SEPTEMBER 10, 2019 NINERTIMES.COM READ MORE ONLINE Madison Dobrzenski [email protected] AT NINERTIMES.COM EDITORIAL BOARD Brandon Mitchell MANAGING EDITOR Jeffrey Kopp COMMUNITY EDITOR Emily Hickey COPY EDITOR Megan Bird NEWS EDITOR Sam Palian SPORTS EDITOR Noah Howell A&E EDITOR Olivia Lawless LIFESTYLE EDITOR Nikolai Mather OPINION EDITOR Pooja Pasupula PHOTO EDITOR María Solano VIDEO EDITOR Natasha Morehouse LAYOUT EDITOR ASSISTANT EDITORS Max Young, Kennedy Hehr, Elissa Miller, Elizabeth McGuire CONTRIBUTING STAFF Ashley Conde, Tyler Trudeau, Sam Mayer, Cooper Metts, Gracie Hood LAYOUT STAFF Sam Palian, Drew Fitzgerald, Reuben Sanchez, Olivia Lawless, Aarushi Katoch COVER DESIGN Natasha Morehouse LAYOUT EDITOR COVER PHOTO CREDIT VIDEO SPORTS Chris Crews NEWSROOM: Niner News Sept. 17 STUDENT UNION 047 • • Charlotte cruises past UMass 705.687.7150 Charlotte 49ers defeat UMass 52-17 Follow us on Twitter @niner_times • ninertimes.com/staff 52-17 • 49ers set to take on • Student Voice: Freshmen Minutemen MEDIA MARKETING MARKETING CREATIVE • SlutWalk • Charlotte draws against West DIRECTOR DIRECTOR Virginia in ranked battle Caleb Adams James Bourke • Charlotte 49ers Football [email protected] [email protected] MARKETING STAFF welcomes 11-year-old Towner Joe Calhoun, Paityn Kapesser, Abram Shaw, Kayla Christian Lewis, Remarks about Appalachian state game OPINION A&E • Laurel Hall: not all it’s cracked • ALBUM REVIEW: Lana Del Rey - up to be ‘Norman Fucking Rockwell’ LOCATED IN THE LOWER LEVEL OF THE STUDENT UNION NINER TIMES • RADIO FREE CHARLOTTE SANSKRIT LITERARY-ARTS MAGAZINE MEDIA MARKETING • TECHNICAL THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHARLOTTE NINER MEDIA ADVISER: WAYNE MAIKRANZ MARKETING ADVISER: KELLY MERGES BUSINESS MANAGER: LAURIE CUDDY GRAPHICS & PRODUCTION: JOSHUA WOOD OFFICE MANAGER: KELLY DUDDEN 2 SEPT. 17, 2019 NINERTIMES Associate Vice Chancellor accused of human rights violations during military service Anonymous campus flyer accuses John Bogdan of human rights violations during his military service at Guantanamo Bay NEWS by Megan Bird News Editor An anonymous flyer has recently accused UNC Charlotte’s Somalia.” However, in December 2013, Director of Amnesty’s Associate Vice Chancellor for Safety and Security John Security with Human Rights Daphne Eviatar wrote in the Bogdan of overseeing multiple human rights violations Huffington Post that Bogdan disclosed during a military during his time as a commander at Guantanamo Bay, commission hearing that he ran detention operations in both Cuba. However, the retired Army Colonel has refuted these Iraq and Somalia. According to Eviatar, little is known about allegations, calling them “inaccurate” and “a distraction” from U.S. detention in Somalia. his duties at the University. The retired Army Colonel did serve as commander of The flyer states, “In Guantanamo Bay, John Bogdan the 95th Military Police Battalion in Baghdad from 2007 to tortured people – most of whom were cleared for release.” It 2009, where he ran a detention center with “healthy amounts accuses Bogdan of using religious humiliation as a strategy to of enemy prisoners of war,” as he told the Niner Times. He pacify detainees, allowing genital searches and commanding also partnered with Iraqi police officials across 50 police detention centers in Iraq and Somalia. It asks, “How could stations to develop their security forces. During his tour in Bogdan possibly be qualified to protect UNCC students, Iraq, Bogdan told the Stars and Stripes publication that faculty, and staff when all he knows how to do is brutalize his “‘concerned local citizens’ — armed civilian groups — have subordinates?” played a major part in helping to reduce violence.” This Bogdan told the Niner Times in an interview on Aug. 30 occurred during the surge when the U.S. sent additional that the flyer is “generally full of inaccuracies, largely other troops to Iraq and often cooperated with the local groups. people’s opinions,” and “a distraction from my primary focus, Photo courtesy of UNC Charlotte Bogdan told the Niner Times that he was assigned to his which is the safety and security of the University.” position at Guantanamo in 2012. Bogdan was appointed as associate vice chancellor for From 2012 to 2014, Bogdan served as the warden of the safety and security in late December and began his duties in his first civilian Joint Detention Group at Guantanamo Bay, a U.S. military prison in Cuba. job on Jan. 2. Inside UNC Charlotte wrote in an announcement of his hiring During his time there, he faced criticism from detainees’ attorneys for his that Bogdan is responsible for managing “the plans and programs that protect harsh rules, like imposing regulations on when attorneys could visit their lives and property, prevent accidents and incidents and preserve the learning clients. environment and business operations of the University. This includes police In February 2013, the Miami Herald reported that it was revealed during and public safety, environmental health and safety, emergency management, a Guantanamo war court trial that there was a hidden microphone inside of and risk management and insurance.” a smoke detector in Echo II, a room where high-profile detainees meet with Director of the Center for Holocaust, Genocide & Human Rights Studies Dr. their attorneys. Bogdan testified that he had no prior knowledge of the bugs John Cox told the Niner Times that he was “disturbed” to hear about Bogdan’s and that they had been installed long before his arrival. background. He said he reached out to Chief of Staff of the Chancellor’s In March 2013, the New York Times confirmed with the Defense Office Kim Bradley asking why UNC Charlotte felt it needed someone with Department that numerous detainees were participating in a hunger strike. experience such as Bogdan’s. Bradley responded to Cox, “Throughout his The detainees’ attorneys said the protest was a response to a search in military career, John demonstrated his leadership skills in safety readiness February in which guards allegedly took personal valuables and mishandled and response, skills applicable to his responsibilities on campus and that were the inmates’ Qurans. In a media briefing, Bogdan said that Quran searches instrumental in our response and ongoing recovery to April 30. We believe had been standard practice for a while. According to a study by UC Davis, he is committed to our mission and he is a valuable addition to our campus 106 of the 166 inmates participated in the hunger strike, 46 of whom were community.” subjected to force-feeding. Shaker Aamer, who was held without trial for 13 A senior who is active in the Amnesty International chapter at UNC years despite being cleared for release twice by the British government, said Charlotte told the Niner Times, “UNC Charlotte’s hiring of John Bogdan as that the authorities of the prison used techniques such as sharply decreasing associate vice chancellor for safety and security is troubling. His expertise is the temperature and introducing metal-tipped feeding tubes to ensure not suitable for an institution that strives to be inclusive to all races, gender consumption by inmates. and creeds.” When asked why he allowed these tactics, Bogdan told the Niner Times the The flyer, whose author remains anonymous, states that Bogdan ran focus was the “safe, humane treatment of the detainees” and the decision to detention centers in Iraq and Somalia. Bogdan replied that he ran “nothing in force-feed was a “medical protocol” that “wasn’t under his purview.” No NINERTIMES.COM SEPT. 17, 2019 3 inmate’s weight had fallen below 100 pounds during the strike, a Navy who pointed out it was a form of religious humiliation for the predominantly officer in charge of prison camp health facilities told the Miami Herald under Muslim inmates. In a June 3 declaration, Bogdan justified the searches by the condition of anonymity. saying they would prevent additional suicides and cut off the alleged flow of But according to Bogdan’s declaration from a lawsuit challenging the “contraband” into and out of the cells. A lower court struck the policy down, legality of the force-feeding, he did advise on the decision to allow “compliant” calling it “religiously and culturally abhorrent” and claiming it was a tactic to detainees to sit in a reclining chair and “watch television or play video games prevent detainees from meeting with their lawyers during a hunger strike. while being enterally fed.” The strikers were strapped to a chair with their When asked about the genital searches, Bogdan told the Niner Times that feet shackled, reported VICE News. he “used the standard search procedures that are assigned in army policy and On Apr. 13, 2013, dozens of specially-trained U.S. soldiers raided the regulation and in the best practices with the Federal Bureau of prisons.” He facility’s communal compound and put 65 defiant detainees in single-cell said it’s a “regular army procedure” that he did not create. lockdown at the command of Bogdan, who monitored the event by video screen As the flyer alleges, 86 prisoners were cleared for release during Bogdan’s and radio. The guards fired rubber pellets and five detainees were injured. tenure at Gitmo. Bogdan says that release is “not a decision of innocence or Bogdan told reporters with the Huffington Post, “We hit the point where I guilt.” thought we were accepting too much risk, and I felt it was time to take action.” In the announcement of Bogdan’s hiring, Vice Chancellor for Business According to the Huffington Post, the night after the raid, a detainee Affairs Elizabeth Hardin said, “John has a track record of leadership attempted suicide by strangulation. Another detainee had attempted the same providing safety and security in installations and communities around the the night before. U.S. and the world. His dedication to service and his mission orientation fit Attorney David Remes wrote in the Guardian that “[Bogdan] appears to well in higher education.” view the hunger strike as an insurrection, not a protest, and is using every Following Bogdan’s controversial administration at Guantanamo, he trick in the book, however brutal and cruel, to put it down.