Confessions of a former Guantánamo prosecutor

The inside story of a military lawyer who discovered stunning injustice at the heart of the Bush administration’s military commissions.

By Stacy Sullivan

Editor’s note: Since May, staff members of Human Rights Watch have been reporting on U.S. judicial proceedings at Guantánamo for Salon.

When Army Lt. Col. Darrell Vandeveld began his work in May 2007 as a prosecutor at the Guantánamo Bay military commissions, the Iraq war veteran was one of the most enthusiastic and tenacious lawyers working on behalf of the Bush administration. He took on seven cases. In court hearings he dismissed claims of prisoner abuse as “embellishment” and “exaggeration.” Once, when a detainee asked for legal representation only for the purpose of challenging the legitimacy of the military commissions, Vandeveld ridiculed the request as “idiotic.”

So it came as a shock in mid-September when Vandeveld announced that he was resigning as a prosecutor because he had grave doubts about the integrity of the system he had so vigorously defended.

In the days following his resignation — now testifying, remarkably, for the defense counsel in one of his own cases — Vandeveld said that he went from being a “true believer” in the military commissions to feeling “truly deceived” about them. His deep ethical qualms hinged foremost on the fact that potentially critical evidence had been withheld from the defense by the government.

Vandeveld says he was pressured explicitly by superiors not to talk about his work at Guantánamo. Until now, the details of his story have largely been kept from public view. He maintains that he is not ready to speak at length about his decision to resign, but in several e-mail exchanges with me this week, as well as in a series of recent e-mail exchanges he had with others involved in the military commissions, a picture emerges of a man who struggled through an intense crisis of conscience. When he took action, he was ridiculed and bullied by his bosses for questioning the fairness of the system. The military also subjected Vandeveld to a mental-health evaluation after he decided to resign, perhaps aimed at undercutting his credibility.

Vandeveld’s story reveals the painful struggle of a devoutly religious Catholic who became increasingly disturbed by a process he came to view as fundamentally unjust. Unable to confide in his family and friends because so much of the information in the cases he was working on was classified, he took the unusual step of confiding in his opposing counsel. He also consulted a priest online.

Vandeveld is at least the fourth prosecutor to resign from the highly criticized military commissions, but his account is perhaps the most stark and will surely cast a lasting pall over the process. On Tuesday, the Department of Defense announced that it was dropping charges against five detainees whose cases Vandeveld was prosecuting — though not the controversial case that prompted his resignation.

That case, the one that ultimately provoked Vandeveld’s change of heart, was supposed to be a slam dunk for the government. But as Vandeveld would come to discover, it was plagued by problems. Read the rest of this entry »

While reading today on migration, borders, and the like, I came across this thoughtful response. And, I wanted to share it.  We are in a quandary of a situation when it comes to the question of migration!  The Jesuits embody grace and distinction as they pursue the social justice of reform world-wide.  Below is an article from their site:

Migration and Immigration

  “Attention must be called to the rights of migrants and their families and to respect for their human dignity, even in cases of non-legal immigration.” 
John Paul II, Ecclesiae in America 

 Migration is the human face of globalization. Defined as the movement of peoples across national borders, migration has increased with cheaper transportation and increasingly interdependent national economies. According to the UN, nearly 191 million people (3% of the world’s population) were migrants in 2005; 154 million of those chose to move voluntarily. Migration is especially pronounced between the US and Mexico, as the two countries experience the greatest wealth disparity of any two contiguous countries in the world. The free movement of goods and services across the southern US border since NAFTA’s promulgation in 1994 has also significantly increased the movement of labor.

The United States immigration system has yet to account for these economic and technological changes; in fact, legislators on both sides of the political aisle agree that the US immigration system is broken. Each year, 1.5 million newcomers (500,000 of which are undocumented) enter the US. And although our country has not experienced an unemployment rate higher than 6% since 1994, we offer only 5,000 permanent low-skilled visas and 66,000 seasonal visas annually. This bureaucratic failure, along with the caps on family-based visas, has created a humanitarian disaster on the United States’ southern border: more than 3,000 people have died trying to cross the desert in intolerable heat since 1998.

Since the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, border security has become a top priority for the US government. Fear of more attacks has provoked xenophobic voices in our country, despite the presence of millions of contributing migrants throughout all 50 states and our immigrant history. 

The Bush Administration made immigration reform a priority, but Congressional stalemates in 2006 and 2007 resulted only in the passage of a border wall and more enforcement measures. Since then, the Administration has significantly increased the detention, deportation and raids of undocumented immigrants. These raids separate families and destroy communities. Additionally, the administration has increased funding to state and local police forces to enforce federal immigration law, creating an atmosphere of mistrust in the small communities that rely upon police for their safety and protection.

For more information on the Church and Immigration, please see our Winter 2006-2007 issue of In All Things on immigration.

Lets reunite in Texas

Proposals for conference about the life and work of Gloria Anzaldua

Hello Comadres,
The SSGA is currently holding a call for proposals for our May 2009 conference titled El Mundo Zurdo: An International Conference on the Work and Life of Gloria E. Anzaldúa. Below is a flyer with more information and you may contact us via gloria.anzaldua.society@gmail.com or visit our pages at
myspace.com/gloriaanzalduasociety or www.ssganzaldua.org/.
Thank you,
Magda Garcia

El Mundo Zurdo: An International Conference on the Work and Life of Gloria E. Anzaldúa Sponsored by The Society for the Study of Gloria E. Anzaldúa (SSGA) and the Women’s Studies Institute at the University of Texas at San Antonio May 16-17, 2009.

Call for Proposals
The Society for the Study of Gloria E. Anzaldúa seeks submission of proposals for papers, panels of 3-4 papers, roundtables, workshops, or performances for its First International Conference on the work and life of Gloria E. Anzaldúa on the fifth anniversary of her passing.

We welcome proposals involving all facets of Anzaldúa’s life and work.  The following tracks are merely suggested conceptual groupings for panel and performance presentations:

• BORDERS-explorations of border theory, borderlands ethos and other concepts of Anzaldúan thought focused on this key concept of her work
• GENDER AND SEXUALITY STUDIES-el mundo zurdo and the atravesados, key
  to Anzaldúa’s thinking and application of her philosophical work
• EDUCATION-pedagogical concerns surrounding her literary and
  philosophical works. Some questions that may arise: what are some
  challenges of teaching Anzaldúa? How does Anzaldúa’s thought apply to
  teaching?
• INTERNATIONAL AND TRANFRONTERA-The effects of globalization and
  market economies on culture. What is the status of Anzaldúa studies
  at the international level?
• SPIRITUALITY-Explorations of Anzaldúa’s spiritual teachings. How can
  we heal the earth and ourselves?

Guidelines
Proposals must include the following:

• 250-word proposal narrative
• 100-word abstract suitable for publication in the conference program
  book
• Submissions for Panels must include proposals and abstracts for each
• paper and the name, address, phone number(s), e-mail address, and
  institutional affiliation of each participant
• Audio/visual needs
• Contact person’s name, address, phone number(s), e-mail address, and
  institutional affiliation

All materials must be electronically date-stamped by February 15,
2009. Proposers will be notified of acceptance by March 15, 2009.
Questions about the submission process may be sent to:
gloria.anzaldua.society@gmail.com

I imagine myself in a circle.

My circle is comprised of people, certainly, in conversation carrying on about what is happening in the world.  Below is an example of what was happening in the 60s when Ernesto Che Guevara reunido con Simone de Beauvoir y Jean Paul Sartre, en La Habana  Cuba joined together for conversation.  This was one of the many circles where Beauvoir found herself [her philosophic circles, mind you] changing the face of feminism and philosophy and ehtics.  My circle is changing; morphing perhaps?  I’m not sure?  I just know that I trust in the truth of goodness.  This is how the river winds.  The rapids of this river hurts sometimes, but that’s why I have a deep and abiding circle of philosphy of truth, goodness, and beauty which surrounds me and roots me.  I miss that Texas rio just like I miss those pages of textual narratives through which I would thumb through.  But, this circle is helping me reclaim that and I’m hopeful–I’m just hopeful in the truth of the goodness of love, essential love which Beuavoir and Sartre shared.

At any given moment in time, the intersection of life causes an unexpected clash of realities.  Today, I’m learning the wisdom of silence, the discipline of twisting spokes, and the reality of chasing pavement.  As a more extraverted and yet intentional scholar who values a good beer at the Hopleaf, nice introspective conversation, the opportunity to twist some spokes and the contemplative & meditative way of life–that sense of awareness that is beyond oneself–there is a sense that wisdom is a well where one is able to dwell for a long period of time.  At times, there is difficulty for one dwelling or one contemplating the wisdom around the well.  

I keep returning to the the process of integration.  There is something about the process of growth and growing/introspection and the politics of identity that motivates many of my questions around the politics of friendships, the difficulty of relationships, and the wisdom of silence.  I’m finding myself chasing pavement right now, and that’s okay.

I am happy that I have met some new friends who are asking some important questions.  I am grateful [largely b/c I'm unsure what "happy" means] for these folks who aid me to find a way to wisdom, to the well, to place where I am able to drink fully.  This is both lovely and loving; it is a family whose who has girded me with the necessary tools to live life fully in a time when the San Francisco fog is thick in Chicago.

There is wisdom around the well, and there is a place for me to dwell at the well.  I find myself needing a deeper sense of wisdom.  California, you’re my fault line whose saved my insides.  Thank you!

So, my Tuesday [the day after the State sponsored memorial day] was a scary day at about 6:30 in the morning!  It was a windy day, but I was willing to do the pedal work.  When I made it down to Fullerton Ave. [which means nothing to you folks who don't live in Chicago, though I love it that my TX buddies read my blog!!], the waves were really huge and even coming up out onto the bike path, perhaps even close to 7-10 feet.  This is not an uncommon occurance when the water is choppy, but I’ve not seen it this bad, and I’ve never EVER anticipated being in this type of situation…this is one of those “burr burr” situations, I do believe!

I wasn’t wearing my shoe covers.  After all, its the month of May people where its 101 in parts of TX, namely San Antonio, where I find the beer is ice cold and the Guadalupe river is a nice 80 degree tube ride.  My shoes did get wet, but all was well [a famous Julian of Norwich saying].  I made it down to the Drake hotel, near the “S” curve on the famous Lake Shore Drive.  I did have a passing thought [perhaps intuition?] that perhaps I should shoot down under Michigan Ave and just head down through the Loop to Bally’s to get my shower, but I decided to stay on the bike path.  

I continued down the bike path and I looked up to see a roller blader who was slowing down b/c of a little bit of water on the bike path and what appeared to be some rock or tar product.  I decided to pedal up and pass this guy and right when I did, here comes a wave about 7 feet tall or perhaps a taller wave.  Both of us were headed up to the highest part of the path which was really more like the shoulder of the path and the wall of Lake Shore drive.  I was clipped into my pedals and the guy behind me was trying his best to stay on his rollers.  Mind you, he was in shorts and was NOT wearing a helmet.  I was in bike shorts, gortex pants, sugoi base layer w/ hood, and my Pearl iZumi jacket [I look like black latex!].  I was dressed for fall and spring, but not a typhoon!  I was ok when the 7 foot wave came, but was NOT ok as the scene progressed.  The wave came up to my knees and pushed me toward the wall, but I was good; we both were.  I was doing a buyount track stand and the roller blader was, I think, still afoot.  

The wave came toward us both and was absolutely taller than me!  It jolted me but I was still on my bike.  The 2nd wave came, which was a little larger and that slammed us both into the wall.  It was clear to me that I was in a bad situation and I thought I either broke my knuckles or my hand, which I later learned I didn’t.  Following this, the undertow pulled me under my bike, meanwhile my left foot still remained clipped into my pedal, and I am being pulled toward the lake.  Then, the 3rd wave…another 7 foot wave [or perhaps larger] pounced on me as I was trapped beneath my bike!  I was trying my best to get out from beneath my bike, but I couldn’t hardly move and the undertow was pulling me and my bike toward the lake.  Though I was trying my best not to panic, I must admit that I was fucking petrified.  I was really scared.  The guy on roller blades was in the same position, though he did not have a 35lb. steel frame training bike on top of him.  He was really helpful, though, at the end of this ordeal!  Thanks dude!  Wherever you are in the city!  Thanks for not letting me almost die alone! 

During all of this, when I managed to get my head above water to see that I was being pulled into Lake MI, along w/ the Roller Blader and my bike, I heard him yell “are you OK?”  I yelled back as loud as I could–which was more of a faint and questionable cry–”yeah?!

The water was freezing.  I saw how the boundaries of water and life overcame me that day.  How easily boundaries mix–wax and wane–and before you know it, you’re being carried off into the largest fresh water Lake!  Though a strong swimmer and once a scuba diver [before my brain surgeries] I knew I wouldn’t have survived that 40* choppy water!  NO WAY would I have made it through that one!  I was jumpy all day and I reached out to the people I love–here in Chicago and out of State.  For a moment during all of this, I thought…”I’m being buried alive!”  I haven’t been that scared in a very long time!  It shook me to my absolute core!  I almost lost everything, and I just wanted to go home, dry off, drink some black coffee, and rub some ear lobes!

When I did make it to Bally’s, my bag had tons of lake water in it, my dress clothes were soaked and trashed, and my Tuesday was off to a deadly start!  I showered at Bally’s but had to put my bike clothes back on which were wet, I might add!  [I was absolutely a wet chimp--and not how I would like to be!]  And, once I made it to work, my colleague helped me get my clothes dry, b/c all of my clothes were wet!  It was awful!  I didn’t even have any dry socks, but thankfully this other colleague had a pair of tube socks and gave them for me to wear!

Life has so many interesting tunnels.  And, trained as a theologian, it’s always my point of departure to look at three things:  life, love, and death.  It’s the three things in which I “believe.”  I’m always conscious of life and the boundaries of life and death, and the way in which love unites life and death. 

This is a big year for me!  15 years of surviving my brain aneurysm, finding my budding self into a Lotus and appreciating the boundaries of Life all over again.  Finding myself in the muck and mire of life and then finding or uncovering the beauty of life; that’s the goodness of love.  Furthermore, finding those who are part of my lotus petals, even.  That’s been a nice discovery in this “tunnel.”

Boundaries:  hugely important–fidelty in all things.  Nothing less.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:  fidelty in ALL things!  Mind, heart and soul.  Though my language is liberal, my mind, heart, and soul only has a one way track; I’m no person to try to ride the roller coaster of cosmic player love.  That would be a player chimp, and that’s not me!  I’m a person who lives with deep and abiding intention.  You may question, but you should listen to the song of your soul; the music has already started playing.  Celebrate the passion of friendship, and root yourself in the dance of love.