Guantánamo (67 page)

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Authors: Jonathan M. Hansen

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108
Anne Applebaum, “The Torture Myth,”
Washington Post
, Jan. 12, 2005, A21.
109
Herrington interview, “TV Torture Changes Real Interrogation Techniques,”
Fresh Air
, NPR, Oct. 10, 2007, available at
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15148243
.
110
See Dan Eggen and R. Jeffrey Smith, “FBI Agents Allege Abuse of Detainees at Guantánamo Bay,”
Washington Post
, Dec. 21, 2004, A1.
111
These events are described in Sands,
Torture Team
, 150–55; Mayer,
The Dark Side
, 224–37; and Margulies,
Guantánamo and the Abuse of Presidential Power
, 105–109.
112
Mora quoted in Mayer,
The Dark Side
, 219; cf. chap. 9.
113
Mayer,
The Dark Side
, 66–68, 229; Sands,
Torture Team
, 17–20, 212–213; Greenberg,
The Least Worst Place
, 46–47.
114
Mayer,
The Dark Side
, 228–33. In opposing Yoo's new memo and an accompanying new working group report, Mora was in good company.
115
See the written objections of Major General Jack L. Rives, USAF, Deputy Judge Advocate; Rear Admiral Micheal F. Lohr, USN, Judge Advocate General; Brigadier General Keven M. Sandkuhler, USMC, Judge Advocate General; and Major General Thomas Romig, USA, Judge Advocate General, available at
www.torturingdemocracy.org/documents/20030205.pdf
.
116
Mayer,
The Dark Side
, 228–32.
117
See previous chapter, and
Sale v. Haitian Centers Council
, June 21, 1993, available at
www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/92-344.ZO.html
.
118
Rasul v. Bush
, June 28, 2004, available at
www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/03-334.ZO.html
.
119
Margulies,
Guantánamo and the Abuse of Presidential Power
, 162–64.
120
Associated Press, “Kuwaiti Ordered Released from Guantánamo Bay,”
New York Times
, Sept. 26, 2009, A15.
121
Andy Worthington, “The Guantánamo Whistleblowers,”
Counterpunch
, July 2, 2007; see also Worthington's
The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 759 Detainees in America's Ille
(London: Pluto Press, 2007).
122
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
, Supreme Court of the United States, June 29, 2006, available at
www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/05-184.ZS.html
.
123
Boumediene v. Bush
, United States District Court, D.C. District, Nov. 29, 2008, available at
ccrjustice.org/files/2008-11-20%20Boumediene%20ORDER%20-%20release%205%20of%206.pdf
.
124
Margulies,
Guantánamo and the Abuse of Presidential Power
, 214.
125
From
Rules of the Road
, a Navy publication, quoted in Tom Miller, “The Sun Sometimes Sets,” 97–100; 186–88.
EPILOGUE
1
On this paradox, see David Harvey,
Cosmopolitanism and the Geographies of Freedom
(New York: Columbia University Press, 2009), introduction and passim; William Appleman Williams,
Empire as a Way of Life: An Essay on the Causes and Character of America's Present Predicament, Along with a Few Thoughts About an Alternative
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1980); Andrew Bacevitch,
American Empire: Realities and Consequences of U.S. Diplomacy
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2002); Lars Schoultz,
Beneath the United States: A History of U.S. Policy Toward Latin America
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998), chap. 19; and Jonathan M. Hansen, “American Empire as a Way of Life: The Search for Historical Alternatives,” in Kenneth Christie, ed.,
United States Foreign Policy and National Identity in the 21
st
Century
(New York: Routledge, 2009), chap. 8.
2
Memorandum for Colonel Mike Meese, Academic Report—Trip to Guantánamo, US Military Academy, June 28, 2006, 1–2.
3
Telephone interview, General Barry McCaffrey, USA (Ret.), April 19, 2010.
4
McCaffrey, Guantánamo Memorandum, 4; Crawford quoted by Bob Woodward, “Detainee Tortured, Says US Official,”
Washington Post
, January 14, 2009, at
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/13/AR2009011303372.html
.
5
McCaffrey, Guantánamo Memorandum, 4–5.
6
Ibid., 5; McCaffrey telephone interview, April 19, 2010.
8
Charlie Savage, “Vote Hurts Obama Push to Empty Cuba Prison,”
New York Times
, December 23, 2010, A18.
9
Executive Order: Periodic Review of Individuals Detained at Guantánamo Bay Naval Station Pursuant to the Authorization for U.S. Military Force, Office of the Press Secretary, The White House, March 7, 2011, available at
www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/Executive_Order_on_Periodic_Review.pdf
; Charlie Savage, “Detainee Review Proposal Is Prepared for Obama,”
New York Times
, December 21, 2010, at
www.nytimes.com/2010/12/22/us/22gitmo.html?_r=1
.
10
Telephone interview with David Barron, former head of the Office of Legal Counsel in the Obama administration, October 13, 2010. In his May 2009 address on torture and indefinite detention at the National Archives, President Obama vowed that his administration would “no longer place the burden to prove that hearsay is unreliable on the opponent of the hearsay,” though the journalist Robert Chesney has argued that this standard still falls well short of civil law protections. Barack Obama, “Remarks by the President on National Security,” National Archives, Washington, D.C., May 21, 2009, at
www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks
; Robert Chesney, “The Least Worst Venue,”
Foreign Policy
, January 21, 2011, at
www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/01/21/the_least_worst_venue?page=0,1
. To Jonathan Hafetz, improvements in the commission system aren't good enough, given the Obama administration's adoption of its predecessor's broad interpretation of what can be characterized as war crimes. Jonathan Hafetz, “Reversal of Guantánamo Policy Will Harm US Reputation Abroad,”
DW-World.de
, January 21, 2011, at
www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,14779114,00.html
.
11
Barron interview, October 13, 2010.
12
“Lawyer Disputes Portrayal of Detainee,”
New York Times
, February 5, 2011, A12.
13
Scott Shane, “Obama Defends Detention Conditions for Soldier Accused in WikiLeaks Case,”
New York Times
, March 11, 2011, at
www.nytimes.com/2011/03/12/us/12manning.html
.
14
Commander Charles M. Cooke, Memorandum for Commander R. O. Davis, USN Office of Naval Operations, Sept. 26, 1937. Charles M. Cooke Papers, Manuscript Division, Hoover Institution, Stanford University. On Stevenson, see “Reminiscences of Admiral Robert Lee Dennison, USN (Ret.)” (Annapolis, Md.: U.S. Naval Institute, 1975), 405, and “Reminiscences of Vice Admiral Eli T. Reich, USN (Ret.)” (Annapolis, Md.: U.S. Naval Institute, 1983), 250–60; on Carter and Guantánamo, see National Security Council Memo, December 7, 1978, to Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Archive. On Reagan and Guantánamo, see
National Defense
66, no. 370 (September 1981): 3.
15
Author interview, General John J. Sheehan, USMC (Ret.), January 25, 2007, Arlington, Va.
16
Telephone interview, General Barry McCaffrey, USA (Ret.), April 19, 2010.
17
Telephone interview, Commander Jeffrey H. Johnston, October 8, 2010.
18
Ibid.
19
Sheehan interview, January 25, 2007. Cf. Carol Rosenberg, “Disaster Drill Illustrates New Approach to Cuba,” July 20, 2009,
Miami Herald
, available at
www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/state/epaper/2009/07/20/0720_cuban_troops.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=0
.
20
Ibid.
21
Author interview, Rafael Hernández, May 25, 2005, Cambridge, Mass.
22
Author interviews, Rolando Céspedez, Oscar Pila, Riquet Caballero Courguet, Francisco Suárez, Juan Raúl Llopis, and Manuel López, August 4, 2007, Miami, Fla., and Alberto Gonzales, June 3, 2008, Storrs, Conn.
So many people contributed to the completion of this book that I hesitate to name them lest I leave anybody out. Thank you foremost to my wife, Anne, and to my children, Oliver, Julian, and Nathalie, whose love and joy and zest for life fuel my work and sustained this project from beginning to end. Thanks, too, to Richard Fox, David Hollinger, Jane Kamensky, Jim Kloppenberg, and Sayres Rudy, whose friendship, encouragement, and example provide continuous inspiration.
This book took shape in several institutional settings, some formal, some not. It sprang to life in the hospitable surroundings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where I was visiting scholar (2003–2004) and where Leslie Berlowitz, Jim Carroll, and Jim Miller, among others, maintained a climate of dazzling intellectual stimulation. I am fortunate to be a member of a Boston-area writing group that has included Steve Biehl, Jane Kamensky, Steven Mihm, Mark Peterson, John Plotz, Jennifer Roberts, Seth Rockman, Dan Sharfstein, Conevery Valencius, and Michael Willrich. Their close reading of early chapters of this book set it on a firm foundation. I am likewise lucky to be based in Harvard University's Committee on Degrees in Social Studies, where Richard Tuck, Anya Bernstein, and a brilliant faculty and staff make coming to work each day exhilarating.
Jim Campbell, Roger Lane, and Scott Tromanhauser read a draft of
the entire manuscript. Jim and Roger provided detailed and trenchant criticism, putting me permanently in debt. Bob Branfon, Kevin Caffrey, Jeff Kahn, Jim Kloppenberg, Sayres Rudy, and Alan Taylor read chapters and/or sections along the way, saving me from all manner of errors and infelicities.
Faculty and students at the following universities or think tanks commented generously on different iterations of this project: Brandeis University, Centro de Estudios de Información de la Defensa (Havana, Cuba), Columbia University, Harvard University, Oxford University, University of Georgia, University of Madrid, University of Sevilla, and University of Sydney.
Scholars and writers from many different fields provided direction and encouragement at critical stages. Sincerest thanks to Walter Alvarez, David Carlson, Mark Clague, John Coatsworth, Jay Cope, Jorge I. Domínquez, Don Doyle, Rafael Hernández, Manuel Iturralde-Vinent, William Johns, Carl Kaysen, Hal Klepak, Kris Lane, Dick Lehr, William Leith, Anthony Lewis, John Lewis, Jana Lipman, Tom Miller, Richard Millett, Louis Pérez, John Paul Rathbone, Theresa Roosevelt, Patrick Roth, Nancy San Martin, Robert Pendleton, Phil Richardson, Stephen Schwab, Paul Stillwell, Michael Straus, Stephen Webre, Samuel Wilson, and James Zackrison.
Research for this project took me on some memorable trips. On three visits to the Guantánamo Naval Base, I was greeted with astounding generosity and assistance by, among others, Admiral David Thomas, Captain Mark Leary, Commander Jeffrey Johnston, Pete Becola, Stacey Byington, Christopher Creighton, Clayton Helms, Earlene Helms, Harriet Johnston, Don King, JoAnn King, Robert Lamb, Paul Schoenfeld, Frank Simone, and Cy Winter. In Havana, Cuba, I benefited from the warmth and hospitality of Rolando Al-mirante, Boris Ivan Crespo, Luis M. Garcia Cuñarro, Jesús Bermúdez Cutiño, and Cynthia Newport. In Miami, Florida, I was welcomed and assisted by Alfredo Duran and Marcos Antonio Ramos, among others, as well as by Marlene Bastien, Steve Forester, Randy McGrorty, Myriam Mezadieu, Carol Rosenberg, Alex Stepick, and Irwin Stotzky. In Washington, D.C., Ingrid Ott, Doug Jones, General Jack Sheehan, and Wayne Smith all went way out of their way to help.
Thank you to the staffs of the following libraries: Widener Library
(especially Lynn Shirey, librarian for Latin America); Houghton Library; the United States Marine Corps Research Library, Quantico, Virginia; the Navy Department Library, Washington, D.C. (especially Paul Tobin, Glenn Helm, and Ed Marolda); the British Library; Archivo General de Indias, Sevilla, Spain; the Cuban Historical Collection, University of Miami; the Library of Congress; the National Archives, Washington, D.C.; and the National Security Archive, George Washington University.
Various individuals defy categorization but provided much appreciated support somewhere along the line. Thanks to Tim Bartlett, Rob Chodat, Michael Coulson, Laura Fisher, Alex Gourevitch, Sarah Lovitt, Richard Pennington, Chuck Ryan, Glenda Sluga, John Straubel, Don Soldini, Liz Svezchenco, and Alfie Ulloa. I also want to salute my Spanish instructors: Lydia Jimenez, Monica Palacio, and especially Wega Firenze, the last of whom redefines what it means to be a teacher.
With tremendous savvy and just the right amount of force, Wendy Strothman, my friend and literary agent, nurtured this book to fruition. Many thanks, Wendy, for your unflagging faith. Anyone who has ever published with Hill and Wang/FSG knows the privilege it is to work with the teams assembled by Thomas LeBien and Jeff Seroy. At Hill and Wang, Dan Crissman proved wise beyond his years, setting the gold standard for what it means to be an editor. At FSG, publicist Steve Weil was accessible and focused throughout, bringing grace and equanimity to an often-maligned aspect of book publishing.
I know I am leaving people out. I burn a candle to the unnamed but not forgotten individuals who helped make this book possible. If, after all this help, mistakes remain, they are mine and mine alone.
Finally, this book is dedicated to my parents, Alix and Chris Hansen, whose unconditional love for me and support for this project are its ultimate sine qua non.

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