July 2005
I braved the choppy waters and sailed solo-handed in graceful, charming but constantly shifty Guantanamo Bay. What a precious experience forged in eloquence and natural beauty amidst a world of chaos surrounded by guard towers and fences strung with razor-sharp concertina wire.
The wind was blowing relentlessly and many a times, I was feeling overpowered on the verge of tipping over only to ease the jib a notch and amazingly the boat would steady up slowly until I felt a sense of peace pervading my entire being.
Even with the constant battering and continuous heeling, the keel slicing the water's edge, I managed to get a good, steady hour out and back within the harbor's sanctuary without capsizing, crashing, or worse smashing my seafarer's ego.
After all, like life on the island and life on earth, sailing is prone to mistakes of all scopes and sizes -- many experiences, we chalk up to live and LEARN. Some we never get it, because we may be stubborn, short-sighted or selfish -- I know, I still have the scars from the deep wounds of these missteps. For one, I was badly scratched up against shoalwater when Hurricane Dennis came roaring. Some of them embarrassingly open, some hidden away, buried so deep, no one could tell, not even a loved one.
Rocky Times
I just gotten over a bad divorce. I was saddened to hear that my wife was having an affair. The divorce was messy because there is property in Anacostia involved and most importantly my son. In a sense, this Guantanamo assignment was carthatic and exactly what I needed to get my mind off the situation.
Scuba GTMO
Later in the day, I plunged into the warm, healing Caribbean waters and dove deep alongside the pristine coral and the rich aquatic wildlife. Wow, what a fantastic experience. We stumbled upon a wreck in 25 feet of water. We saw the transom and the engine casing and it was covered in beautiful coral of many different shapes and sizes. It's true amazing and unfathomable how something that was so tragically lost can turn into something so graceful and majestic in a changing, dynamic aquatic landscape.
Then we swam against the ripping current right ontop of a coral reef. Have you ever seen these things with your own naked eyes? It is like an oasis in a sub-saharan desert with so much life and lifeform bubbling. The fish were swimming so peacefully, oblivous to the two mortal strangers adorned in awkward scuba gear, finning up close to sling a look. It was right then at that particular moment when I was calmly reminded of God's miracle and the majestic beauty that surrounded the underwater life world drastically different than the glass-covered microcosm above ground.
The next moment I thought about the several hundred men behind the bars. How ironic it was that they lived for several years in what to them may seem like a century, in the edge of paradise, but could not experience the depth and natural beauty that it so proudly flaunted. I knew that they could the hear the surf crashing night and day against the jagged rocks; could feel, smell the salty air, could even envision a spectacular Caribbean sunset bathed in a dark orange hue.
I also knew that the US had the right to hold enemy fighters during wartime and that we had good intentions to gain intelligence so that we could save American and Allied lives. But was this really worth the impact and strained relationship we suffered with Europe, the Middle East and the rest of the road. Sometimes the road to hell is paved in good intentions.
And suddenly the peace drifted away. On our return leg, we faced torrential challenges trying to get back fighting a relentless current that was so vicious, many times we lost our breath and thought it might be our last one.
Still we persevered and the best part of it all was the 5 beautiful peach and gold conch shells so gargantuan, the size of my head -- ready for dining, cleaning and showcasing.
I am getting them cleaned now by the local Jamaicans -- they are professionals at it, and will show my friends my prized trophies when I return home.
In between these exciting, breath-taking experiences, I did some normal, benign activities like swam in the pool 3 times (once for an hour straight until my shoulders screamed for mercy), worked out twice and laid out for a couple of hours in the hot, relentless Caribbean sun. Poor me while roughing it up during my short deployment in the harsh environments of Naval Station GTMO.
But it is not all thrills and play here. Even this weekend, I have stayed busy working. Reading and preparing lessons and messages for the media for the upcoming week.
My Role for My Country
I love the natural beauty of Guantanamo, but I'm here to serve my country and to ensure the safety of Americans at home as well as our allies overseas from terrorism. But how is this the case? "The Nation and to some extent, NATO are fighting a war in the Middle East against al Qaeda and the Taliban. "What purpose do you serve over watching detainees in Guantanamo?"
Under the law of armed conflict, the US has a legal right to detain enemy fighters during wartime and to keep them detained until the end of hostilities. The reason for this detention is to protect our citizens and the security of the United States and to prevent the enemy fighters from returning to battle.
During this week and as part of our priority to remain transparent; we will be giving tours to national and international media for an Adminstrative Review Board (ARB). The purpose of the ARB is to determine whether a detainee should be released, transferred or detained.
Our mantra is this: We do not want to hold detainees any longer than necessary, and we want to provide the detainees a chance to be heard and to tell their story.
We seek to balance the safety of Americans and our allies overseas with the rights and freedom of each individual -- this would not be an easy goal to reach.
GTMO is not just guard towers and razor wires. There are miles upon miles of fiber optics buried throughout the island, and Camp Delta is a state-of-the-art detention facility modeled after a first-rate correctional facility in Bunker Hill, Indiana.
Transparency in GTMO
However, what is amazing about this conflict compared to previous engagements where the face of former enemy prisoners had remained largely anonymous, is that in this global war on terror there has been so much media coverage generated and opinions expressed on these detainees, that in many ways, these long-term denizens of this remote Caribbean detention facility have become almost instant worldwide celebrities drawing a large fan base of well-wishers who may not even know how to spell their names. Many of these enemy combatants, who were previously nameless have become sacrificial heroes back home.
Social Media
The driving force behind this campaign is the public's ingenious application of the internet, tapping into social media repositories, to carry their voices further around the world and to cleverly market their message of human rights and legal rights leveraging the power of the public and the power of Web 2.0 to an enormous gain.
As a press officer at DoD, I am very familiar with the stories and queries that are generated from liberal blogs and online publications like Cageprisoners.
Also many of the detainees have their own pages on Wikipedia dedicated to their background, administrative hearings and to used freely to promote their causes. Although we have not yet held a legal trial, we have conducted several hundred annual administrative hearings which transcripts we have freely released to the public (after Freedom of Information Act request was filed). The vast majority of these transcripts are posted on the internet a testimony to DoD's trustfulness and transparency. However, unfortunately, some of these transcripts serve as additional fodder for the larger public to scrutinize and criticize our review processes.
Life in GTMO is always action-packed, life-changing, heart-wrenching and evocative.
Of the 20 plus times, that I've visited (either to stay awhile or to stay for a day), I have observed, pondered and tried to figure out right from wrong, good from bad. I've also tried to imagine just what was in the minds of many of these men as they were picked up in Afghanistan, Pakistan, or inside al Qaeda safehouses.
How long do they think they will remain here and will they ever see the jubilant light of freedom.
And how long should the US maintain Guantanamo Bay? Originally, many of the 760 men who were held here were low-level fighters until they were transferred home or released. There are many men here that will never see a day in court. There are also many men who are so bad that they will never see the light of day. These men include the notorious KSM who was the mastermind of 9-11 as well as the October 2000 bombing of the destroyer USS Cole. Should the US continue to detain these evil men and prosecute them in Guantanamo, or should we consider bringing them to American shores to face justice and jail or the ultimate penalty for their crimes?
While Guantanamo still could have worked, we sadly let things get of hand. While I do not have reason to believe that torture was ever committed in Guantanamo, the term has obvious broad interpretations and for that matter implications for many people from many different cultures.
What was at stake? National Security. Our image and pereception around the world -- which truly matters in a geopolitical environment. The right thing to do, and the ability to sleep well at
night.
Whatever the answer, it is fuzzy and complicated. Well, yeah, quite gray. Being gray means being open minded, flexible and always seeking input from your colleagues, friends, even enemies -- because they are the ones most willing and able to provide the information you need to succeed and the will determine how the initiative will be viewed throughout the world. So, after count any rate, I knew exactly where we had had failed -- we didn't ask any one what they thought.
When the first detainees were transferred in January 2002, we did not let the rest of the world know our intentions and true objectives. We didn't ask them how the rest of the world would feel about transferring these men tens of thousands of miles to Cuban shore. We didn't ask whether they agreed with our decision to label these men "unlawful combatants" not "prisoners of war", a label that is not afforded the rights guaranteed by the Geneva Conventions. And lastly, we didn't ask for their support -- something critical which we are depending on today as we transfer many of these men back home or to our countries that can guarantee safe custody.
I'm not necessarily in favor of closing Guantanamo Bay. I believe the detention facility as it stands today has much value and is the right place to prosecute and detain these enemy fighters.
My issue though, is many of these men should never have been sent to Guantanamo -- a base facility that should never have been opened, a detention facility that now open should not be closed.
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