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August 2, 2005: NORTON FOUND CHANGED CONDITIONS AT GUANTANAMO BUT SAYS CONGRESS NEEDS TO HELP...

January 10, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 2, 2005

NORTON FOUND CHANGED CONDITIONS AT GUANTANAMO BUT SAYS CONGRESS NEEDS TO HELP CLEAR THE SLATE AND CLARIFY FUTURE OF DETAINEES

Washington, DC— Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), just back from a one-day congressional delegation visit to Guantanamo yesterday, said that Congress is doing a disservice to military and Department of Defense personnel at Guantanamo by its refusal to allow an independent commission to look at present conditions for detainees and their future there. Norton, a member of the Homeland Security Committee, called for the independent commission "not because we found anything amiss in Guantanamo, but because the public is still unconvinced and the facility may be needed for decades to come." She said that she saw substantial improvements in the Guantanamo facilities over what she saw when she visited in February 2004, and "real indications that General Jay Hood and the forces from the Army, Army National Guard and Reserves, and Navy have taken to heart the need to demonstrate humane treatment in interrogation of detainees. People are unlikely to believe it without an independent investigation, however," she said.

The issue at Guantanamo was never about facilities and ordinary detainee amenities, Norton said, but about interrogation abuses. The abuses that occurred may have come from interpretations by Major General Geoffrey Miller of directives from Department of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and White House memos, which have long ago been exposed and apparently changed. Guantanamo also may have merged into Abu Ghraib in the public imagination, where Major General Miller was transferred after serving as commander at Guantanamo. "By far the worst and most systematic abuses have been at Abu Ghraib, but the public doesn’t see the difference," Norton said.

On the Monday visit along with other House members, Norton saw facilities housing the most recalcitrant detainees, unlike her February 2004 visit, when she witnessed detainees being questioned by military women as they ate ice cream. Such interrogations in front of VIPs are widely believed to have been staged and repeated for visitors. Norton said she had greater confidence in the interviews she saw yesterday because of the background offered before seeing two interrogations. She said among the improvements she saw at the base were the targeting of 125 among the 520 being detained because the smaller number are most likely to have information; their housing in a separate air conditioned prison that facilitates interrogation; the abundance of cameras everywhere that would make unwitnessed abuses far less likely; and an open yard where compliant detainees are free most of each day. Norton said that, in her opinion, four years after capture these detainees will have less and less to offer of present value and that controversy at Guantanamo is likely to move now to the nature of the trials and of the legal representation about to take place.

The Congresswoman also said that she opposed the closing of Guantanamo because "I can’t imagine where they would hold these detainees, certainly not in anybody’s neighborhood or state that I imagine." Guantanamo is "a child of 9-11" and of the Afghanistan War, and unlikely to receive many more detainees, she said, because most terrorists are now being held where captured. However, many at Guantanamo may be held for decades, and Norton thinks that Guantanamo is being readied as a virtual permanent place for many of the detainees because there is no indication of what else to do about those who might go back to repeat terrorist acts, as some who have been released already apparently have done. "It is in the best interest of the war against terrorism to be candid on Guantanamo and its options, and because of the controversy there, an independent commission is the best way to take any taint off the facility that may be necessary to pave the way for its long-term use for these detainees," Norton said.

"I have nothing but praise and admiration for the troops and their superiors, who are serving in a hot, remote island location and trying on their own to overcome Guantanamo’s reputation," Norton said. "I believe that they are succeeding, but Congress needs to give them some help through independent investigators who can help prepare the public for long-term detention there that may become necessary."