The Terrible Guantanamo Bay

The intersection between criminal justice and human rights is found in the war on terror and eminent US lawyer James Harrington offers an exclusive look at the frontline of this matter. He has been practicing in the field of law for 46 years, with his most recent work being in Guantanamo Bay representing detainees. His current client is Ramzi Bin Al-Shibh, a forty-three year old from Yemen who served as a crucial link between hijacker Mohamed Atta and Osama Bin Laden during the attacks of 9/11. Al-Shibh was originally intended to be one of the lead pilots alongside Mohamed, before failing in his multiple attempts to acquire an American visa.

Approximately a year after the attacks, the Yemeni native was apprehended and from there spent four years moving between what are known as “black sites”, places notorious for the attainment of information in a less than civilized manner. There are now civil claims regarding the treatment of detainees at these facilities in front of the European Court of Human Rights. So far, two claimants have received compensation to the amount of £100,000 each.

In September 2006 Ramzi found himself a permanent resident at Guantanamo Bay as a high value detainee with thirteen others. After 9/11, detainees were initially kept handcuffed in makeshift cages in what is known as Camp X-Ray. Harrington describes the experience of seeing these “facilities” as evoking a feeling similar to the emotional experience of visiting Auschwitz.

He explains that the time spent with his client can, as expected, be tense and gruelling. Sometimes they spend 6 hours a day together for three to four days in a row. As he says himself: “It’s tough to be with someone for that amount of time.”

Not only do difficulties arise with human interaction, but they face the unsettling burden of constantly being watched, even when they should have privacy. Case in point – one day James googled the name on a fire detector in the room in which he and Al-Shibh were speaking privately, only to find that the company listed built listening devices. When they raised the issue in court they were provided a look at the control room and it was shown that there was no sound, only visuals. The device was however demonstrated to have the ability to zoom and read the fine print on the water bottle the defence left in the room to test. They have since taken to communicating via whiteboard messages. “We realistically know we are being watched,” Harrington concedes.

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