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.
Otac Danijel Berigan jednom je rekao da je "pisanje o zatvorenicima malo nalik pisanju o mrtvima." Mislim da je hteo da kaže da zatvorenike tretiramo kao duhove. Oni se ne vide i ne čuju. Lako je jednostavno ih ignorisati i čak je i lakše kada se vlada veoma trudi da ih drži skrivenima.
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, mislim da su te priče o tome šta ljudi na vlasti rade kada niko ne gleda, upravo one koje moramo da pričamo. Zato sam počeo da istražujem najtajnije i najeksperimentalnije zatvorske jedinice u Sjedinjenim Državama, za takozvane teroriste "drugog reda". Vlada ove jedinice naziva Jedinicama za upravljanje komunikacijama, JUK. Zatvorenici i čuvari zovu ih "Mali Gvantanamo". One su ostrva za sebe. Ali za razliku od Gvantanama, one se nalaze ovde, 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 dva JUK-a. Jedna je otvorena unutar zatvora u Tera Hotu, Indijana, a druga je u ovom zatvoru, u Merionu, Ilinois. Kada su otvarane, nijedna nije prošla kroz formalni proces procene koji zahteva zakon. Svi zatvorenici JUK-a su osuđeni za zločine. Neki od tih slučajeva su sumnjivi, a neki uključuju pretnje i nasilje. Nisam ovde da raspravljam o krivici ili nevinosti bilo kog zatvorenika. Ovde sam jer je sudija Vrhovnog suda, Turgud Maršal, rekao: "Kada se zatvori i kapije s treskom zatvore, zatvorenici ne gube svoju ljudskost."
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 kog sam intervjuisao rekao je da u tami zatvora, postoje tri zraka svetlosti: telefonski pozivi, pisma i porodične posete. JUK nisu samice, ali ovo je strogo orgraničeno na nivo koji je blizak ili strožiji od većine ekstremnih zatvora u SAD. Telefonski pozivi ograničeni su na 45 minuta mesečno, u poređenju sa 300 minuta koje imaju ostali zatvorenici. Pisma mogu biti ograničena na 6 listova papira. Posete mogu biti ograničene na četiri sata mesečno, u poređenju sa 35 koje imaju oni poput bombaša Olimpijskog parka, Erika Rudolfa, u zatvoru sa maksimalnim obezbeđenjem. Povrh svega, posete u JUK su beskontaktne, što znači da zatvorenicima nije dozvoljeno čak ni zagrle svoju porodicu. Kako je jedan zatvorenik JUK-a rekao: "Ovde nas ne muče, osim psihološki."
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 govori ko je ovde zatvoren. Ali kroz sudska dokumenta, zahteve za otvorenim zapisnicima i intervjue sa trenutnim i bivšim zatvorenicima, otvorili su se mali prozori ka JUK-u.
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.
U njima se nalazi otprilike 60 do 70 zatvorenika, i pretežno su muslimani. Uključuju ljude kao što je dr Rafil Dafir, koji je prekršio ekonomske sankcije sa Irakom, šaljući medicinske potrepštine za tamošnju decu. Tu su i ljudi poput Jasina Arefa. Aref je sa porodicom izbegao za Njujork iz Iraka Sadama Huseina. Uhapšen je 2004. u raciji koju je sproveo FBI. Aref je imam, i trebalo je da prisustvuje zajmu, što je tradicija u islamskoj kulturi. Ispostavilo se da je jedan od ljudi uključenih u zajam, pokušao da regrutuje nekog drugog za lažni napad. Aref nije znao. Za to je osuđen za zaveru da materijalno podrži terorističku grupu.
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 takođe imaju i neke nemuslimanske zatvorenike. Čuvari ih zovu "balanserima", jer pomažu da se izbalansiraju rasne razlike, u nadi da će se izbeći tužbe. Ovi balanseri uključuju aktiviste za prava životinja i životnu okolinu, kao što je Danijel Mekgovan.
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.
Mekgovan je osuđen za učešće u dva podmetanja požara u ime odbrane životne okoline, u sklopu Fronta za oslobođenje Zemlje. Tokom njegove kazne, plašio se da će ga poslati u ozloglašeni tajni zatvor za teroriste. Sudija je odbacio sve te strahove, rekavši da ih ne podržavaju nikakve činjenice. Ali to je možda zato što vlada nije u potpunosti objasnila zašto neki zatvorenici završe u JUK, i ko je odgovoran za te odluke. Kada je Mekgovan prebačen, rečeno mu je da je to zato što je "domaći terorista", što je termin koji FBI koristi kada govori o aktivistima za životnu sredinu. Zapamtite da u američkim zatvorima postoji oko 400 zatvorenika koji su klasifikovani kao teroristi, a samo nekolicina se nalazi u JUK. U slučaju Mekgovana, on se prethodno nalazio u zatvoru minimalnog obezbeđenja i nije imao prekršaje komunikacije.
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.
Pa zašto je onda prebačen? Kao i drugi zatvorenici JUK-a, on je neprestano tražio odgovor, saslušanje, neku priliku da uloži žalbu. Ovaj primer jednog drugog zatvorenika pokazuje kako se tretiraju takvi zahtevi. "Traži premeštaj." "Rekli mu da ne može." U jednom trenutku je sam upravnik zatvora preporučio Mekgovana za premeštaj iz JUK-a, navodeći njegovo dobro vladanje, ali njega je odbio Biro zatvorske protivterorističke jedinice koji radi sa Ujedinjenim timom za terorizam, iz FBI-ja.
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 Mekgovan poslat u JUK ne zbog toga što je uradio, nego zbog onog što je rekao. Memorandum Protivterorističke jedinice naveo je Mekgovanova "uverenja protiv vlade". Dok je bio u zatvoru, nastavio je da piše o pitanjima životne sredine, govoreći da aktivisti moraju da nauče iz svojih grešaka i da slušaju jedni druge. Iskreno, ako ste proveli neko vreme u Vašingtonu, znate da je ovo za vladu veoma radikalan koncept.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
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.
Tražio sam da posetim Mekgovana u JUK-u. I odobreno mi je. Ovo je bio pravi šok. Prvo, kao što sam već govorio sa ove bine, zato što sam saznao da FBI prati moj rad. Drugo, zato što bih tako bio prvi i jedini novinar koji je posetio JUK. Čak sam i saznao, kroz Biro zatvorske protivterorističke jedinice, da oni prate moje govore o JUK-u, kao što je ovaj. Kako su mi onda uopšte odobrili posetu? Saznao sam nekoliko dana pre nego što sam otišao u zatvor.
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 posetim Mekgovana kao prijatelj, ne kao novinar. Novinarima tamo nije dozvoljeno. Zvaničnici JUK-a su rekli Mekgovanu da ako pokušam da ga pitam nešto ili ako objavim neku priču, on će biti kažnjen za moje izveštavanje. Kada sam došao u posetu, čuvari su me podsetili da znaju ko sam i znaju za moj rad. I onda su rekli da, ako pokušam da intervjuišem Mekgovana, poseta će biti prekinuta. Zatvorski biro opisuje JUK kao "nezavisne životne jedinice". Ali mislim da je to orvelovski način za opisivanje crnih rupa. Kada posetite JUK, prolazite kroz svo obezbeđenje koje biste očekivali. Ali prolaz do sobe za posete je tih. Kada zatvorenik JUK-a ima posetu, ostatak zatvora je zatvoren. Mene su ugurali u malu sobu, toliko malu da sam ispruženim rukama mogao da dodirnem zidove. Na tavanici se nalazila lopta veličine grejpfruta, kako bi posetu pratila protivteroristička jedinica u Zapadnoj Virdžiniji. Jedinica insistira da sve posete moraju biti na engleskom jeziku, što je dodatna teškoća za mnoge muslimanske porodice. Tu je i debelo, zamagljeno staklo otporno na metke, a sa druge strane bio je Danijel Mekgovan. Govorili smo preko slušalica koje su prikačene na zid i pričali smo o knjigama i filmovima. Dali smo sve od sebe da pronađemo razloge da se smejemo. U borbi protiv dosade i da bi se zabavio dok je u JUK, Mekgovan je širio trač da sam ja tajni predsednik kluba ljubitelja serijala "Twilight", u Vašingtonu.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
For the record, I'm not.
Zvanično kažem - nisam.
(Laughter) But I kind of the hope the FBI now thinks that Bella and Edward are terrorist code names.
(Smeh) Ali nadam se da FBI sada misli sa su Bela i Edvard lažna imena terorista.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
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."
Tokom moje posete, Mekgovan je najviše govorio o svojoj nećaci Lili, svojoj ženi Dženi i kako je mučan osećaj da nikada ne može da ih zagrli, nikada da ih uhvati za ruku. Tri meseca nakon te posete, Mekgovan je prebačen iz JUK-a i onda, bez upozorenja, ponovo poslat nazad. Na svom sajtu sam objavio procurele dokumente JUK-a, i Prtivteroristička jedinica je rekla da je Mekgovan zvao svoju ženu i tražio da mu ih pošalje. Želeo je da vidi šta vlada govori o njemu, i zbog toga je poslat nazad u JUK. Kada je konačno oslobođen, kad je odslužio kaznu, njegova priča postala je još više kafkijanska. Za "Huffington Post" je napisao članak sa naslovom: "Sudska dokumenta dokazuju da sam u JUK poslat 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.
Sledećeg dana je bačen nazad u zatvor zbog svog političkog govora. Njegovi advokati su ubrzo izvojevali njegovo oslobođenje, ali je poruka bila jasna: ne pričaj o ovom mestu.
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 Bušova administracija otvorila, vlada objašnjava kako i zašto su JUK osnovane. Prema Zatvorskom birou, one su za zatvorenike od "izuzetnog značaja". Mislim da je to veoma lep način da se kaže da su to politički zatvori za političke zatvorenike.
Prisoners are sent to a CMU because of their race, their religion or their political beliefs.
Zatvorenici se šalju u JUK zbog svoje rase, svoje religije ili političkih ubeđenja.
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.
Ako mislite da je takva karakterizacija prejaka, pogledajte neke od vladinih dokumenata. Kada je JUK odbila neku Mekgovanovu poštu, pošiljaocu je rečeno da je to zato što su pisma namenjena "političkim zatvorenicima". Jedan drugi zatvorenik, aktivista za prava životinja, Endi Stepanijan, poslat je u JUK zbog svojih antirežimskih i anti-korporacijskih stavova.
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 poverovati u sve ovo, da se dešava sada i u Sjedinjenim Državama. Ali poznato je da SAD ima mračnu istoriju neproporcionalog kažnjavanja ljudi zbog njihovih političkih uverenja. 1960-ih godina, pre nego što je Merion bio dom JUK-a, bio je dom ozloglašene Kontrolne jedinice. Zatvorenici su zatvarani u samice na 22 sata dnevno. Upravnik je rekao da je jedinica "kontrolisala revolucionarne stavove". Osamdesetih, jedan drugi eksperiment zvani Leksington visokobezbedna jedinica, držao je žene povezane sa "Weather Underground", Crnačkim oslobođenjem i Portorikanskim nezavisnim pokretima. Taj zatvor je radikalno ograničio komunikaciju i koristio uskraćivanje sna i konstantno osvetljenje za takozvano "ideološko preobraženje". Ti zatvori su na kraju zatvoreni, ali samo uz pomoć kampanja religijskih grupa i zastupnika ljudskih prava,
Today, civil rights lawyers with the Center for Constitutional Rights
kao što je Amnesty International.
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, advokati za ljudska prava sa Centrom za ustavna prava suprotstavljaju se JUK-u na sudu zbog uskraćivanja zatvorenicima prava na pravično suđenje i zbog osvete prema zatvorenicima zbog njihovih zaštićenih političkih i religioznih govora. Mnogi od ovih dokumenata se nikada ne bi pojavili bez 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 svedoci tome šta se radi ovim zatvorenicima. Ophođenje prema njima oslikava vrednosti koje važe van zatvorskih zidina. Ova priča nije samo o zatvorenicima. Ona je o nama. O našoj ličnoj posvećenosti ljudskim pravima. O našem izboru da prestanemo da ponavljamo greške iz naše prošlosti. Ako ne slušamo ono što je Otac Berigan opisao kao priče o mrtvima, one će uskoro postati priče o nama.
Thank you.
Hvala.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)
(Applause ends)
(Kraj aplauza)
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 Rajli: Imam par pitanja. U srednjoj školi sam učio o Ljudskim pravima, o Ustavu, slobodi govora, fer procesu i oko 25 drugih zakona i prava koja su ovim prekršena. Kako je moguće da se to dešava?
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.
Vil Poter: To je najčešće postavljano pitanje kroz moj celokupan rad, a kratak odgovor je da ljudi ne znaju. Mislim da rešenje bilo kakve slične situacije, kršenja prava, zapravo zavisi od dve stvari. Zavisi od znanja da se to zaista dešava i potom od sredstava i efikasnosti da se nešto i promeni. Nažalost, sa ovim zatvorenicima, prvo, ljudi uopšte ne znaju šta se dešava, a onda to su već obespravljene populacije koje nemaju pristup advokatima, engleski im nije maternji jezik. U nekim slučajevima kao što sam pomenuo, imaju odlične advokate, ali javnost nije dovoljno svesna šta se dešava.
TR: Isn't it guaranteed in prison that you have right to council or access to council?
TR: Zar u zatvoru nije garantovano pravo na zastupnika ili pristup zastupniku?
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.
VP: U našoj kulturi postoji tendencija da se postaramo da, kada su ljudi osuđeni za zločin, bilo da je ta optužba lažna ili legitimna, da je sve što im se posle desi zagarantovano. Mislim da je taj narativ veoma štetan i opasan, dozvoljava da se ovakve stvari dešavaju jer javnost samo zažmuri na to.
TR: All those documents on screen were all real documents, word for word, unchanged at all, right?
TR: Sva dokumenta koja si pokazao su prava, svaka reč, nepromenjena, je l' tako?
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.
VP: Apsolutno. Sve sam ih postavio na svoj sajt. Posetite willporter.com/CMU, to je verzija ovog govora sa beleškama, možete i sami videti dokumenta bez ovih malih isečaka. Videćete potpune verzije. Prevashodno sam se oslanjao na dokumenta iz primarnih izvora ili na originalne intervjue sa bivšim i sadašnjim zatvorenicima, sa ljudima koji se ovim bave svakodnevno. I kao što sam rekao, i sam sam bio tamo.
TR: You're doing courageous work.
TR: Baviš se hrabrim poslom.
WP: Thank you very much. Thank you all.
VP: Hvala mnogo. Hvala svima.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)