http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/arts/design/28wall.html?_r=1
By ETHAN BRONNER
Published: February 27, 2009
Also, check out the slide show!
JERUSALEM — He occupies the driver’s seat with an air of insouciance, a blue helmet atop his head, two proud white steeds under his command and a sly smile across his lips. Bruno Schulz looks out at the world from his painting as if he owns it. But like much else in his life, cut short by a Nazi bullet, this is pure fantasy.
The work and story of Schulz, a Jewish writer and painter in Poland who was forced to illustrate a children’s playroom in a Nazi officer’s home and then killed, have long attracted literary attention. There was something about his humility, talent and fate that captivated writers like Cynthia Ozick, Philip Roth and David Grossman, who all made him a character in their works.
Yet until the wall drawings for children were discovered in 2001 by a documentary filmmaker, fading and peeling like ancient Roman frescoes, they were thought to have been destroyed. Spirited out of Schulz’s hometown in what is now Ukraine under contested circumstances by the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Israel, they have been painstakingly preserved and put on view here for the first time.
And while this haunting show, a permanent exhibition titled “Wall Painting Under Coercion,” will not end the lingering controversy over whether Schulz belongs more to Polish than to Jewish culture, or whether the wall drawings should have remained in Ukraine rather than go to Israel, it offers a poignant example of artistic defiance in the face of overwhelming cruelty.
“There was something very Kafkaesque about his abhorrence of bureaucracy and authority,” said Yehudit Shendar, senior art curator at Yad Vashem. “He is sometimes called the Polish Kafka. He took courage with a brush in his hand. It became a weapon of rebellion.”
For example, the Cinderella, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and Hansel and Gretel that Schulz created for the officer’s children’s playroom bore the faces of real people: Schulz himself, his father and other members of the Jewish population in their town, Drohobych. Putting himself at the reins in his drawing struck a note of defiance, since Nazi law forbade Jews from riding in or driving carriages.
His face is also that of the witch, a reference, curators believe, to the witch hunts that Jews faced in eastern Galicia, then part of Poland, in those months after the Nazi conquest of his town in June 1941.
Instantly, some 900 Jews were rounded up and shot. Most of the rest were pressed into forced labor before being killed. Schulz was a sickly man and a talented one, and the Gestapo sergeant in charge of Jewish laborers, Felix Landau, held him aside and ordered him to decorate a riding school and his children’s nursery. It seemed to be his salvation.
Marila B., who was 11 at the time and lived in the house next to the riding school, eventually escaped through the forest with her family and lives today in Israel. She remembers the Nazi sergeant and the wall drawings because she was ordered to baby-sit for the officer’s children, aged 4 and 2.
“I would play with the children in the garden and then take them up to the playroom, and there I saw the drawings,” she said in a brief interview at the opening of the exhibition at Yad Vashem this month. Loath to be obliged to repeat her story, she asked that her full name not be published. “Landau used to walk around with a pistol in one hand and a whip in the other. He was the very embodiment of evil.”
Landau did save Schulz for more than a year, until November 1942, by providing him with work and the means for minimal sustenance. Schulz, whose literary reputation as a short-story writer had already been established, had obtained false Aryan papers and was about to escape when another Gestapo sergeant, Karl Günter, angry that Landau had killed his Jewish dentist, put a bullet in Schulz’s head. He is said to have told Landau: “You killed my Jew. Now I’ve killed yours.”
Schulz was 50 and a bachelor, and though he had published only a handful of works, he was viewed as brilliant by those who mattered most in Polish literature. His reputation later grew immensely. As Isaac Bashevis Singer put it, “What he did in his short life was enough to make him one of the most remarkable writers who ever lived.”
Always rooted in Drohobych, his work had a magical vitality to it.
As one of his famous lines reads, “My colored pencils rushed in inspiration across columns of illegible text in masterly squiggles, in breakneck zigzags that knotted themselves suddenly into anagrams of vision, into enigmas of bright revelation, and then dissolved into empty, shiny flashes of lightning, following imaginary tracks.”
Mr. Grossman, the Israeli author, says he discovered Schulz when someone told him that Schulz’s influence was evident in his own first novel. He had never heard of Schulz, but he picked up his stories and felt a chill of admiration and recognition. Upon learning of the infamous line about Nazis’ killing each other’s Jews, Mr. Grossman was filled with the ambition to write about the Holocaust.
In his widely admired novel “See Under: Love,” a character named Bruno escapes a ghetto under Nazi occupation and jumps into a river, joining a school of salmon.
Most of Schulz’s artwork has not survived but was also esteemed by his contemporaries. Expressionist in the way of Middle European artists of the interwar era, it mixed dreamlike fantasy with a touch of erotica. Because he was an assimilated Jew who wrote in Polish and whose hometown is now in Ukraine, the discovery of the murals was greeted in Eastern Europe as the retrieval of a piece of national heritage.
For officials at Yad Vashem, however, Schulz was killed for being a Jew, and his work belonged here. When they learned of the discovery, they negotiated with the family living in the house and the municipality to get permission to rescue the paintings from their neglected circumstances.
What happened next is disputed, but most of the paintings were removed and taken to Israel without the Ukrainian government’s permission. After years of bad feelings, a deal has been struck whereby the murals belong to Ukraine but are on long-term loan to Yad Vashem. The Ukrainian deputy culture minister attended the exhibition’s opening.
So did Mr. Grossman. He told the audience an anecdote from Schulz’s childhood. His mother caught him feeding sugar water to flies one autumn day, and she asked him what he was doing. “Helping them get through the long winter,” he replied.
That, Mr. Grossman said, is what Schulz’s work does for us all.
18 February 2009
Action Alert: Tell Secretary Clinton to Stop the War on Women in the DRC
The ten-year tangle of alliances, invasions and proxy warfare centered in the Democratic Republic of Congo has made the region the world's deadliest killing ground since WWII.
Rape is systematically used as a weapon of war and children are forced to fight for armed groups. Peace in the DRC means putting an end to the institutionalized violence against women and children. Click here to watch a video of Congolese children speaking about their experiences as child soldiers.
The recent dramatic reversal of alliances between the DRC and its conflict-entangled neighbors, Uganda and Rwanda, combined with the withdrawal of Hutu rebels has opened a small window for peace in the region.
Your action today can help us make real progress on ending violence against women and children across the region.
The U.S. has considerable economic and political influence over both the DRC and Rwanda—no other country combines such influence. Sign our letter to Secretary Clinton asking her to leverage our voice to strenghten support for the UN peacekeeping mission and protect women and children in the DRC.
Rape is used in the conflict as a calculated strategy to destabilize opposition groups as well as promote fear and submission. It is not unusual for mothers and daughters to be raped in front of their families and villages. Human rights activists working to end violence against women often face grave threats of violence themselves.
Justine Masika Bihamba is one such activist. Because of her work to end violence against women, she and her family have been targeted.
Justine described the current situation in Congo as a war against women. "When two sides fight, the one punishes the other by raping women," she said.
Putting an end to the rampant sexual violence and the use of child soldiers is essential to ensuring peace in the region.
Secretary Clinton has said that women's rights are one of her top priorities. Make sure her promises become reality.
Add your name to our letter to Secretary Clinton urging her to take concrete steps to protect women in the DRC.
Rape is systematically used as a weapon of war and children are forced to fight for armed groups. Peace in the DRC means putting an end to the institutionalized violence against women and children. Click here to watch a video of Congolese children speaking about their experiences as child soldiers.
The recent dramatic reversal of alliances between the DRC and its conflict-entangled neighbors, Uganda and Rwanda, combined with the withdrawal of Hutu rebels has opened a small window for peace in the region.
Your action today can help us make real progress on ending violence against women and children across the region.
The U.S. has considerable economic and political influence over both the DRC and Rwanda—no other country combines such influence. Sign our letter to Secretary Clinton asking her to leverage our voice to strenghten support for the UN peacekeeping mission and protect women and children in the DRC.
Rape is used in the conflict as a calculated strategy to destabilize opposition groups as well as promote fear and submission. It is not unusual for mothers and daughters to be raped in front of their families and villages. Human rights activists working to end violence against women often face grave threats of violence themselves.
Justine Masika Bihamba is one such activist. Because of her work to end violence against women, she and her family have been targeted.
Justine described the current situation in Congo as a war against women. "When two sides fight, the one punishes the other by raping women," she said.
Putting an end to the rampant sexual violence and the use of child soldiers is essential to ensuring peace in the region.
Secretary Clinton has said that women's rights are one of her top priorities. Make sure her promises become reality.
Add your name to our letter to Secretary Clinton urging her to take concrete steps to protect women in the DRC.
16 February 2009
4 Cases Illustrate Guantanamo Quandaries
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/15/AR2009021501955.html?nav=igoogle
Administration Must Decide Fate of Often-Flawed Proceedings, Often-Dangerous Prisoners
By Peter Finn
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 16, 2009; A01
In their summary of evidence against Mohammed Sulaymon Barre, a Somali detained at Guantanamo Bay, military investigators allege that he spent several years at Osama bin Laden's compound in Sudan. But other military documents place him in Pakistan during the same period.
One hearing at Guantanamo cited his employment for a money-transfer company with links to terrorism financing. Another file drops any mention of such links.
Barre is one of approximately 245 detainees at the military prison in Cuba whose fate the Obama administration must decide in coming months. Teams of government lawyers are sorting through complex, and often flawed, case histories as they work toward President Obama's commitment to close the facility within a year.
Much of the government's evidence remains classified, but documents in Barre's case, and a handful of others, underscore the daunting legal, diplomatic, security and political challenges.
As officials try to decide who can be released and who can be charged, they face a series of murky questions: what to do when the evidence is contradictory or tainted by allegations of torture; whether to press charges in military or federal court; what to do if prisoners are deemed dangerous but there is little or no evidence against them that would stand up in court; and where to send prisoners who might be killed or tortured if they are returned home.
Answering those questions, said current and former officials, is a massive undertaking that has been hampered by a lack of cooperation among agencies and by records that are physically scattered and lacking key details.
It is "a tough, unenviable task with imperfect solutions," said Sarah E. Mendelson, director of the human rights and security initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the author of a report on closing Guantanamo Bay. "But they need to get fully underway now," she said, reviewing files, marshaling evidence and finding countries willing to take those detainees who can be released.
Approximately 60 detainees who have been cleared for release by the Bush administration remain at the camp. An additional 21 detainees are facing charges before military commissions and are almost certain to face trial in federal court, courts-martial or some new version of the current system of military commissions.
Nearly 60 others could be prosecuted, the Pentagon has said, although many legal experts say that is unrealistic because of a lack of evidence and other problems.
That leaves the fate of roughly 100 prisoners unclear. A Pentagon spokesman said the department would not discuss the cases of individual detainees.
Bush administration officials have insisted that among the detainees are any number of al-Qaeda leaders, their financiers and facilitators, and high-level members of the Taliban.
"If you release the hard-core al-Qaeda terrorists that are held at Guantanamo, I think they go back into the business of trying to kill more Americans and mount further mass-casualty attacks," former vice president Richard B. Cheney said in a recent interview with Politico. "If you turn them loose and they go kill more Americans, who's responsible for that?"
Obama administration officials acknowledge that closing the prison is not risk-free and that some detainees may return to terrorism. But the president has concluded that Guantanamo has sapped America's moral stature abroad and mired the country in endless litigation, forestalling justice for the alleged terrorists. Of the 779 people taken to Guantanamo, only three have been convicted, and two of those have since been released.
"That can of worms," as Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates recently described the Guantanamo issue, can no longer be kicked "down the road."
Mohammed Sulaymon Barre, who fled Somalia's civil strife for Pakistan in the early 1990s, has been held at Guantanamo since 2002, after being picked up in a raid in Pakistan, where he had been recognized as a refugee by the United Nations.
In Karachi, he worked for Dahabshiil, an international money-transfer company that has offices in dozens of countries, including the United States. That job, and his flight from Somalia to Pakistan, led to accusations that Barre was "engaged in hostilities against the U.S.," according to military documents.
"I am convinced that your branch of the Dahabshiil company was used to transfer money for terrorism," the presiding officer told him at a hearing in Guantanamo in 2005. "What I am trying to find out is if you think maybe there were some people that were using your company and using your branch to transfer money, or whether you were just totally not paying attention."
Barre said that if any suspect money was transferred from his home office, it was done so unwittingly, and that Dahabshiil is a reputable company operating legally worldwide.
Barre, who is in his early 40s, is being held at Guantanamo's supermax Camp 6, where the military considers him a major discipline problem, at least in part because he has gone on several hunger strikes.
Less clear from military hearings and documents is what crime he may be charged with, if any, because the allegations against him, according to a filing by his lawyers in U.S. District Court, have "varied dramatically." That, his lawyers said, explains his refusal to bend to prison rules.
"If you were detained for seven years without charge and any fair process, you might be engaged in activities that would be considered disciplinary violations that are really protests for your detention," said Emi MacLean, a lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is representing Barre.
In 2005, officials cited Barre's employer's ties to a Somali company believed to help finance terrorism. But that link was not mentioned in a summary of evidence against him the following year.
In that 2006 summary, the military alleged for the first time that Barre was not in Pakistan in 1994 and 1995 but was working in bin Laden's compound in Khartoum, Sudan. That conflicts with U.N. papers documenting his meetings in Pakistan in those years, according to court filings.
In a federal court filing, Barre's lawyers described the bin Laden accusations as "implausible and unsubstantiated."
In a small room at Guantanamo Bay, plain white except for an American flag hung on the wall, Abdul al Rahman al Zahri sat shackled in front of three military officers at a hearing to determine whether he continued to pose a threat to the United States and its allies.
Zahri, a Yemeni captured in Afghanistan in 2001, was clear on that point.
"I do pose a threat to the United States and its allies," he said, according to a transcript of the 2006 hearing. "I admit to you it's my honor to be an enemy of the United States. I am a Muslim jihadist, and I'm defending my family and my honor."
Zahri may have been unambiguous about his state of mind, but the question of whether he can be charged with any crime is murkier. Complicating matters for the administration is the fact that he has made sometimes flatly contradictory statements about his loyalties, at one point condemning bin Laden as a "heretic."
Zahri said he heard the call to jihad outside a mosque in Yemen in early 2001, and he decided to go to Afghanistan as a trainee to eventually fight Russian forces in Chechnya, according to military documents. Within a week, he met bin Laden at an al-Qaeda guesthouse, one of 10 meetings that military officials allege he had with terrorist leaders.
"The detainee stated he attended a meeting prior to 11 September 2001 in which an upcoming operation was discussed," according to military documents.
Zahri went to the front lines in Afghanistan to fight the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance; he was wounded, captured and eventually sent to Guantanamo. But despite his statements and some potential evidence -- he was captured with a bag of various currencies and passports from several countries -- some legal experts say it may be difficult for the United States to bring charges against him under the law as it stood in 2001.
"His statement that he is a jihadist and wants to stand against America -- exactly what law does that violate?" asked Benjamin Wittes, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of "Law and the Long War." "I cannot be confident that these facts -- even if proven -- would amount to a prosecutable case."
Wittes and others have suggested that some system of detention may be needed for prisoners who cannot be prosecuted but are too dangerous to release. Human rights advocates, however, disagree.
"Contrary to many of the naysayers, the U.S. has adequate tools at its disposal to prosecute those who provided material support to terrorism in late 2001 and beyond," said Jennifer Daskal, senior counterterrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch.
Zahri has refused to meet with his attorneys, who said they were unable to discuss his case in any detail because much of the material about him remains classified. But they raised the possibility that his statements may have been coerced and cautioned that his sometimes contradictory remarks -- condemning bin Laden at one hearing and pledging fealty to him at another, threatening the United States and then saying he has "no issue" with America -- make anything he has said at Guantanamo Bay unreliable.
"We are concerned that some of the statements may have been given under questionable circumstances, either physical or mental," said Vicki Werneke, an assistant federal public defender in Ohio who is representing Zahri in habeas corpus proceedings in U.S. District Court in Washington.
Zahri, too, has said that his statements cannot be proven, and, military officials said in documents, he sees it as his mission "to waste our resources investigating his lies."
Dozens of detainees have been cleared for release, but even these cases are fraught with challenges when prisoners would be in danger if they were sent home.
These prisoners include Oybek Jabbarov, a 30-year-old Uzbek whose home country's security services have a history of torture. Jabbarov was approved for release two years ago, and his Irish American lawyer has been trying to convince the Irish government that Jabbarov was never a combatant and can be resettled in Europe.
At 21, Jabbarov left his home country for neighboring Tajikistan, where he and about 200 other Uzbeks were rounded up and then sent to northern Afghanistan, according to Jabbarov's account.
For the next 19 months, Jabbarov said, he eked out an existence raising chickens and buying and selling sheep in ethnic Uzbek villages. But in late 2001, he says, he was picked up by local fighters who turned him over to U.S. forces at Bagram air base. He insisted in numerous interrogations that he was not a fighter, but he was shipped to Guantanamo in June 2002.
"It is a big mistake that I am here," wrote Jabbarov, who learned English in Guantanamo, in an open letter last October. "But I do not blame the American people for their government's mistake."
Jabbarov, however, has not been a model prisoner, according to military documents. He went on hunger strikes more than once, and in 2005, his weight dropped from 167 pounds to 100 pounds. "Immediate Reaction Force" teams, which enforce discipline at the camps, have dealt with him 35 times, according to his attorney, Michael Mone.
"My sense is that he has a lot of pride," said Mone, who describes his client as looking like "George Harrison, circa the 'White Album.' " "I don't think he likes to put up with a lot of crap. He's frustrated as hell."
Mone met twice last year with Irish government officials, who were noncommittal, he said. Ireland and some other European countries have recently said they want to help the Obama administration close the military prison, but they want full assessments, including classified information, on the risk the detainees may pose, European officials said.
Building a Case
For some "high value" prisoners, the discussion is not about whether they will be prosecuted, but in what court, and whether some of the evidence against them may be tainted. That is true of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian accused of helping plan the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Tanzania.
He was indicted in New York before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and four of his named co-conspirators are already serving life sentences in a supermax prison in Colorado.
In the months leading up to the attack in Tanzania, Ghailani obtained and stored bomb materials, scouted the embassy and escorted the Egyptian suicide bomber from Kenya to Dar es Salaam, the Tanzanian capital, according to a federal indictment and a charging document at Guantanamo Bay.
The diminutive Ghailani was known to some of his confederates as "Fupi," Swahili for "small," and he bicycled around Dar es Salaam to obtain bomb components because he couldn't drive, according to U.S. investigators. The bombing killed 11 people, all Africans, and a simultaneous blast in Nairobi, Kenya, killed 213 people, including 12 Americans.
The former Islamic cleric now presents himself as a contrite and exploited victim of al-Qaeda conspirators.
"I would like to apologize to the United States government for what I did before," said Ghailani at a hearing at Guantanamo Bay. "It was without my knowledge what they were doing, but I helped them."
Ghailani, however, had obtained a passport under a false name before the bombing and admitted that he vanished into al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan after the attack, according to military documents.
Ghailani was captured after a 10-hour shootout in the small Pakistani city of Gujrat in July 2004. He was taken to a CIA secret prison, and within months, intelligence officials reported that he was cooperating and linked his interrogation to the breakup of a plot to strike financial targets in the New York area and London.
In 2006, Ghailani and 13 other "high value" detainees, including Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, were transferred to Guantanamo, where they are being held at the top-secret Camp 7. Ghailani, who speaks excellent English, has spent time reading the entire Harry Potter series, according to his military attorney.
Little is known about Ghailani's treatment at the hands of the CIA, or about which specific interrogation techniques he may have undergone. The CIA has acknowledged that at least three detainees, including Mohammed, were waterboarded, and prisoners also were subjected to stress positions, sleep deprivation and extreme temperatures.
Defense lawyers and human rights groups say that while allegations of torture may complicate future prosecutions, the government can build cases that do not rely on coerced statements.
Marine Lt. Col. Jeffrey Colwell, Ghailani's military attorney, said his client is eager to get into court.
"I know that he wants closure, resolution of whatever is going to happen to him," Colwell said. "Will there be complications with everything that has happened since his capture? Probably. But I think those need to be vetted out."
The four vignettes below were written by staff writer Peter Finn, with contributions from staff researcher Julie Tate.
Administration Must Decide Fate of Often-Flawed Proceedings, Often-Dangerous Prisoners
By Peter Finn
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 16, 2009; A01
In their summary of evidence against Mohammed Sulaymon Barre, a Somali detained at Guantanamo Bay, military investigators allege that he spent several years at Osama bin Laden's compound in Sudan. But other military documents place him in Pakistan during the same period.
One hearing at Guantanamo cited his employment for a money-transfer company with links to terrorism financing. Another file drops any mention of such links.
Barre is one of approximately 245 detainees at the military prison in Cuba whose fate the Obama administration must decide in coming months. Teams of government lawyers are sorting through complex, and often flawed, case histories as they work toward President Obama's commitment to close the facility within a year.
Much of the government's evidence remains classified, but documents in Barre's case, and a handful of others, underscore the daunting legal, diplomatic, security and political challenges.
As officials try to decide who can be released and who can be charged, they face a series of murky questions: what to do when the evidence is contradictory or tainted by allegations of torture; whether to press charges in military or federal court; what to do if prisoners are deemed dangerous but there is little or no evidence against them that would stand up in court; and where to send prisoners who might be killed or tortured if they are returned home.
Answering those questions, said current and former officials, is a massive undertaking that has been hampered by a lack of cooperation among agencies and by records that are physically scattered and lacking key details.
It is "a tough, unenviable task with imperfect solutions," said Sarah E. Mendelson, director of the human rights and security initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the author of a report on closing Guantanamo Bay. "But they need to get fully underway now," she said, reviewing files, marshaling evidence and finding countries willing to take those detainees who can be released.
Approximately 60 detainees who have been cleared for release by the Bush administration remain at the camp. An additional 21 detainees are facing charges before military commissions and are almost certain to face trial in federal court, courts-martial or some new version of the current system of military commissions.
Nearly 60 others could be prosecuted, the Pentagon has said, although many legal experts say that is unrealistic because of a lack of evidence and other problems.
That leaves the fate of roughly 100 prisoners unclear. A Pentagon spokesman said the department would not discuss the cases of individual detainees.
Bush administration officials have insisted that among the detainees are any number of al-Qaeda leaders, their financiers and facilitators, and high-level members of the Taliban.
"If you release the hard-core al-Qaeda terrorists that are held at Guantanamo, I think they go back into the business of trying to kill more Americans and mount further mass-casualty attacks," former vice president Richard B. Cheney said in a recent interview with Politico. "If you turn them loose and they go kill more Americans, who's responsible for that?"
Obama administration officials acknowledge that closing the prison is not risk-free and that some detainees may return to terrorism. But the president has concluded that Guantanamo has sapped America's moral stature abroad and mired the country in endless litigation, forestalling justice for the alleged terrorists. Of the 779 people taken to Guantanamo, only three have been convicted, and two of those have since been released.
"That can of worms," as Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates recently described the Guantanamo issue, can no longer be kicked "down the road."
Mohammed Sulaymon Barre, who fled Somalia's civil strife for Pakistan in the early 1990s, has been held at Guantanamo since 2002, after being picked up in a raid in Pakistan, where he had been recognized as a refugee by the United Nations.
In Karachi, he worked for Dahabshiil, an international money-transfer company that has offices in dozens of countries, including the United States. That job, and his flight from Somalia to Pakistan, led to accusations that Barre was "engaged in hostilities against the U.S.," according to military documents.
"I am convinced that your branch of the Dahabshiil company was used to transfer money for terrorism," the presiding officer told him at a hearing in Guantanamo in 2005. "What I am trying to find out is if you think maybe there were some people that were using your company and using your branch to transfer money, or whether you were just totally not paying attention."
Barre said that if any suspect money was transferred from his home office, it was done so unwittingly, and that Dahabshiil is a reputable company operating legally worldwide.
Barre, who is in his early 40s, is being held at Guantanamo's supermax Camp 6, where the military considers him a major discipline problem, at least in part because he has gone on several hunger strikes.
Less clear from military hearings and documents is what crime he may be charged with, if any, because the allegations against him, according to a filing by his lawyers in U.S. District Court, have "varied dramatically." That, his lawyers said, explains his refusal to bend to prison rules.
"If you were detained for seven years without charge and any fair process, you might be engaged in activities that would be considered disciplinary violations that are really protests for your detention," said Emi MacLean, a lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is representing Barre.
In 2005, officials cited Barre's employer's ties to a Somali company believed to help finance terrorism. But that link was not mentioned in a summary of evidence against him the following year.
In that 2006 summary, the military alleged for the first time that Barre was not in Pakistan in 1994 and 1995 but was working in bin Laden's compound in Khartoum, Sudan. That conflicts with U.N. papers documenting his meetings in Pakistan in those years, according to court filings.
In a federal court filing, Barre's lawyers described the bin Laden accusations as "implausible and unsubstantiated."
In a small room at Guantanamo Bay, plain white except for an American flag hung on the wall, Abdul al Rahman al Zahri sat shackled in front of three military officers at a hearing to determine whether he continued to pose a threat to the United States and its allies.
Zahri, a Yemeni captured in Afghanistan in 2001, was clear on that point.
"I do pose a threat to the United States and its allies," he said, according to a transcript of the 2006 hearing. "I admit to you it's my honor to be an enemy of the United States. I am a Muslim jihadist, and I'm defending my family and my honor."
Zahri may have been unambiguous about his state of mind, but the question of whether he can be charged with any crime is murkier. Complicating matters for the administration is the fact that he has made sometimes flatly contradictory statements about his loyalties, at one point condemning bin Laden as a "heretic."
Zahri said he heard the call to jihad outside a mosque in Yemen in early 2001, and he decided to go to Afghanistan as a trainee to eventually fight Russian forces in Chechnya, according to military documents. Within a week, he met bin Laden at an al-Qaeda guesthouse, one of 10 meetings that military officials allege he had with terrorist leaders.
"The detainee stated he attended a meeting prior to 11 September 2001 in which an upcoming operation was discussed," according to military documents.
Zahri went to the front lines in Afghanistan to fight the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance; he was wounded, captured and eventually sent to Guantanamo. But despite his statements and some potential evidence -- he was captured with a bag of various currencies and passports from several countries -- some legal experts say it may be difficult for the United States to bring charges against him under the law as it stood in 2001.
"His statement that he is a jihadist and wants to stand against America -- exactly what law does that violate?" asked Benjamin Wittes, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of "Law and the Long War." "I cannot be confident that these facts -- even if proven -- would amount to a prosecutable case."
Wittes and others have suggested that some system of detention may be needed for prisoners who cannot be prosecuted but are too dangerous to release. Human rights advocates, however, disagree.
"Contrary to many of the naysayers, the U.S. has adequate tools at its disposal to prosecute those who provided material support to terrorism in late 2001 and beyond," said Jennifer Daskal, senior counterterrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch.
Zahri has refused to meet with his attorneys, who said they were unable to discuss his case in any detail because much of the material about him remains classified. But they raised the possibility that his statements may have been coerced and cautioned that his sometimes contradictory remarks -- condemning bin Laden at one hearing and pledging fealty to him at another, threatening the United States and then saying he has "no issue" with America -- make anything he has said at Guantanamo Bay unreliable.
"We are concerned that some of the statements may have been given under questionable circumstances, either physical or mental," said Vicki Werneke, an assistant federal public defender in Ohio who is representing Zahri in habeas corpus proceedings in U.S. District Court in Washington.
Zahri, too, has said that his statements cannot be proven, and, military officials said in documents, he sees it as his mission "to waste our resources investigating his lies."
Dozens of detainees have been cleared for release, but even these cases are fraught with challenges when prisoners would be in danger if they were sent home.
These prisoners include Oybek Jabbarov, a 30-year-old Uzbek whose home country's security services have a history of torture. Jabbarov was approved for release two years ago, and his Irish American lawyer has been trying to convince the Irish government that Jabbarov was never a combatant and can be resettled in Europe.
At 21, Jabbarov left his home country for neighboring Tajikistan, where he and about 200 other Uzbeks were rounded up and then sent to northern Afghanistan, according to Jabbarov's account.
For the next 19 months, Jabbarov said, he eked out an existence raising chickens and buying and selling sheep in ethnic Uzbek villages. But in late 2001, he says, he was picked up by local fighters who turned him over to U.S. forces at Bagram air base. He insisted in numerous interrogations that he was not a fighter, but he was shipped to Guantanamo in June 2002.
"It is a big mistake that I am here," wrote Jabbarov, who learned English in Guantanamo, in an open letter last October. "But I do not blame the American people for their government's mistake."
Jabbarov, however, has not been a model prisoner, according to military documents. He went on hunger strikes more than once, and in 2005, his weight dropped from 167 pounds to 100 pounds. "Immediate Reaction Force" teams, which enforce discipline at the camps, have dealt with him 35 times, according to his attorney, Michael Mone.
"My sense is that he has a lot of pride," said Mone, who describes his client as looking like "George Harrison, circa the 'White Album.' " "I don't think he likes to put up with a lot of crap. He's frustrated as hell."
Mone met twice last year with Irish government officials, who were noncommittal, he said. Ireland and some other European countries have recently said they want to help the Obama administration close the military prison, but they want full assessments, including classified information, on the risk the detainees may pose, European officials said.
Building a Case
For some "high value" prisoners, the discussion is not about whether they will be prosecuted, but in what court, and whether some of the evidence against them may be tainted. That is true of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian accused of helping plan the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Tanzania.
He was indicted in New York before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and four of his named co-conspirators are already serving life sentences in a supermax prison in Colorado.
In the months leading up to the attack in Tanzania, Ghailani obtained and stored bomb materials, scouted the embassy and escorted the Egyptian suicide bomber from Kenya to Dar es Salaam, the Tanzanian capital, according to a federal indictment and a charging document at Guantanamo Bay.
The diminutive Ghailani was known to some of his confederates as "Fupi," Swahili for "small," and he bicycled around Dar es Salaam to obtain bomb components because he couldn't drive, according to U.S. investigators. The bombing killed 11 people, all Africans, and a simultaneous blast in Nairobi, Kenya, killed 213 people, including 12 Americans.
The former Islamic cleric now presents himself as a contrite and exploited victim of al-Qaeda conspirators.
"I would like to apologize to the United States government for what I did before," said Ghailani at a hearing at Guantanamo Bay. "It was without my knowledge what they were doing, but I helped them."
Ghailani, however, had obtained a passport under a false name before the bombing and admitted that he vanished into al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan after the attack, according to military documents.
Ghailani was captured after a 10-hour shootout in the small Pakistani city of Gujrat in July 2004. He was taken to a CIA secret prison, and within months, intelligence officials reported that he was cooperating and linked his interrogation to the breakup of a plot to strike financial targets in the New York area and London.
In 2006, Ghailani and 13 other "high value" detainees, including Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, were transferred to Guantanamo, where they are being held at the top-secret Camp 7. Ghailani, who speaks excellent English, has spent time reading the entire Harry Potter series, according to his military attorney.
Little is known about Ghailani's treatment at the hands of the CIA, or about which specific interrogation techniques he may have undergone. The CIA has acknowledged that at least three detainees, including Mohammed, were waterboarded, and prisoners also were subjected to stress positions, sleep deprivation and extreme temperatures.
Defense lawyers and human rights groups say that while allegations of torture may complicate future prosecutions, the government can build cases that do not rely on coerced statements.
Marine Lt. Col. Jeffrey Colwell, Ghailani's military attorney, said his client is eager to get into court.
"I know that he wants closure, resolution of whatever is going to happen to him," Colwell said. "Will there be complications with everything that has happened since his capture? Probably. But I think those need to be vetted out."
The four vignettes below were written by staff writer Peter Finn, with contributions from staff researcher Julie Tate.
National Geographic Photo
Festival, Thailand
Photograph by Ryan Libre
Locals do everything they can to bring in good luck and get rid of bad luck. For ten days straight fireworks are thrown at the processions, and many men and women pierce their cheeks with huge objects like meter-long poles, guns, and lamps.
—Caption by Ryan Libre
12 February 2009
To Mugabe, With Love
This Valentine’s Day send love letters for Zimbabwe
Valentine's Day is globally recognized as a day of love, typically marked with flowers, candy, and spending time with those who mean the most to us. For some, however, this Valentine’s Day will bring no respite from the hardship they face.
In Zimbabwe, people are suffering. Their health, safety and dignity are jeopardized by a harsh assault on human rights in which, Zimbabwean citizens are subjected to state-sponsored intimidation, arbitrary and unlawful arrests, torture, and even murder. As people have been dying from starvation or lack of medical care, Zimbabwe’s authorities have focused their efforts on trying to silence human rights defenders who seek to call attention to the country’s deepening human rights crisis. Most recently, over twenty people, including Jestina Mukoko of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, were victims of enforced disappearances carried out by state security forces between October and December 2008. These human rights violations are happening in the context of a collapsed economy, food shortages, and a devastating cholera epidemic exacerbated by a paralyzed health system.
Knowing that they do so in great peril to themselves, human rights defenders continue to bravely fight for the respect and protection of human rights.
The members of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) mark Valentine’s Day by taking to the streets, peacefully spreading their message: “love of self, of family, of community and of country." This message is not always welcomed by the authorities, and WOZA members have been jailed on numerous accessions. This Valentine’s Day join with WOZA and all human rights defenders in Zimbabwe to show President Mugabe that love can conquer violence and repression.
Send Valentines to President Mugabe!
It’s fun and easy. You can make your own Valentines or purchase Valentines at the store. Include a short message asking President Mugabe to demonstrate his love and care for the people of Zimbabwe by protecting human rights. There are some suggested phrases below, but feel free to be creative.
Please send your completed Valentines to Amnesty International's Washington, DC office at the address below by February 28. They will then be compiled and mailed to President Robert Mugabe as well as Zimbabwe's Ambassador to the United States.
Please send Valentines to:
Ilona Kelly
Individuals at Risk Program
Amnesty International USA
600 Pennsylvania Ave., SE
Washington DC 20003
Sample Messages:
End the Harassment of Human Rights Defenders
Drop Charges Against WOZA Members, including Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu
Stop the Torture of Detainees
Love is the Greater Power
Protect Human Rights
Respect Human Rights
Free Human Rights Defender Jestina Mukoko
Give All Detainees Access to Lawyers
Valentine's Day is globally recognized as a day of love, typically marked with flowers, candy, and spending time with those who mean the most to us. For some, however, this Valentine’s Day will bring no respite from the hardship they face.
In Zimbabwe, people are suffering. Their health, safety and dignity are jeopardized by a harsh assault on human rights in which, Zimbabwean citizens are subjected to state-sponsored intimidation, arbitrary and unlawful arrests, torture, and even murder. As people have been dying from starvation or lack of medical care, Zimbabwe’s authorities have focused their efforts on trying to silence human rights defenders who seek to call attention to the country’s deepening human rights crisis. Most recently, over twenty people, including Jestina Mukoko of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, were victims of enforced disappearances carried out by state security forces between October and December 2008. These human rights violations are happening in the context of a collapsed economy, food shortages, and a devastating cholera epidemic exacerbated by a paralyzed health system.
Knowing that they do so in great peril to themselves, human rights defenders continue to bravely fight for the respect and protection of human rights.
The members of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) mark Valentine’s Day by taking to the streets, peacefully spreading their message: “love of self, of family, of community and of country." This message is not always welcomed by the authorities, and WOZA members have been jailed on numerous accessions. This Valentine’s Day join with WOZA and all human rights defenders in Zimbabwe to show President Mugabe that love can conquer violence and repression.
Send Valentines to President Mugabe!
It’s fun and easy. You can make your own Valentines or purchase Valentines at the store. Include a short message asking President Mugabe to demonstrate his love and care for the people of Zimbabwe by protecting human rights. There are some suggested phrases below, but feel free to be creative.
Please send your completed Valentines to Amnesty International's Washington, DC office at the address below by February 28. They will then be compiled and mailed to President Robert Mugabe as well as Zimbabwe's Ambassador to the United States.
Please send Valentines to:
Ilona Kelly
Individuals at Risk Program
Amnesty International USA
600 Pennsylvania Ave., SE
Washington DC 20003
Sample Messages:
End the Harassment of Human Rights Defenders
Drop Charges Against WOZA Members, including Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu
Stop the Torture of Detainees
Love is the Greater Power
Protect Human Rights
Respect Human Rights
Free Human Rights Defender Jestina Mukoko
Give All Detainees Access to Lawyers
Pope Condemns Holocaust Denial
By REUTERS
Published: February 12, 2009
Filed at 7:31 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/02/12/world/international-us-pope-jews-holocaust.html?hp
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict, trying to defuse a controversy over a bishop who denies the Holocaust, said Thursday "any denial or minimization of this terrible crime is intolerable," especially if it comes from a clergyman.
The pope also confirmed for the first time that he was planning to visit Israel. Vatican sources say the trip is expected for May. It would be the first by a pope since John Paul visited in 2000.
Benedict made the comments in his first meeting with Jews since the controversy over traditionalist Bishop Richard Williamson began in late January. Williamson denies the full extent of the Holocaust and says there were no gas chambers.
The pope told Jewish leaders: "The hatred and contempt for men, women and children that was manifested in the Shoah (Holocaust) was a crime against humanity. This should be clear to everyone, especially to those standing in the tradition of the Holy Scriptures ..."
The German pope recalled his own visit to the death camp at Auschwitz in 2006 and, in some of the strongest words he has ever spoken about the Holocaust and relations with Jews, said:
"It is my fervent prayer that the memory of this appalling crime will strengthen our determination to heal the wounds that for too long have sullied relations between Christians and Jews."
PRAYER FOR FORGIVENESS
He repeated the prayer that the late Pope John Paul used when he visited Jerusalem's Western Wall in 2000 and asked forgiveness from Jews for Christians who had persecuted them in past centuries.
Benedict then added in his own words: "I now make his prayer my own."
Catholic-Jewish relations have been extremely tense since January 24, when Benedict lifted excommunications of four renegade traditionalist bishops in an attempt to heal a schism that began in 1988 when they were ordained without Vatican permission.
Williamson, a member of the ultra-traditionalist Society of St Pius X (SSPX), told Swedish television in an interview broadcast on January 21: "I believe there were no gas chambers."
He said no more than 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps, rather than the 6 million accepted by most historians.
The Vatican has ordered him to recant but he so far has not done so, saying he needs more time to review the evidence.
"This terrible chapter in our history (the Holocaust) must never be forgotten," the Pope told the Jewish delegation from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
In his address to the pope, Rabbi Arther Schneier, who hosted the pontiff at his synagogue in New York last year, emotionally told the pontiff:
"As a Holocaust survivor, these have been painful and difficult days, when confronted with Holocaust-denial by no less than a bishop of the Society of St Pius X ....
"Victims of the Holocaust have not given us the right to forgive the perpetrators nor the Holocaust deniers. Thank you for understanding our pain and anguish ..."
Both the pope and Schneier expressed the hope that dialogue between Catholics and Jews could emerge from the crisis even stronger.
While the excommunications of the traditionalist bishops have been lifted, they and members of the SSPX will not be fully readmitted to the Church until they formally accept the teachings of the 1962-1965 Second Vatican Council.
One of that historic gathering's key documents was a declaration called "Nostra Aetate" (In Our Times). It repudiated the concept of collective Jewish guilt for Christ's death and urged dialogue with other religions.
(Editing by Diana Abdallah)
Published: February 12, 2009
Filed at 7:31 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/02/12/world/international-us-pope-jews-holocaust.html?hp
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict, trying to defuse a controversy over a bishop who denies the Holocaust, said Thursday "any denial or minimization of this terrible crime is intolerable," especially if it comes from a clergyman.
The pope also confirmed for the first time that he was planning to visit Israel. Vatican sources say the trip is expected for May. It would be the first by a pope since John Paul visited in 2000.
Benedict made the comments in his first meeting with Jews since the controversy over traditionalist Bishop Richard Williamson began in late January. Williamson denies the full extent of the Holocaust and says there were no gas chambers.
The pope told Jewish leaders: "The hatred and contempt for men, women and children that was manifested in the Shoah (Holocaust) was a crime against humanity. This should be clear to everyone, especially to those standing in the tradition of the Holy Scriptures ..."
The German pope recalled his own visit to the death camp at Auschwitz in 2006 and, in some of the strongest words he has ever spoken about the Holocaust and relations with Jews, said:
"It is my fervent prayer that the memory of this appalling crime will strengthen our determination to heal the wounds that for too long have sullied relations between Christians and Jews."
PRAYER FOR FORGIVENESS
He repeated the prayer that the late Pope John Paul used when he visited Jerusalem's Western Wall in 2000 and asked forgiveness from Jews for Christians who had persecuted them in past centuries.
Benedict then added in his own words: "I now make his prayer my own."
Catholic-Jewish relations have been extremely tense since January 24, when Benedict lifted excommunications of four renegade traditionalist bishops in an attempt to heal a schism that began in 1988 when they were ordained without Vatican permission.
Williamson, a member of the ultra-traditionalist Society of St Pius X (SSPX), told Swedish television in an interview broadcast on January 21: "I believe there were no gas chambers."
He said no more than 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps, rather than the 6 million accepted by most historians.
The Vatican has ordered him to recant but he so far has not done so, saying he needs more time to review the evidence.
"This terrible chapter in our history (the Holocaust) must never be forgotten," the Pope told the Jewish delegation from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
In his address to the pope, Rabbi Arther Schneier, who hosted the pontiff at his synagogue in New York last year, emotionally told the pontiff:
"As a Holocaust survivor, these have been painful and difficult days, when confronted with Holocaust-denial by no less than a bishop of the Society of St Pius X ....
"Victims of the Holocaust have not given us the right to forgive the perpetrators nor the Holocaust deniers. Thank you for understanding our pain and anguish ..."
Both the pope and Schneier expressed the hope that dialogue between Catholics and Jews could emerge from the crisis even stronger.
While the excommunications of the traditionalist bishops have been lifted, they and members of the SSPX will not be fully readmitted to the Church until they formally accept the teachings of the 1962-1965 Second Vatican Council.
One of that historic gathering's key documents was a declaration called "Nostra Aetate" (In Our Times). It repudiated the concept of collective Jewish guilt for Christ's death and urged dialogue with other religions.
(Editing by Diana Abdallah)
03 February 2009
U.S. Bombs Used in Raid Against Gaza Strip
Hours before Israel announced a ceasefire, an Amnesty International fact finding mission gained access to Gaza. Their initial reports are disturbing: the team found first hand evidence of war crimes, serious violations of international law and possible crimes against humanity by all parties to the conflict.
AI researchers continue investigating attacks against southern Israel and are currently documenting the true scale of devastation wrought on civilians in Gaza. The stories they report are harrowing.
In the early afternoon of January 4th, three young paramedics walked through a field on a rescue mission to save a group of wounded men in a nearby orchard. A 12-year-old boy, standing by his house, assisted the operation by pointing to where the men could be found. An Israeli air strike on the area killed all four.
The bodies of the four victims could not be retrieved for two days. Ambulance crews who tried to approach the site came under fire from Israeli forces.
Our researchers later traveled to the scene of the strike with the two ambulance drivers who witnessed the attack. They met with the boy’s distraught mother and found the remains of the missile. The label of the missile read, “guided missile, surface attack” and cited the United States as the country of origin.
This is just one of many similar stories.
Under the Geneva Conventions, medical personnel searching, collecting, transporting or treating the wounded must be protected and respected in all circumstances. Clearly, this was not the case on Jan. 4th.
Since we last communicated with you, more than 87,000 of you have written Congress and former administration officials. These emails, along with the massive outpouring of letters from around the world from other Amnesty sections, are making an impact. Just this week:
~The United Nations pledged $613 million in aid for Gaza
~60 members of Congress signed a letter to Secretary of State Hillary of Clinton ~Calling for humanitarian support for Gaza
~And hours ago, the US pledged $20 million in aid1-2
We have a small window of opportunity to build on this momentum: urge Secretary Clinton and Ambassador Susan Rice to push for a full-fledged independent investigation.
This investigation is critical for many reasons, not the least of which is the clear evidence of the use of white phosphorous, as well as the mounting evidence of the misuse of US arms3. As you read this, Amnesty researchers continue documenting the use of arms, and we expect an action specifically calling on Congress to investigate the misuse of US weapons in this conflict in the coming weeks.
Everyone is responsible for the protection of international law. The US government must not turn a blind eye to possible war crimes and crimes against humanity. It should support an independent international inquiry by the United Nations into allegations of violations of international humanitarian and human rights law - by all groups participating in the conflict.
The story of the paramedics and the young boy is not an anomaly. Write Secretary Clinton and Ambassador Rice today and urge accountability for abuses in Gaza and southern Israel now.
Thank you for your continuing support,
Zahir Janmohamed
Advocacy Director
Middle East and North Africa
P.S. For comprehensive information on the conflict, go to www.amnestyusa.org/gaza. For late breaking updates, visit our blog, Human Rights Now. For organizing resources on the conflict, visit the Gaza Resources page.
AI researchers continue investigating attacks against southern Israel and are currently documenting the true scale of devastation wrought on civilians in Gaza. The stories they report are harrowing.
In the early afternoon of January 4th, three young paramedics walked through a field on a rescue mission to save a group of wounded men in a nearby orchard. A 12-year-old boy, standing by his house, assisted the operation by pointing to where the men could be found. An Israeli air strike on the area killed all four.
The bodies of the four victims could not be retrieved for two days. Ambulance crews who tried to approach the site came under fire from Israeli forces.
Our researchers later traveled to the scene of the strike with the two ambulance drivers who witnessed the attack. They met with the boy’s distraught mother and found the remains of the missile. The label of the missile read, “guided missile, surface attack” and cited the United States as the country of origin.
This is just one of many similar stories.
Under the Geneva Conventions, medical personnel searching, collecting, transporting or treating the wounded must be protected and respected in all circumstances. Clearly, this was not the case on Jan. 4th.
Since we last communicated with you, more than 87,000 of you have written Congress and former administration officials. These emails, along with the massive outpouring of letters from around the world from other Amnesty sections, are making an impact. Just this week:
~The United Nations pledged $613 million in aid for Gaza
~60 members of Congress signed a letter to Secretary of State Hillary of Clinton ~Calling for humanitarian support for Gaza
~And hours ago, the US pledged $20 million in aid1-2
We have a small window of opportunity to build on this momentum: urge Secretary Clinton and Ambassador Susan Rice to push for a full-fledged independent investigation.
This investigation is critical for many reasons, not the least of which is the clear evidence of the use of white phosphorous, as well as the mounting evidence of the misuse of US arms3. As you read this, Amnesty researchers continue documenting the use of arms, and we expect an action specifically calling on Congress to investigate the misuse of US weapons in this conflict in the coming weeks.
Everyone is responsible for the protection of international law. The US government must not turn a blind eye to possible war crimes and crimes against humanity. It should support an independent international inquiry by the United Nations into allegations of violations of international humanitarian and human rights law - by all groups participating in the conflict.
The story of the paramedics and the young boy is not an anomaly. Write Secretary Clinton and Ambassador Rice today and urge accountability for abuses in Gaza and southern Israel now.
Thank you for your continuing support,
Zahir Janmohamed
Advocacy Director
Middle East and North Africa
P.S. For comprehensive information on the conflict, go to www.amnestyusa.org/gaza. For late breaking updates, visit our blog, Human Rights Now. For organizing resources on the conflict, visit the Gaza Resources page.
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