[Newspoetry] Jimmy Carter dies at Guantanamo Bay

[William Gillespie]

Havana (Associated Poets) US authorities have reported that former US
President Jimmy Carter, one of the detainees being held by the military
for interrogation at the Guantanamo Bay Navy base in Cuba, has died.
Almost nothing is known about why he was detained or the circumstances
surrounding his death.

Carter was apprehended during a visit to Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace
Prize. The honor clearly elated him. He traveled to Norway with about 80
friends and relatives, and he beamed as trumpet blasts heralded his
arrival in the grand auditorium of Oslo City Hall, bedecked with yellow
and orange flowers. After the American soprano Jessye Norman sang several
songs in his honor, Carter silently blew her a kiss. Then he was escorted
into a C-17 transport jet by special forces. Hooded and shackled, drugged
into submission, bound hand and foot, wearing blacked-out goggles which
covered his face from view and prevented him from seeing anything during
the trip, Jimmy Carter was chained into his seat throughout a 12-hour
flight from Oslo to the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The whole operation was conducted as though Carter represented an imminent
threat of insurrection. Humvees equipped with machineguns and grenade
launchers surrounded the transport plane after it landed. Forty Marine MPs
with rifles and riot gear stood by, while a Navy helicopter hovered
overhead.

A terse official statement explained that a former US president in his 70s
had been captured in Switzerland (sic) during the previous week. He died,
allegedly from natural causes, at around 1 PM on December 13 after being
taken to the base hospital. "The matter will be fully investigated," the
statement added.

Citing US military regulations, spokesman Colonel Roger King refused to
state the reasons for Carter's detention. It is not even clear whether
Jimmy Carter's family and friends have been notified of his death.

The detention building has remained off limits to journalists, but
released detainees have described being held in barbed-wire pens inside
the large building, often exposed to the tropical storms, under constant
electric light. Some have complained of beatings or injuries received when
they were captured. Carter was subject to continual verbal abuse and
taunts as well as death threats. He was malnourished, and sick from an
allergic reaction to cured reindeer meat and cloudberries served at the
traditional Norwegian banquet. Carter also reportedly had a bullet wound
in his leg. He was deliberately kept in this state until he agreed to
answer questions. During the first two days of his detention in Camp
Rhino, he was blindfolded, stripped naked, bound to a stretcher and then
placed inside a metal shipping container without heating or insulation. He
received only limited food and medical attention.

It appears, however, that the interrogation regime at Bagram Air Base is
even more aggressive than that at Guantanamo. According to an October 29
article in the Washington Post, "Because Guantanamo is so close to the
United States and is continually being visited by US and foreign
officials, informed sources said, the camp operates in more of an
atmosphere of 'political correctness' than does the Bagram facility-a
sense among interrogators that they must not allow detainees an opening to
complain of mistreatment." At Bagram, which operates in "more of a
frontier atmosphere", interrogators feel no such constraint. No one is
permitted inside the facility. Other than an occasional visit by the
international Red Cross, there is no check on the treatment of prisoners.

Similar methods are being used in Kabul.

What ordeals Carter suffered remains a matter of speculation. More
information may be forthcoming. What is certain, however, is that the Bush
administration and the US intelligence apparatus are responsible for
depriving him of his freedom and basic democratic rights, and subjecting
him to a system of interrogation, and possibly torture, that appears to
have directly contributed to his death.

Neither the New York Times nor other media outlets have reported the death
or criticized the treatment being meted out to alleged terrorist suspects,
even decorated statesmen, in breach of their most basic democratic rights.
A former president can be detained indefinitely without charge and die in
unexplained circumstances, and the media, including the so-called liberal
New York Times, passes over the matter in silence.