soon as practica- tion,” he said, “but an act ble, and no later than one of asymmetrical warfare year from the date of this waged against us.” Report- order.” Obama has failed to ers accepted the official fulfill his promise. Some account, and even lawyers prisoners there are being for the prisoners appeared charged with crimes, oth- to believe that they had ers released, but the date killed themselves. Only for closing the camp seems the prisoners’ families in to recede steadily into the and Yemen future. Furthermore, new evidence Utaybi, from Saudi Arabia, was thir- rejected the notion. now emerging may entangle Obama’s ty. Yasser Talal Al-Zahrani, also from Two years later, the U.S. Naval young administration with crimes that Saudi Arabia, was twenty-two, and Criminal Investigative Service, which occurred during the George W. Bush had been imprisoned at Guantána- has primary investigative jurisdiction presidency, evidence that suggests the mo since he was captured at the age within the naval base, issued a report current administration failed to inves- of seventeen. None of the men had supporting the account originally ad- tigate seriously—and may even have been charged with a crime, though vanced by Harris, now a vice-admiral continued—a cover-up of the possible all three had been engaged in hunger in command of the Sixth Fleet. The homicides of three prisoners at Guan- strikes to protest the conditions of Pentagon declined to make the NCIS tánamo in 2006. their imprisonment. They were being report public, and only when pressed held in a cell block, known as Alpha with Freedom of Information Act de- Scott Horton is a contributing editor of Harper’s Magazine. His last article for the Block, reserved for particularly trou- mands did it disclose parts of the re- magazine, “Justice After Bush,” appeared in blesome or high-value prisoners. port, some 1,700 pages of documents the December 2008 issue. As news of the deaths emerged the so heavily redacted as to be nearly in-

The external fence of Camp Delta, in Guantánamo, June 2006. Photograph © Paolo Pellegrin/Magnum Photos R E P O R T 2 7

HHortonorton Final2.inddFinal2.indd 2727 11/21/10/21/10 11:22:3711:22:37 AMAM comprehensible. The NCIS documents minutes. The report claimed that the matically at odds with the NCIS re- were carefully cross-referenced and de- prisoners had hung sheets or blankets port—a report for which they were ciphered by students and faculty at the to hide their activities and shaped neither interviewed nor approached. law school of Seton Hall University in more sheets and pillows to look like All four soldiers say they were or- New Jersey, and their fi ndings, released bodies sleeping in their beds, but it did dered by their commanding officer in November 2009, made clear why not explain where they were able to not to speak out, and all four soldiers the Pentagon had been unwilling to acquire so much fabric beyond their provide evidence that authorities ini- make its conclusions public. The offi - tightly controlled allotment, or why tiated a cover-up within hours of the cial story of the prisoners’ deaths was the Navy guards would allow such an prisoners’ deaths. Army Staff Ser- full of unacknowledged contradictions, obvious and immediately observable geant Joseph Hickman and men un- and the centerpiece of the report—a deviation from permitted behavior. der his supervision have disclosed evi- reconstruction of the events—was Nor did the report explain how the dence in interviews with Harper’s simply unbelievable. dead men managed to hang undetect- Magazine that strongly suggests that According to the NCIS docu- ed for more than two hours or why the the three prisoners who died on June ments, each prisoner had fashioned a Navy guards on duty, having for what- 9 had been transported to another lo- noose from torn sheets and T-shirts ever reason so grievously failed in their cation prior to their deaths. The and tied it to the top of his cell’s duties, were never disciplined. guards’ accounts also reveal the exis- eight-foot-high steel-mesh wall. Each A separate report, the result of an tence of a previously unreported black prisoner was able somehow to bind “informal investigation” initiated by site at Guantánamo where the deaths, his own hands, and, in at least one Admiral Harris, found that standard or at least the events that led directly case, his own feet, then stuff more operating procedures were violated to the deaths, most likely occurred. rags deep down into his own throat. that night but concluded that disci- We are then asked to believe that plinary action was not warranted, 2. “” each prisoner, even as he was chok- because of the “generally permissive ing on those rags, climbed up on his environment” of the cell block and The soldiers of the Maryland-based washbasin, slipped his head through the numerous “concessions” that had 629th Military Intelligence Battalion the noose, tightened it, and leapt been made with regard to the prison- arrived at Guantánamo Naval Base in from the washbasin to hang until he ers’ comfort, “concessions” that had March 2006, assigned to provide secu- asphyxiated. The NCIS report also resulted in a “general confusion by rity to Camp America, the sector of proposes that the three prisoners, the guard and the JDG staff over the base containing the fi ve individual who were held in non-adjoining cells, many of the rules that applied to the prison compounds that house the pris- carried out each of these actions al- guard force’s handling of the detain- oners. Camp Delta was at the time the most simultaneously. ees.” According to Harris, even had largest of these compounds, and with- Al-Zahrani, according to the re- in its walls were four smaller camps, port, was discovered fi rst, at 12:39 numbered 1 through 4, which in a.m., and taken by several Alpha THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT FACES turn were divided into cell blocks. Block guards to the camp’s detention Life at Camp America, as at all medical clinic. No doctors could be A CHOICE BETWEEN THE RULE prisons, was and remains rigorously found there, nor the phone number OF LAW AND THE EXPEDIENCE OF routinized for both prisoners and for one, so a clinic staffer dialed 911. their jailers. Navy guards patrol the During this time, other guards dis- POLITICAL SILENCE cell blocks and Army personnel covered Al-Utaybi. Still others dis- control the exterior areas of the covered Al-Salami a few minutes camp. All observed incidents must later. Although rigor mortis had already standard operating procedures been be logged. For the Army guards who set in—indicating that the men had followed, “it is possible that the de- man the towers and “sally ports” (ac- been dead for at least two hours—the tainees could have successfully com- cess points), knowing who enters and NCIS report claims that an unnamed mitted suicide anyway.” leaves the camp, and exactly when, is medical offi cer attempted to resuscitate This is the offi cial story, adopted the essence of their mission. one of the men, and, in attempting to by NCIS and Guantánamo com- One of the new guards who arrived pry open his jaw, broke his teeth. mand and reiterated by the Justice that March was Joe Hickman, then a The fact that at least two of the Department in formal pleadings, by sergeant. Hickman grew up in Balti- prisoners also had cloth masks affi xed the Defense Department in briefi ngs more and joined the Marines in 1983, to their faces, presumably to prevent and press releases, and by the State at the age of nineteen. When I inter- the expulsion of the rags from their Department. Now four members of viewed him in January at his home in mouths, went unremarked by the the Military Intelligence unit as- Wisconsin, he told me he had been NCIS, as did the fact that standard signed to guard Camp Delta, includ- inspired to enlist by Ronald Reagan, operating procedure at Camp Delta ing a decorated non-commissioned “the greatest president we’ve ever required the Navy guards on duty after Army offi cer who was on duty as ser- had.” He worked in a military intelli- midnight to “conduct a visual search” geant of the guard the night of June gence unit and was eventually tapped of each cell and detainee every ten 9, have furnished an account dra- for Reagan’s Presidential Guard detail,

28 HARPER’S MAGAZINE / MARCH 2010

HHortonorton Final2.inddFinal2.indd 2828 11/21/10/21/10 11:22:3711:22:37 AMAM Hickman and his men also discov- ered that there were odd exceptions to their duties. Army guards were charged with searching and logging every vehicle that passed into and out of Camp Delta. “When John McCain came to the camp, he had to be logged in.” However, Hickman was instructed to make no record whatso- ever of the movements of one vehicle in particular—a white van, dubbed the “paddy wagon,” that Navy guards used to transport heavily manacled prisoners, one at a time, into and out of Camp Delta. The van had no rear windows and contained a dog cage large enough to hold a single prisoner. Navy drivers, Hickman came to un- derstand, would let the guards know they had a prisoner in the van by say- ing they were “delivering a pizza.” The paddy wagon was used to trans- port prisoners to medical facilities and to meetings with their lawyers. But as an assignment reserved for model sol- Hickman monitored the paddy wagon’s diers. When his four years were up, movements from the guard tower at Hickman returned home, where he Camp Delta, he frequently saw it fol- worked a series of security jobs—pris- low an unexpected route. When the on transport, executive protection, van reached the first intersection to and eventually private investigations. the east, instead of heading right— After September 11 he decided to re- toward the other camps or toward one enlist, at thirty-seven, this time in the of the buildings where prisoners could Army National Guard. The compound was not visible meet with their lawyers—it made a Hickman deployed to Guantánamo from the main road, and the access left. In that direction, past the perime- with his friend Specialist Tony Davila, road was chained off. The Guards- ter checkpoint known as ACP Roos- who grew up outside Washington, man who told Davila about the com- evelt, there were only two destinations. D.C., and who had himself been a pri- pound had said, “This place does not One was a beach where soldiers went vate investigator. When they arrived exist,” and Hickman, who was fre- to swim. The other was Camp No. at Camp Delta, Davila told me, sol- quently put in charge of security for diers from the California National all of Camp America, was not briefed 3. “LIT UP” Guard unit they were relieving intro- about the site. Nevertheless, Davila duced him to some of the curiosities said, other soldiers—many of whom The night the prisoners died, Hick- of the base. The most noteworthy of were required to patrol the outside man was on duty as sergeant of the these was an unnamed and offi cially perimeter of Camp America—had guard for Camp America’s exterior se- unacknowledged compound nestled seen the compound, and many spec- curity force. When his twelve-hour out of sight between two plateaus ulated about its purpose. One theory shift began, at 6:00 p.m., he climbed about a mile north of Camp Delta, was that it was being used by some of the ladder to Tower 1, which stood just outside Camp America’s perime- the non-uniformed government per- twenty feet above Sally Port 1, the ter. One day, while on patrol, Hick- sonnel who frequently showed up in main entrance to Camp Delta. From man and Davila came across the com- the camps and were widely thought there he had an excellent view of the pound. It looked like other camps to be CIA agents. camp, and much of the exterior pe- within Camp America, Davila said, A friend of Hickman’s had nick- rimeter as well. Later he would make only it had no guard towers and was named the compound “Camp No,” his rounds. surrounded by concertina wire. They the idea being that anyone who Shortly after his shift began, saw no activity, but Hickman guessed asked if it existed would be told, “No, Hickman noticed that someone the place could house as many as it doesn’t.” He and Davila made a had parked the paddy wagon near eighty prisoners. One part of the com- point of stopping by whenever they Camp 1, which houses Alpha Block. pound, he said, had the same appear- had the chance; once, Hickman said, A moment later, two Navy guards ance as the interrogation centers at he heard a “series of screams” from emerged from Camp 1, escorting a other prison camps. within the compound. prisoner. They put the prisoner into

Diagram by Stéphane Humbert-Basset. Satellite imagery, December 2004 © TerraServer.com R E P O R T 2 9

HHortonorton Final2.inddFinal2.indd 2929 11/21/10/21/10 11:22:3711:22:37 AMAM the back of the van and then left the of activity and guessing that the fi rst body was discovered—Army Spe- camp through Sally Port 1, just below guards might make another excur- cialist Christopher Penvose, preparing Hickman. He was under standing or- sion, left Tower 1 and drove the for a midnight shift in Tower 1, was ap- ders not to search the paddy wagon, three quarters of a mile to ACP proached by a senior Navy NCO. Pen- so he just watched it as it headed Roosevelt to see exactly where the vose told me that the NCO—who, fol- east. He assumed the guards and their paddy wagon was headed. Shortly lowing standard operating procedures, charge were bound for one of the thereafter, the van passed through wore no name tag—appeared to be ex- other prison camps southeast of the checkpoint for the third time tremely agitated. He instructed Pen- Camp Delta. But when the van and then went another hundred vose to go immediately to the Camp reached the fi rst intersection, instead yards, whereupon it turned toward Delta chow hall, identify a female se- of making a right, toward the other Camp No, eliminating any question nior petty offi cer who would be dining camps, it made the left, toward ACP in Hickman’s mind about where it there, and relay to her a specifi c code Roosevelt and Camp No. was going. All three prisoners word. Penvose did as he was instructed. Twenty minutes later—about the would have reached their destina- The offi cer leapt up from her seat and amount of time needed for the trip tion before 8:00 p.m. immediately ran out of the chow hall. to Camp No and back—the paddy Hickman says he saw nothing Another thirty minutes passed. wagon returned. This time Hickman more of note until about 11:30 p.m., Then, as Hickman and Penvose both paid closer attention. He couldn’t see when he had returned to his pre- recall, Camp Delta suddenly “lit the Navy guards’ faces, but from ferred vantage at Tower 1. As he up”—stadium-style floodlights were body size and uniform they appeared watched, the paddy wagon returned turned on, and the camp became the to be the same men. to Camp Delta. This time, however, scene of frenzied activity, fi lling with The guards walked into Camp 1 the Navy guards did not get out of personnel in and out of uniform. and soon emerged with another the van to enter Camp 1. Instead, Hickman headed to the clinic, which prisoner. They departed Camp they backed the vehicle up to the appeared to be the center of activity, America, again in the direction of entrance of the medical clinic, as if to learn the reason for the commo- Camp No. Twenty minutes later, to unload something. tion. He asked a distraught medical the van returned. Hickman, his cu- At approximately 11:45 p.m.—nearly corpsman what had happened. She riosity piqued by the unusual fl urry an hour before the NCIS claims the said three dead prisoners had been

Watchtower at the entrance of Camp Delta, June 2006. 30 HARPER’S MAGAZINE / MARCH 2010 Photograph © Paolo Pellegrin/Magnum Photos

HHortonorton Final2.inddFinal2.indd 3030 11/21/10/21/10 11:22:3811:22:38 AMAM delivered to the clinic. Hickman re- strike for a while, but the settlement they have no meaningful evidence called her saying that they had died collapsed and soon afterward Aamer linking him to any crime. American because they had rags stuffed down was sent to solitary confinement. authorities may be concerned that their throats, and that one of them Then, on the night the prisoners Aamer, if released, could provide evi- was severely bruised. Davila told me from Alpha Block died, Aamer says dence against them in criminal in- he spoke to Navy guards who said the he himself was the victim of an act vestigations. This evidence would in- men had died as the result of having of striking brutality. clude what he experienced on June 9, rags stuffed down their throats. He described the events in detail 2006, and during his 2002 detention Hickman was concerned that such to his lawyer, Zachary Katznelson, in Afghanistan at Bagram Airfi eld, a serious incident could have occurred who was permitted to speak to him where he says he was subjected to a in Camp 1 on his watch. He asked his several weeks later. Katznelson re- procedure in which his head was tower guards what they had seen. Pen- corded every detail of Aamer’s ac- smashed repeatedly against a wall. vose, from his position at Tower 1, count and fi led an affi davit with the This technique, called “wall- had an unobstructed view of the federal district court in Washington, ing” in CIA documents, was express- walkway between Camp 1 and the setting it out: ly approved at a later date by the De- medical clinic—the path by which partment of Justice. any prisoners who died at Camp 1 On June 9th, 2006, [Aamer] was beaten for two and a half hours would be delivered to the clinic. Pen- straight. Seven naval military police 5. “YOU ALL KNOW” vose told Hickman, and later con- participated in his beating. Mr. Aamer fi rmed to me, that he saw no prisoners stated he had refused to provide a ret- By dawn, the news had circulated being moved from Camp 1 to the ina scan and fi ngerprints. He reported through Camp America that three clinic. In Tower 4 (it should be noted to me that he was strapped to a chair, prisoners had committed suicide by that Army and Navy guard-tower des- fully restrained at the head, arms and swallowing rags. Colonel Bumgarner ignations differ), another Army spe- legs. The MPs infl icted so much pain, called a meeting of the guards, and cialist, David Caroll, was forty-five Mr. Aamer said he thought he was go- at 7:00 a.m. at least fi fty soldiers and yards from Alpha Block, the cell ing to die. The MPs pressed on pres- sailors gathered at Camp America’s block within Camp 1 that had housed sure points all over his body: his tem- open-air theater. ples, just under his jawline, in the the three dead men. He also had an hollow beneath his ears. They choked Bumgarner was known as an ec- unobstructed view of the alleyway him. They bent his nose repeatedly so centric commander. Hickman mar- that connected the cell block itself to hard to the side he thought it would veled, for instance, at the colonel’s the clinic. He likewise reported to break. They pinched his thighs and insistence that his staff line up and Hickman, and confi rmed to me, that feet constantly. They gouged his eyes. salute him, to music selections that he had seen no prisoners transferred They held his eyes open and shined a included Beethoven’s Fifth Sympho- to the clinic that night, dead or alive. mag-lite in them for minutes on end, ny and the reggae hit “Bad Boys,” as generating intense heat. They bent he entered the command center. his fi ngers until he screamed. When This morning, however, Hickman 4. “HE COULD NOT CRY OUT” he screamed, they cut off his airway, thought Bumgarner seemed unusual- then put a mask on him so he could The fate of a fourth prisoner, a forty- not cry out. ly nervous and clipped. two-year-old Saudi Arabian named According to independent inter- , may be related to The treatment Aamer describes is views with soldiers who witnessed the that of the three prisoners who died noteworthy because it produces ex- speech, Bumgarner told his audience on June 9. Aamer is married to a cruciating pain without leaving last- that “you all know” three prisoners in British woman and was in the pro- ing marks. Still, the fact that Aamer the Alpha Block at Camp 1 commit- cess of becoming a British subject had his airway cut off and a mask put ted suicide during the night by swal- when he was captured in Jalalabad, over his face “so he could not cry out” lowing rags, causing them to choke to Afghanistan, in 2001. United States is alarming. This is the same tech- death. This was a surprise to no one— authorities insist that he carried a nique that appears to have been used even servicemen who had not worked gun and served Osama bin Laden as on the three deceased prisoners. the night before had heard about the an interpreter. Aamer denies this. At The United Kingdom has pressed rags. But then Bumgarner told those Guantánamo, Aamer’s fluency in aggressively for the return of British assembled that the media would re- English soon allowed him to play an subjects and persons of interest. Ev- port something different. It would re- important role in camp politics. Ac- ery individual requested by the Brit- port that the three prisoners had com- cording to both Aamer’s attorney ish has been turned over, with one mitted suicide by hanging themselves and press accounts furnished by exception: Shaker Aamer. In deny- in their cells. It was important, he Army Colonel Michael Bumgarner, ing this request, U.S. authorities said, that servicemen make no com- the Camp America commander, have cited unelaborated “security” ments or suggestions that in any way Aamer cooperated closely with concerns. There is no suggestion that undermined the offi cial report. He re- Bumgarner in efforts to bring a 2005 the Americans intend to charge him minded the soldiers and sailors that hunger strike to an end. He persuad- before a military commission, or in a their phone and email communica- ed several prisoners to break their federal criminal court, and, indeed, tions were being monitored. The

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HHortonorton Final2.inddFinal2.indd 3131 11/21/10/21/10 11:22:3811:22:38 AMAM meeting lasted no more than twenty state, told the BBC that “taking their vestigation was launched to deter- minutes. (Bumgarner has not respond- own lives was not necessary, but it mine whether classifi ed information ed to requests for comment.)1 certainly is a good P.R. move.” had been leaked from Guantánamo. That evening, Bumgarner’s boss, The same day the three prisoners Bumgarner was suspended. Admiral Harris, read a statement died, Fox News commentator Bill Less than a week after the ap- to reporters: O’Reilly completed a reporting trip to pearance of the Observer stories, the naval base, where, according to Davila and Hickman each heard An alert, professional guard no- his account on The O’Reilly Factor, separately from friends in the Navy ticed something out of the ordinary the Joint Army Navy Task Force and in the military police that FBI in the cell of one of the detainees. The guard’s response was swift and “granted the Factor near total access agents had raided the colonel’s quar- professional to secure the area and to the prison.” Although the Penta- ters. The MPs understood from their check on the status of the detainee. gon began turning away reporters af- FBI contacts that there was concern When it was apparent that the de- ter news of the deaths had emerged, over the possibility that Bumgarner tainee had hung himself, the guard two reporters from the Charlotte Ob- had taken home some classifi ed ma- force and medical teams reacted server, Michael Gordon and photogra- terials and was planning to share quickly to attempt to save the de- pher Todd Sumlin, had arrived that them with the media or to use them tainee’s life. The detainee was unre- morning to work on a profile of in writing a book. sponsive and not breathing. [The] Bumgarner, and the colonel invited On June 27, two weeks later, Gor- guard force began to check on the them to shadow him as he dealt with don’s Observer colleague Scott Dodd health and welfare of other detain- ees. Two detainees in their cells had the crisis. A Pentagon spokesman lat- reported: “A brigadier general deter- also hung themselves. er told the Observer it had been ex- mined that ‘unclassified sensitive pecting a “puff piece,” which is why, information’ was revealed to the When he fi nished praising the guards according to the Observer, “Bumgar- public in the days after the June 10 and the medics, Harris—in a notable ner and his superiors on the base” had suicides.” Harris, according to the departure from traditional military given them permission to remain. article, had already ordered “appro- decorum—launched his attack on the Bumgarner quickly returned to his priate administrative action.” men who had died on his watch. theatrical ways. As Gordon reported Bumgarner soon left Guantánamo “They have no regard for human life,” in the June 13, 2006, issue of the Ob- for a new post in Missouri. He now Harris said, “neither ours nor their server, the colonel seemed to enjoy serves as an ROTC instructor at own.” A Pentagon press release issued putting on a show. “Right now, we are Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. soon after described the dead men, at ground zero,” Bumgarner told his Bumgarner’s comments appear to who had been accused of no crime, as offi cer staff during a June 12 meeting. be at odds with the offi cial Pentagon Al Qaeda or Taliban operatives. Lieu- Referring to the naval base’s prisoners, narrative on only one point: that the tenant Commander Jeffrey Gordon, he said, “There is not a trustworthy deaths had involved cloth being the Pentagon’s chief press offi cer, went son of a bitch in the entire bunch.” In stuffed into the prisoners’ mouths. still further, telling ’s Da- the same article, Gordon also noted The involvement of the FBI suggest- vid Rose, “These guys were fanatics what he had learned about the deaths. ed that more was at issue. like the Nazis, Hitlerites, or the Ku The suicides had occurred “in three Klux Klan, the people they tried at cells on the same block,” he reported. Nuremberg.” The Pentagon was not The prisoners had “hanged themselves 6. “AN UNMISTAKABLE MESSAGE” the only U.S. government agency to with strips of knotted cloth taken from On June 10, NCIS investigators be- participate in the assault. Colleen clothing and sheets,” after shaping gan interviewing the Navy guards in Graffy, a deputy assistant secretary of their pillows and blankets to look like charge of Alpha Block, but after the sleeping bodies. “And Bumgarner Pentagon committed itself to the sui- 1 After this report was published on Harpers .org on January 18, Bumgarner did send an said,” Gordon reported, “each had a cide narrative, they appear to have email to the . “This blatant ball of cloth in their mouth either for stopped. On June 14, the interviews misrepresentation of the truth infuriates me,” choking or muffl ing their voices.” resumed, and the NCIS informed at he wrote. “I don’t know who Sgt. Hickman Something about Bumgarner’s Ob- least six Navy guards that they were is, but he is only trying to be a spotlight rang- er.” In fact, Bumgarner should have no trou- server interview seemed to have set suspected of making false statements ble remembering Hickman. As camp com- off an alarm far up the chain of com- or failing to obey direct orders. No mander, he awarded him a commendation mand. No sooner was Gordon’s story disciplinary action ever followed. medal for defusing a prison riot. In his email, in print than Bumgarner was called The investigators conducted inter- Bumgarner also said Hickman “knows noth- to Admiral Harris’s office. As views with guards, medics, prisoners, ing about what transpired in Camp 1, or our medical facility. I do, I was there.” By his Bumgarner would tell Gordon in a and offi cers. As the Seton Hall re- own sworn testimony, however, Bumgarner follow-up profi le three months later, searchers note, however, nothing in did not arrive at Camp 1 until 12:48 A.M. on Harris was holding up a copy of the the NCIS report suggests that the in- June 10. “On the night of 09JUN06, I was Observer: “This,” said the admiral to vestigators secured or reviewed the not in the camp,” he told the NCIS. “I had spent the evening at Admiral Harris’s house.” Bumgarner, “could get me relieved.” duty roster, the prisoner-transfer As of press time, Bumgarner has not returned (Harris did not respond to requests book, the pass-on book, the records my calls seeking clarifi cation on the matter. for comment.) That same day, an in- of phone and radio communications,

32 HARPER’S MAGAZINE / MARCH 2010

HHortonorton Final2Final2 rev2.inddrev2.indd 3232 11/26/10/26/10 11:15:0711:15:07 AMAM or footage from the camera that con- forts, explained the practical effect oner for five years. They tortured tinuously monitored activity in the of the government’s maneuvers. The him. Then they killed him and re- hallways, all of which could have seizure, he said, “sent an unmistak- turned him to me in a box, cut up.” helped them authoritatively recon- able message to the prisoners that Al-Zahrani was a brigadier general struct the events of that evening. they could not expect their commu- in the Saudi police. He dismissed The NCIS did, however, move swift- nications with their lawyers to re- the Pentagon’s claims, as well as the ly to seize every piece of paper possessed main confi dential. The Justice De- investigation that supported them. by every single prisoner in Camp Amer- partment defended the massive Yasser, he said, was a young man ica, some 1,065 pounds of material, breach of the attorney-client privi- who loved to play soccer and didn’t much of it privileged attorney-client lege on the account of the deaths on care for politics. The Pentagon correspondence. Several weeks later, June 9 and the asserted need to in- claimed that Yasser’s frontline battle authorities sought an after-the-fact jus- vestigate them.” experience came from his having tifi cation. The Justice Department— If the “suicides” were a form of war- been a cook in a Taliban camp. Al- bolstered by sworn statements from fare between the prisoners and the Zahrani said that this was preposter- Admiral Harris and from Carol Kist- Bush Administration, as Admiral Har- ous: “A cook? Yasser couldn’t even hardt, the special agent in charge of the ris charged, it was the latter that quick- make a sandwich!” NCIS investigation—claimed in a U.S. ly turned the war to its advantage. “Yasser wasn’t guilty of anything,” district court that the seizure was ap- Al-Zahrani said. “He knew that. He propriate because there had been a con- fi rmly believed he would be heading 7. “YASSER COULDN’T EVEN MAKE A spiracy among the prisoners to commit home soon. Why would he commit SANDWICH!” suicide. Justice further claimed that suicide?” The evidence supports this investigators had found suicide notes When I asked Talal Al-Zahrani what argument. Hyperbolic U.S. govern- and argued that the attorney-client he thought had happened to his son, ment statements at the time of Yasser materials were being used to pass com- he was direct. “They snatched my Al-Zahrani’s death masked the fact munications among the prisoners. seventeen-year-old son for a bounty that his case had been reviewed and David Remes, a lawyer who op- payment,” he said. “They took him that he was, in fact, on a list of pris- posed the Justice Department’s ef- to Guantánamo and held him pris- oners to be sent home. I had shown

A cell block in Camp Delta. Photograph © Richard Ross. 34 HARPER’S MAGAZINE / MARCH 2010 From Architecture of Authority, published in 2007 by Aperture

HHortonorton Final2.inddFinal2.indd 3434 11/21/10/21/10 11:22:3811:22:38 AMAM Al- Zahrani the letter that the govern- Pathology arranged immediate au- Institute of Pathology, requesting ment says was Yasser’s suicide note topsies of the three dead prisoners, the missing body parts and more and asked him whether he recognized without securing the permission of information about the previous au- his son’s handwriting. He had never the men’s families. The identities topsies. The institute did not re- seen the note before, he answered, and fi ndings of the pathologists re- spond to their requests or queries. and no U.S. offi cial had ever asked main shrouded in extraordinary se- (It also did not respond to a series him about it. After studying the note crecy, but the timing of the autop- of calls I placed requesting informa- carefully, he said, “This is a forgery.” sies suggests that medical personnel tion and comment.) Also returned to Saudi Arabia was stationed at Guantánamo may have When Al-Zahrani viewed his son’s the body of Mani Al-Utaybi. Or- undertaken the procedure without corpse, he saw evidence of a homi- phaned in his youth, Mani grew up waiting for the arrival of an experi- cide. “There was a major blow to the in his uncle’s home in the small town enced medical examiner from the head on the right side,” he said. of Dawadmi. I spoke to one of the United States. Each of the heavily “There was evidence of torture on the many cousins who shared that home, redacted autopsy reports states un- upper torso, and on the palms of his Faris Al-Utaybi. Mani, said Faris, had equivocally that “the manner of hand. There were needle marks on gone to Baluchistan—a rural, tribal death is suicide” and, more specifi - his right arm and on his left arm.” area that straddles Iran, Pakistan, cally, that the prisoner died of None of these details are noted in the and Afghanistan—to do humanitari- “hanging.” Each of the reports de- U.S. autopsy report. “I am a law en- an work, and someone there had sold scribes ligatures that were found forcement professional,” Al-Zahrani him to the Americans for $5,000. He wrapped around the prisoner’s neck, said. “I know what to look for when said that Mani was a peaceful man as well as circumferential dried abra- examining a body.” who would harm no one. Indeed, sion furrows imprinted with the very Mangin, for his part, expressed U.S. authorities had decided to re- fine weave pattern of the ligature particular concern about Al-Salami’s lease Al-Utaybi and return him to fabric and forming an inverted “V” mouth and throat, where he saw “a Saudi Arabia. When he died, he was on the back of the head. This con- blunt trauma carried out against the just a few weeks shy of his transfer. dition, the anonymous pathologists oral region.” The U.S. autopsy report Salah Al-Salami was seized in state, is consistent with that of a mentions an effort at resuscitation, March 2002, when Pakistani au- hanging victim. but this, in Mangin’s view, did not thorities raided a residence in Kara- The pathologists place the time of explain the severity of the injuries. chi believed to have been used as a death “at least a couple of hours” be- He also noted that some of the marks safe house by and fore the bodies were discovered, on the neck were not those he would took into custody all who were liv- which would be sometime before normally associate with hanging. ing there at the time. A Yemeni, 10:30 p.m. on June 9. Additionally, Al-Salami had quit his job and the autopsy of Al-Salami states that moved to Pakistan with only $400 his hyoid bone was broken, a phe- 9. “I KNOW SOME THINGS YOU DON’T” in his pocket. The U.S. suspicions nomenon usually associated with Sergeant Joe Hickman’s tour of duty, against him rested almost entirely manual strangulation, not hanging. which ended in March 2007, was dis- on the fact that he had taken lodg- The report asserts that the hyoid tinguished: he was selected as Guan- ings, with other students, in a was broken “during the removal of the tánamo’s “NCO of the Quarter” and boarding house that terrorists might neck organs.” An odd admission, given was given a commendation medal. at one point have used. There was that these are the very body parts— When he returned to the United no direct evidence linking him ei- the larynx, the hyoid bone, and the States, he was promoted to staff ser- ther to Al Qaeda or to the Taliban. thyroid cartilage—that would have geant and worked in Maryland as an On August 22, 2008, the Washing- been essential to determining whether Army recruiter before eventually set- ton Post quoted from a previously se- death occurred from hanging, from tling in Wisconsin. But he could not cret review of his case: “There is no strangulation, or from choking. These forget what he had seen at Guantá- credible information to suggest [Al- parts remained missing when the men’s namo. When Barack Obama became Salami] received terrorist related families fi nally received their bodies. president, Hickman decided to act. “I training or is a member of the Al All the families requested inde- thought that with a new administra- Qaeda network.” All that stood in pendent autopsies. The Saudi pris- tion and new ideas I could actually the way of Al-Salami’s release from oners were examined by Saeed Al- come forward,” he said. “It was Guantánamo were difficult diplo- Ghamdy, a pathologist based in haunting me.” matic relations between the United Saudi Arabia. Al-Salami, from Ye- Hickman had seen a 2006 report States and Yemen. men, was inspected by Patrice Man- from Seton Hall University Law gin, a pathologist based in Switzer- School dealing with the deaths of land. Both pathologists noted the the three prisoners, and he followed 8. “THE REMOVAL OF THE NECK removal of the structure that would their subsequent work. After Obama ORGANS” have been the natural focus of the was inaugurated in January 2009, he Military pathologists connected autopsy: the throat. Both patholo- called Mark Denbeaux, the professor with the Armed Forces Institute of gists contacted the Armed Forces who had led the Seton Hall team. “I

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HHortonorton Final2Final2 rev2.inddrev2.indd 3535 11/26/10/26/10 11:15:2011:15:20 AMAM learned something from your re- wanted to meet directly with his cli- following the conversation between port,” he said, “but I know some ent. She went to New Jersey to do so. Mark Denbeaux and Teresa McHen- things you don’t.” Hickman then reviewed the basic ry, an offi cial showed up at Penvose’s Within two days, Hickman was in facts and furnished McHenry with home in south Baltimore with some Newark, meeting with Denbeaux. the promised list of corroborating FBI agents. She had a “few ques- Also at the meeting was Denbeaux’s witnesses and details on how they tions,” she told him. Investigators son and sometime co-editor, Josh, a could be contacted. working with her soon contacted two private attorney. Josh Denbeaux The Denbeauxes did not hear from other witnesses. agreed to represent Hickman, who anyone at the Justice Department for On November 2, 2009, McHenry was concerned that he could go to at least two months. Then, in April, called Mark Denbeaux to tell him prison if he disobeyed Colonel an FBI agent called to say she did not that the Justice Department’s inves- Bumgarner’s order not to speak out, have the list of contacts. She asked if tigation was being closed. “It was a even if that order was itself illegal. this document could be provided strange conversation,” Denbeaux re- Hickman did not want to speak to again. It was. Shortly thereafter, a Jus- called. McHenry explained that “the the press. On the other hand, he felt tice offi cial and two FBI agents inter- gist of Sergeant Hickman’s informa- that “silence was just wrong.” viewed Davila, who had left the Army, tion could not be confirmed.” But The two lawyers quickly made ar- in Columbia, South Carolina.2 The when Denbeaux asked what that rangements for Hickman to speak offi cial asked Davila if he was prepared “gist” actually was, McHenry de- instead with authorities in Washing- to travel to Guantánamo to identify clined to say. She just reiterated that ton, D.C. On February 2, they had the locations of various sites. He said Hickman’s conclusions “appeared” to meetings on Capitol Hill and with he was. “It seemed like they were in- be unsupported. Denbeaux asked the Department of Justice. The meet- terested,” Davila told me. “Then I what conclusions exactly were unsup- ing with Justice was an odd one. The never heard from them again.” ported. McHenry refused to say. father-and-son legal team were met Several more months passed, and by Rita Glavin, the acting head of Hickman and his lawyers became in- the Justice Department’s Criminal creasingly concerned that nothing was 10. “THEY ACCOMPLISHED NOTHING” Division; John Morton, who was going to happen. On October 27, One of the most intriguing aspects of soon to become an assistant secre- 2009, they resumed dealings with this case concerns the use of Camp tary at the Department of Homeland Congress that they had initiated on No. Under George W. Bush, the CIA Security; and Steven Fagell, counsel- February 2 and then broken off at the created an archipelago of secret deten- or to the head of the Criminal Divi- Justice Department’s request; they tion centers that spanned the globe, sion. Fagell had been, along with the were also in contact with ABC News. and authorities at these sites deployed new attorney general, Eric Holder, a Two days later, Teresa McHenry called an array of Justice Department– partner at the elite Washington law Mark Denbeaux and asked whether sanctioned torture techniques—in- firm of Covington & Burling, and he had gone to Congress and ABC cluding , which often was widely viewed as “Holder’s eyes” News about the matter. “I said that I entails inserting cloth into the sub- in the Criminal Division. had,” Denbeaux told me. He asked ject’s mouth—on prisoners they For more than an hour, the two her, “Was there anything wrong with deemed to be involved in terrorism. lawyers described what Hickman had that?” McHenry then suggested that The presence of a at Guan- seen: the existence of Camp No, the the investigation was fi nished. Den- tánamo has long been a subject of transportation of the three prisoners, beaux reminded her that she had yet speculation among lawyers and the van’s arrival at the medical clin- to interview some of the corroborating human-rights activists, and the experi- ic, the lack of evidence that any bod- witnesses. “There are a few small ence of Sergeant Hickman and other ies had ever been removed from Al- things to do,” Denbeaux says McHen- Guantánamo guards compels us to ask pha Block, and so on. The offi cials ry answered. “Then it will be fi nished.” whether the three prisoners who died listened intently and asked many Specialist Christopher Penvose on June 9 were being interrogated by questions. The Denbeauxes said they told me that on October 30, the day the CIA, and whether their deaths re- could provide a list of witnesses who sulted from the grueling techniques 2 After this report was published on Harpers would corroborate every aspect of .org on January 18, a Justice Department the Justice Department had approved their account. At the end of the spokesman wrote to complain that two of the for the agency’s use—or from other meeting, Mark Denbeaux recalled, witnesses interviewed by the department had lacking that sanction. the offi cials specifi cally thanked the misremembered the names of the lawyers Complicating these questions is the lawyers for not speaking to reporters present at those meetings. She refused to ad- fact that Camp No might have been dress any of the other allegations in the arti- fi rst and for “doing it the right way.” cle. Instead, she insisted I note that Justice controlled by another authority, the Two days later, another Justice De- had “conducted a thorough inquiry into this Joint Special Operations Command, partment offi cial, Teresa McHenry, matter, carefully examined the allegations, which Bush’s defense secretary, Don- head of the Criminal Division’s Do- found no evidence of wrongdoing and subse- ald Rumsfeld, had hoped to transform quently closed the matter.” Then she told me, mestic Security Section, called Mark as she had when I was reporting the story, into a Pentagon version of the CIA. Denbeaux and said that she was that she would not arrange an interview with Under Rumsfeld’s direction, JSOC be- heading up an investigation and any of the offi cials involved in the matter. gan to take on many tasks tradition-

36 HARPER’S MAGAZINE / MARCH 2010

HHortonorton Final2Final2 rev2.inddrev2.indd 3636 11/26/10/26/10 11:15:3011:15:30 AMAM ally handled by the CIA, including Judge James Robertson gave the Jus- general of the Navy, told me, “Filing the housing and interrogation of pris- tice Department a sympathetic hear- false reports and making false state- oners at black sites around the world. ing, and he ruled in its favor, but he ments is bad enough, but if a homi- The Pentagon recently acknowledged also noted a curious aspect of the gov- cide occurs and offi cials up the chain the existence of one such JSOC black ernment’s presentation: its “citations of command attempt to cover it up, site, located at Bagram Airfi eld in Af- supporting the fact of the suicides” they face serious criminal liability. ghanistan, and other suspected sites, were all drawn from media accounts. They may even be viewed as accesso- such as Camp Nama in Baghdad, Why had the Justice Department law- ries after the fact in the original have been carefully documented by yers who argued the case gone to such crime.” With command authority human-rights researchers. lengths to avoid making any statement comes command responsibility, he In a Senate Armed Services Com- under oath about the suicides? Did said. “If the heart of the military is mittee report on torture released last they do so in order to deceive the obeying orders down the chain of year, the sections about Guantánamo court? If so, they could face disciplin- command, then its soul is account- were signifi cantly redacted. The posi- ary proceedings or disbarment. ability up the chain. You can’t de- tion and circumstances of these dele- The Justice Department also faces mand the former without the latter.” tions point to a signifi cant JSOC in- questions about its larger role in creat- The Justice Department thus terrogation program at the base. (It ing the circumstances that led to the faced a dilemma; it could do the po- should be noted that Obama’s order use of so-called enhanced interroga- litically convenient thing, which was last year to close other secret deten- tion and restraint techniques at to find no justification for a thor- tion camps was narrowly worded to Guantánamo and elsewhere. In 2006, ough investigation, leave the NCIS apply only to the CIA.) the use of a gagging restraint had al- conclusions in place, and hope that Regardless of whether Camp No ready been connected to the death on the public and the news media belonged to the CIA or JSOC, the January 9, 2004, of an Iraqi prisoner, would obey the Obama Administra- Justice Department has plenty of its Lieutenant Colonel Abdul Jameel, in tion’s dictum to “look forward, not own secrets to protect. The depart- the custody of the Army Special Forc- backward”; or it could pursue a ment would seem to have been in- es. And the bodies of the three men course of action that would impli- volved in the cover-up from the fi rst who died at Guantánamo showed cate the Bush Justice Department in days, when FBI agents stormed Colo- signs of torture, including hemorrhag- a cover-up of possible homicides. nel Bumgarner’s quarters. This was es, needle marks, and significant Nearly 200 men remain impris- unusual for two reasons. When Pen- bruising. The removal of their throats oned at Guantánamo. In June 2009, tagon offi cials engage in a leak inves- made it diffi cult to determine whether six months after Barack Obama took tigation, they generally use military they were already dead when their office, one of them, a thirty-one- investigators. They rarely turn to the bodies were suspended by a noose. year-old Yemeni named Muhammed FBI, because they cannot control the The Justice Department itself had Abdallah Salih, was found dead in actions of a civilian agency. More- been deeply involved in the process of his cell. The exact circumstances of over, when the FBI does open an in- approving and setting the conditions his death, like those of the deaths of vestigation, it nearly always does so for the use of torture techniques, issu- the three men from Alpha Block, re- with great discretion. The Bumgar- ing a long series of memoranda that main uncertain. Those charged with ner investigation was widely tele- CIA agents and others could use to accounting for what happened—the graphed, though, and seemed intend- defend themselves against any subse- prison command, the civilian and ed to send a message to the military quent criminal prosecution. military investigative agencies, the personnel at Camp Delta: Talk about Teresa McHenry, the investigator Justice Department, and ultimately what happened at your own risk. All charged with accounting for the the attorney general himself—all of which suggests it was not the Pen- deaths of the three men at Guantána- face a choice between the rule of law tagon so much as the White House mo, has firsthand knowledge of the and the expedience of political si- that hoped to suppress the truth. Justice Department’s role in auditing lence. Thus far, their choice has In the weeks following the 2006 such techniques, having served at the been unanimous. deaths, the Justice Department decid- Justice Department under Bush and Not everyone who is involved in ed to use the suicide narrative as lever- having participated in the preparation this matter views it from a political age against the Guantánamo prisoners of at least one of those memos. As a perspective, of course. General Al- and their troublesome lawyers, who former war-crimes prosecutor, McHen- Zahrani grieves for his son, but at the were pressing the government to justi- ry knows full well that government of- end of a lengthy interview he paused fy its long-term imprisonment of their fi cials who attempt to cover up crimes and his thoughts turned elsewhere. clients. After the NCIS seized thou- perpetrated against prisoners in war- “The truth is what matters,” he said. sands of pages of privileged communi- time face prosecution under the doc- “They practiced every form of torture cations, the Justice Department went trine of command responsibility. on my son and on many others as to court to defend the action. It argued (McHenry declined to clarify the role well. What was the result? What facts that such steps were warranted by the she played in drafting the memos.) did they find? They found nothing. extraordinary facts surrounding the As retired Rear Admiral John They learned nothing. They accom- June 9 “suicides.” U.S. District Court Hutson, the former judge advocate plished nothing.” ■

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