Father Daniel Berrigan once said that "writing about prisoners is a little like writing about the dead." I think what he meant is that we treat prisoners as ghosts. They're unseen and unheard. It's easy to simply ignore them and it's even easier when the government goes to great lengths to keep them hidden.
Svećenik Daniel Berrigan je rekao da je "pisanje o zatvorenicima pomalo poput pisanja o mrtvima." Htio je, mislim, reći da sa zatvorenicima postupamo kao s duhovima. Nevidljivi su i nečujni. Lako ih je ignorirati i još je lakše kad se vlada silno trudi da ih sakrije.
As a journalist, I think these stories of what people in power do when no one is watching, are precisely the stories that we need to tell. That's why I began investigating the most secretive and experimental prison units in the United States, for so-called "second-tier" terrorists. The government calls these units Communications Management Units or CMUs. Prisoners and guards call them "Little Guantanamo." They are islands unto themselves. But unlike Gitmo they exist right here, at home, floating within larger federal prisons.
Kao novinar smatram da su te priče o tome što moćnici rade dok ih nitko ne gleda upravo one priče koje trebamo ispričati. Zato sam počeo istraživati najtajnije i najeksperimentalnije zatvorske jedinice u Sjedinjenim Državama, za tzv. teroriste "drugog reda". Vlada te jedinice naziva Jedinicama za upravljanje komunikacijama ili JUK. Zatvorenici i stražari ih zovu "Mali Guantanamo." Oni su otoci unutar samih sebe. No za razliku od Guantanama, oni se nalaze ovdje, kod kuće, plutaju unutar većih federalnih zatvora.
There are 2 CMUs. One was opened inside the prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, and the other is inside this prison, in Marion, Illinois. Neither of them underwent the formal review process that is required by law when they were opened. CMU prisoners have all been convicted of crimes. Some of their cases are questionable and some involve threats and violence. I'm not here to argue the guilt or innocence of any prisoner. I'm here because as Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall said, "When the prisons and gates slam shut, prisoners do not lose their human quality."
Postoje 2 JUK-a. Jedan je otvoren unutar zatvora u Terre Haute u Indiani, a drugi se nalazi u ovom zatvoru u Marionu u Illinoisu. Ni jedan nije prošao kroz službeni postupak provjere što je zakonom obvezno, kad su otvoreni. Zatvorenici u JUK-u su redom osuđeni za zločine. Neki od njihovih slučajeva su upitni, a neki uključuju prijetnje i nasilje. Nisam tu da dokažem krivnju ili nevinost ikojeg zatvorenika. Tu sam jer, kao što je rekao sudac Vrhovnog suda Thurgood Marshall: "Kad se zalupe vrata zatvora zatvorenici ne gube svoje ljudske osobine."
Every prisoner I've interviewed has said there are three flecks of light in the darkness of prison: phone calls, letters and visits from family. CMUs aren't solitary confinement, but they radically restrict all of these to levels that meet or exceed the most extreme prisons in the United States. Their phone calls can be limited to 45 minutes a month, compared to the 300 minutes other prisoners receive. Their letters can be limited to six pieces of paper. Their visits can be limited to four hours per month, compared to the 35 hours that people like Olympic Park bomber Eric Rudolph receive in the supermax. On top of that, CMU visits are non-contact which means prisoners are not allowed to even hug their family. As one CMU prisoner said, "We're not being tortured here, except psychologically."
Svaki zatvorenik kojeg sam intervjuirao je rekao da postoje tri točkice svjetlosti u zatvorskom mraku: telefonski pozivi, pisma i posjete obitelji. JUK-ovi nisu samice, ali oni radikalno ograničavaju sve troje do te mjere da se izjednačuju sa ili premašuju najekstremnije zatvore u SAD-u. Telefonski razgovori im mogu biti ograničeni na 45 minuta mjesečno, u usporedbi s 300 minuta koje dobivaju drugi zatvorenici. Pisma im mogu biti ograničena na šest komada papira. Posjete im mogu ograničiti na četiri sata mjesečno, u usporedbi s 35 sati koje osobe poput Erica Rudolpha, bombaša na Olympic Park dobivaju u najsigurnijim zatvorima. Povrh toga, u posjeti je zabranjen kontakt što znači da zatvorenici ne smiju niti zagrliti svoju obitelj. Kao što je rekao jedan zatvorenik u JUK-u, "Ne muče nas ovdje, osim psihički."
The government won't say who is imprisoned here. But through court documents, open records requests and interviews with current and former prisoners, some small windows into the CMUs have opened.
Vlada ne želi reći tko je ovdje zatvoren. Ali uz pomoć sudskih dokumenata, zahtjeva za objavljivanje sudskih spisa i intervjua s trenutnim i bivšim zatvorenicima, otvorili su se neki mali prozori u JUK-ove.
There's an estimated 60 to 70 prisoners here, and they're overwhelmingly Muslim. They include people like Dr. Rafil Dhafir, who violated the economic sanctions on Iraq by sending medical supplies for the children there. They've included people like Yassin Aref. Aref and his family fled to New York from Saddam Hussein's Iraq as refugees. He was arrested in 2004 as part of an FBI sting. Aref is an imam and he was asked to bear witness to a loan, which is a tradition in Islamic culture. It turned out that one of the people involved in the loan was trying to enlist someone else in a fake attack. Aref didn't know. For that, he was convicted of conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist group.
Procjenjuje se da se tamo nalazi 60-70 zatvorenika, i ogroman dio njih su muslimani. uključujući ljude poput dr. Rafil Dhafira koji je prekršio ekonomske sankcije Iraku slanjem zaliha lijekova za tamošnju djecu. Uključujući ljude poput Yassina Arefa. Aref i njegova obitelji su pobjegli u New York iz Sadamovog Iraka, kao izbjeglice. Uhićen je 2004. u sklopu operacije FBI-ja. Aref je imam kojeg su zatražili da posvjedoči posudbi, što je tradicija u islamskoj kulturi. Ispalo je da je jedan od uključenih u posudbi pokušavao regrutirati nekog drugog u lažan napad. Aref za to nije znao. Radi toga je osuđen zbog urote za pružanje materijalne potpore terorističkoj skupini.
The CMUs also include some non-Muslim prisoners. The guards call them "balancers," meaning they help balance out the racial numbers, in hopes of deflecting law suits. These balancers include animal rights and environmental activists like Daniel McGowan.
JUK-ovi uključuju i zatvorenike koji nisu muslimani. Stražari ih zovu "balanserima" jer niveliraju razlike u broju pripadnika rasnih skupina, čime se nastoje izbjeći sudske tužbe. Ti balanseri uključuju aktiviste za prava životinja i za očuvanje okoliša poput Daniela McGowana.
McGowan was convicted of participating in two arsons in the name of defending the environment as part of the Earth Liberation Front. During his sentencing, he was afraid that he would be sent to a rumored secret prison for terrorists. The judge dismissed all those fears, saying that they weren't supported by any facts. But that might be because the government hasn't fully explained why some prisoners end up in a CMU, and who is responsible for these decisions. When McGowan was transferred, he was told it's because he is a "domestic terrorist," a term the FBI uses repeatedly when talking about environmental activists. Now, keep in mind there are about 400 prisoners in US prisons who are classified as terrorists, and only a handful of them are in the CMUs. In McGowan's case, he was previously at a low-security prison and he had no communications violations.
McGowan je osuđen radi sudjelovanja u podmetanju dvaju požara u ime zaštite okoliša kao član Fronte za oslobođenje Zemlje. Tijekom izricanja kazne bojao se da će ga poslati u tajni zatvor za teroriste o kojem je čuo priče. Sudac je odbacio sve te strahove rekavši da te priče nemaju uporišta u činjenicama. Ali to bi moglo biti zato što vlada nije u potpunosti objasnila zašto neki zatvorenici završe u JUK-u, niti tko odlučuje o tome. McGowana su premjestili objasnivši mu da je to zato što je "domaći terorist," pojam koji FBI učestalo koristi kad je riječ o aktivistima za očuvanje okoliša Imajte na umu da se u Američkim zatvorima nalazi oko 400 zatvorenika koji su označeni kao teroristi, a tek ih je šačica u JUK-ima. Što se tiče McGowana, on je prethodno bio u zatvoru poluotvorenog tipa i nije počinio nikakav komunikacijski prekršaj.
So, why was he moved? Like other CMU prisoners, McGowan repeatedly asked for an answer, a hearing, or some opportunity for an appeal. This example from another prisoner shows how those requests are viewed. "Wants a transfer." "Told him no." At one point, the prison warden himself recommended McGowan's transfer out of the CMU citing his good behavior, but the warden was overruled by the Bureau of Prison's Counterterrorism Unit, working with the Joint Terrorism Task Force of the FBI.
I zašto je onda prebačen? Poput drugih JUK zatvorenika McGowan je opetovano zahtjevao odgovor, saslušanje ili neku priliku za žalbom. Ovaj primjer od jednog drugog zatvorenika pokazuje kako se ti zahtjevi razmatraju. "Hoće premještaj." "Rekli mu ne." Jednom je i sam zatvorski upravitelj preporučio McGowana za premještaj iz JUK-a radi dobrog ponašanja, ali je upravitelja nadglasao Ured zatvorske protuterorističke jedinice, u suradnji s Ujedinjenom radnom skupinom FBI-ja protiv terorizma.
Later I found out that McGowan was really sent to a CMU not because of what he did, but what he has said. A memo from the Counterterrorism Unit cited McGowan's "anti-government beliefs." While imprisoned, he continued writing about environmental issues, saying that activists must reflect on their mistakes and listen to each other. Now, in fairness, if you've spent any time at all in Washington, DC, you know this is really a radical concept for the government.
Kasnije sam saznao da je McGowan zapravo poslan u JUK ne zbog onoga što je učinio, nego zbog onoga što je rekao. Dopis Protuterorističke jedinice navodi njegova "protuvladina uvjerenja." U zatvoreništvu je nastavio pisati o okolišnim problemima, tvrdeći da aktivisti moraju promišljati o svojim greškama i slušati jedni druge. Sad, iskreno, ako ste imalo vremena proveli u Washingtonu, DC, onda znate da je za vladu taj koncept zbilja radikalan.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
I actually asked to visit McGowan in the CMU. And I was approved. That came as quite a shock. First, because as I've discussed on this stage before, I learned that the FBI has been monitoring my work. Second, because it would make me the first and only journalist to visit a CMU. I had even learned through the Bureau of Prisons Counterterrorism Unit, that they had been monitoring my speeches about CMUs, like this one. So how could I possibly be approved to visit? A few days before I went out to the prison, I got an answer.
Zatražio sam dozvolu da posjetim McGowana u JUK. I dobio sam je. Prilično me to šokiralo. Prvo, zato što sam, kao što sam već ranije rekao na ovoj pozornici, saznao da FBI prati moj rad. Drugo, zato što bih time postao prvi i jedini novinar koji je posjetio JUK. Saznao sam čak kroz Protuterorističku jedinicu Uprave za zatvorski sustav da su bili pratili moje govore o JUK-ima, poput ovoga. Kako je onda moguće da mi je odobren posjet? Nekoliko dana prije nego li sam posjetio zatvor, dobio sam odgovor.
I was allowed to visit McGowan as a friend, not a journalist. Journalists are not allowed here. McGowan was told by CMU officials that if I asked any questions or published any story, that he would be punished for my reporting. When I arrived for our visit, the guards reminded me that they knew who I was and knew about my work. And they said that if I attempted to interview McGowan, the visit would be terminated. The Bureau of Prisons describes CMUs as "self-contained housing units." But I think that's an Orwellian way of describing black holes. When you visit a CMU, you go through all the security checkpoints that you would expect. But then the walk to the visitation room is silent. When a CMU prisoner has a visit, the rest of the prison is on lockdown. I was ushered into a small room, so small my outstretched arms could touch each wall. There was a grapefruit-sized orb in the ceiling for the visit to be live-monitored by the Counterterrorism Unit in West Virginia. The unit insists that all the visits have to be in English for CMU prisoners, which is an additional hardship for many of the Muslim families. There is a thick sheet of foggy, bulletproof glass and on the other side was Daniel McGowan. We spoke through these handsets attached to the wall and talked about books and movies. We did our best to find reasons to laugh. To fight boredom and amuse himself while in the CMU, McGowan had been spreading a rumor that I was secretly the president of a Twilight fan club in Washington, DC
Dozvoljeno mi je da posjetim McGowana kao prijatelj, a ne kao novinar. Novinarima je pristup zabranjen. Službenici JUK-a su rekli McGowanu da će budem li postavljao ikakva pitanja ili objavio ikakvu priču ga kazniti zbog mog izvještavanja. Kad sam stigao u posjetu stražari su me podsjetili da znaju tko sam i što radim. I rekli su da će, ako pokušam intervjuirati McGowana, okončati posjet. Uprava za zatvorski sustav opisuje JUK-ove kao "samostalne smještajne jedinice." Meni se čini da je to orvelovski način opisivanja crnih rupa. Kad posjetite JUK, idete kroz sve sigurnosne kontrolne točke koje biste i očekivali. Ali je hod do sobe za posjete tih. Kad zatvorenik u JUK-u ima posjetu, ostatak zatvora je u blokadi. Uveli su me u sobičak, tako malen da sam rukama mogao doseći oba zida. Na stropu se nalazila kugla veličine grejpa putem koje je posjetu uživo nadzirala Protuteroristička jedinica u Zapadnoj Virginiji. Jedinica inzistira na tome da svi posjeti JUK zatvorenicima moraju biti na engleskom što je dodatno otežavajuće za mnoge muslimanske obitelji. Iza debelog, mutnog stakla otpornog na metke, nalazio se Daniel McGowan. Razgovarali smo preko slušalica pričvršćenih za zid i raspravljali o knjigama i filmovima. Trudili smo se najbolje što smo mogli da nađemo razloge za smijeh. Kako bi ubio dosadu i zabavio se dok je u JUK-u, McGowan je širio glasinu da sam tajni predsjednik fan kluba Sumraka u Washingtonu, DC
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
For the record, I'm not.
Nisam, čisto da se zna.
(Laughter) But I kind of the hope the FBI now thinks that Bella and Edward are terrorist code names.
(Smijeh) Ali se nekako nadam da FBI sad misli da su Bella i Edward teroristička kodna imena.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
During our visit, McGowan spoke most and at length about his niece Lily, his wife Jenny and how torturous it feels to never be able to hug them, to never be able to hold their hands. Three months after our visit, McGowan was transferred out of the CMU and then, without warning, he was sent back again. I had published leaked CMU documents on my website and the Counterterrorism Unit said that McGowan had called his wife and asked her to mail them. He wanted to see what the government was saying about him, and for that he was sent back to the CMU. When he was finally released at the end of his sentence, his story got even more Kafkaesque. He wrote an article for the Huffington Post headlined, "Court Documents Prove I was Sent to a CMU for my Political Speech."
Tijekom posjete McGowan je najviše i opširno pričao o svojoj nećakinji Lily, o svojoj supruzi Jenny i tome kako je mučno što ih nikad ne može zagrliti, što ih nikad ne može držati za ruke. Tri mjeseca nakon našeg posjeta, McGowana su prebacili iz JUK-a i zatim, bez upozorenja poslali natrag. Na svojoj web stranici sam bio objavio dokumente od JUK-a koji su iscurili i Protuteroristička jedinica je rekla da je McGowan nazvao suprugu i zamolio je da mu ih pošalje. Htio je vidjeti što vlada govori o njemu, i zbog toga su ga poslali natrag u JUK. Kad je napokon pušten, nakon odsluženja kazne njegova je priča postala još kafkijanskija. Napisao je članak za Huffington Post pod naslovom "Sudski dokumenti dokazuju da sam poslan u JUK zbog svog političkog govora."
The next day he was thrown back in jail for his political speech. His attorneys quickly secured his release, but the message was very clear: Don't talk about this place.
Sljedeći dan je bačen natrag u zatvor zbog političkog govora. Odvjetnici su hitno osigurali puštanje, ali je poruka bila vrlo jasna: Nemoj pričati o ovom mjestu.
Today, nine years after they were opened by the Bush administration, the government is codifying how and why CMUs were created. According to the Bureau of Prisons, they are for prisoners with "inspirational significance." I think that is very nice way of saying these are political prisons for political prisoners.
Danas, devet godina nakon što ih je Busheva administracija otvorila, vlada kodificira kako i zašto su JUK-ovi stvoreni. Prema Upravi za zatvorski sustav, namijenjeni su zatvorenicima "inspirativne važnosti." Smatram da je to jako lijep izraz za političke zatvore za političke zatvorenike.
Prisoners are sent to a CMU because of their race, their religion or their political beliefs.
Zatvorenike se šalje u JUK zbog njihove rase, religije ili političkih uvjerenja.
Now, if you think that characterization is too strong, just look at some of the government's own documents. When some of McGowan's mail was rejected by the CMU, the sender was told it's because the letters were intended "for political prisoners." When another prisoner, animal rights activist Andy Stepanian, was sent to a CMU, it was because of his anti-government and anti-corporate views.
E sad, ako mislite da je takvo obilježavanje prejako, samo pogledajte neke od vladinih dokumenata. Kad je JUK odbio neka McGowanova pisma, pošiljatelju je objašnjeno da je to stoga što su pisma bila namijenjena "političkim zatvorenicima." Kad je drugi zatvorenik, aktivist za prava životinja Andy Stepanian poslan u JUK, to je bilo zbog njegovih stajališta protiv vlade i korporacija.
Now, I know all of this may be hard to believe, that it's happening right now, and in the United States. But the unknown reality is that the US has a dark history of disproportionately punishing people because of their political beliefs. In the 1960s, before Marion was home to the CMU, it was home to the notorious Control Unit. Prisoners were locked down in solitary for 22 hours a day. The warden said the unit was to "control revolutionary attitudes." In the 1980s, another experiment called the Lexington High Security Unit held women connected to the Weather Underground, Black Liberation and Puerto Rican independent struggles. The prison radically restricted communication and used sleep deprivation, and constant light for so-called "ideological conversion." Those prisons were eventually shut down, but only through the campaigning of religious groups and human rights advocates, like Amnesty International.
Znam da je možda teško vjerovati svemu ovome, da se to događa upravo sada. i to u Sjedinjenim Državama. Ali nepoznata stvarnost je da SAD ima mračnu povijest nesrazmjernog kažnjavanja ljudi zbog njihovih političkih uvjerenja. Za vrijeme 60-ih, prije nego je Marion postao dom JUK-u, bio je dom zloglasne Kontrolne jedinice. Zatvorenici su bili zatvoreni u samicama 22 sata dnevno. Upravitelj je rekao da je jedinica služila "kontroliranju revolucionarnih stavova." Tijekom 80-ih, drugi eksperiment zvan Leksingtonška jedinica za visoku sigurnost držao je žene povezane s Weather Underground, Black Liberation i borbama za nezavisnost Portorika. Taj zatvor je radikalno ograničavao komunikaciju i služio se uskraćivanjem sna i neprestanim osvjetljenjem radi tzv. "ideološke preobrazbe." Ti su zatvori s vremenom zatvoreni, ali isključivo zahvaljujući borbi religijskih grupa i zagovornika ljudskih prava poput Amnesty Internationala.
Today, civil rights lawyers with the Center for Constitutional Rights are challenging CMUs in court for depriving prisoners of their due process rights and for retaliating against them for their protected political and religious speech. Many of these documents would have never come to light without this lawsuit.
Danas, odvjetnici za građanska prava iz Centra za ustavna prava osporavaju JUK na sudu zbog uskraćivanja prava zatvorenika na pravični postupak i zato što im se osvećuju zbog njihovih zaštićenih političkih i religijskih govora. Mnogi od ovih dokumenata ne bi izašli na vidjelo da nije bilo ove tužbe.
The message of these groups and my message for you today is that we must bear witness to what is being done to these prisoners. Their treatment is a reflection of the values held beyond prison walls. This story is not just about prisoners. It is about us. It is about our own commitment to human rights. It is about whether we will choose to stop repeating the mistakes of our past. If we don't listen to what Father Berrigan described as the stories of the dead, they will soon become the stories of ourselves.
Poruka ovih grupa i moja poruka vama danas je da moramo biti svjedocima nepravde nad ovim zatvorenicima. Odnos prema njima odraz je vrijednosti izvan zatvorskih zidova. Ova priča nije samo o zatvorenicima. To je priča o nama. O našoj predanosti ljudskim pravima. O tome hoćemo li odlučiti ne ponavljati pogreške iz prošlosti. Ne budemo li slušali ono što je svećenik Berrigan opisao kao priče o mrtvima, one će uskoro postati priče o nama.
Thank you.
Hvala.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)
(Applause ends)
(Pljesak završava)
Tom Rielly: I have a couple questions. When I was in high school, I learned about the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, freedom of speech, due process and about 25 other laws and rights that seem to be violated by this. How could this possibly be happening?
Tom Rielly: Imam nekoliko pitanja. U srednjoj školi sam učio o Povelji o pravima, ustavu, slobodi govora, pravičnom postupku i oko 25 drugih zakona i prava koji se, izgleda, ovime krše. Kako je moguće da se to događa?
Will Potter: I think that's the number one question I get throughout all of my work, and the short answer is that people don't know. I think the solution to any of these types of situations, any rights abuses, are really dependent on two things. They're dependent on knowledge that it's actually happening and then a means and efficacy to actually make a change. And unfortunately with these prisoners, one, people don't know what's happening at all and then they're already disenfranchised populations who don't have access to attorneys, not native English speakers. In some of these cases, they have great representation that I mentioned, but there's just not a public awareness of what's happening.
Will Potter: To je, mislim, glavno pitanje koje me pitaju kroz čitav moj rad, i kratki odgovor je da ljudi ne znaju. Mislim da rješenje za svaku ovakvu situaciju, svako kršenje prava ovisi o dvjema stvarima. Ovisi o znanju da se to doista događa i o sredstvima i učinkovitosti u stvaranju promjene. A nažalost, što se tiče ovih zatvorenika, prvo, ljudi uopće ne znaju to se događa a još su iz već obespravljenih populacija koje nemaju pristupa odvjetnicima engleski im nije materinji jezik. U nekim od ovih slučajeva imaju odlično zastupanje koje sam spomenuo ali jednostavno nema svijesti u javnosti o tome što se događa.
TR: Isn't it guaranteed in prison that you have right to council or access to council?
TR: Nije li u zatvoru zajamčeno pravo na odvjetnika ili pristup odvjetniku?
WP: There's a tendency in our culture to see when people have been convicted of a crime, no matter if that charge was bogus or legitimate, that whatever happens to them after that is warranted. And I think that's a really damaging and dangerous narrative that we have, that allows these types of things to happen, as the general public just kind of turns a blind eye to it.
WP: U našoj kulturi postoji sklonost da kad se ljude osudi za neki zločin, bilo da se radi o lažnoj ili legitimnoj optužbi štogod im se nakon toga dogodi je zasluženo. I smatram da je jako štetan i opasan taj naš narativ koji omogućuje da se ovakve stvari događaju, budući da opća javnost jednostavno samo zažmiri pred njima.
TR: All those documents on screen were all real documents, word for word, unchanged at all, right?
TR: Svi ovi dokumenti na zaslonu su stvarni dokumenti, od riječi do riječi, potpuno nepromijenjeni, je l'?
WP: Absolutely. I've actually uploaded all of them to my website. It's willpotter.com/CMU and it's a footnoted version of the talk, so you can see the documents for yourself without the little snippets. You can see the full version. I relied overwhelmingly on primary source documents or on primary interviews with former and current prisoners, with people that are dealing with this situation every day. And like I said, I've been there myself, as well.
WP: Apsolutno. Čak sam ih sve i stavio na svoju web stranicu. Zove se willpotter.com/CMU, i nalaze se u fusnotama ovog govora, pa možete sami pogledati dokumente bez isječaka. Možete vidjeti punu verziju. U ogromnoj mjeri sam se oslanjao na dokumente iz primarnih izvora ili na primarne intervjue s bivšim i sadašnjim zatvorenicima, s ljudima koji se svakodnevno nose s ovom situacijom. I, kao što rekoh, bio sam osobno tamo.
TR: You're doing courageous work.
TR: Činite zaista hrabro djelo.
WP: Thank you very much. Thank you all.
WP: Puno vam hvala. Hvala svima.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)