Hafetz, Jonathan - short clip - SoftTorture

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-	In addition to being in the interrogations,	0:00
	in addition to all the techniques,	0:02
	the soft torture that was being applied,	0:03
	the threats that were made to him,	0:07
	threats they would make him disappear,	0:09
	make his family disappear.	0:10
	The stress positions, the changes in temperature	0:13
	some of the sleep deprivation,	0:16
	they forced him to endure.	0:18
	In addition to that stuff, I mean	0:19
	there was nothing, he was in just a black hole	0:21
	with nothing to distract him from his torment.	0:23
	They refused to allow him to have a book,	0:26
	a newspaper, to listen to the radio, to watch GV.	0:28
	I mean, to me, it happens nowhere.	0:30
	They would feed him,	0:34
	but they would often feed him cold meals only.	0:35
	There was a period of time where	0:38
	he went for a month on what's called a MREs,	0:39
	or "meals ready to eat."	0:42
	Stuff that, you know, the troops are given,	0:43
	I think in combat operations overseas.	0:45
	They wouldn't give them hot meals.	0:47
	They took away his recreation	0:48
	for long periods of time.	0:50
	He wasn't allowed.	0:51
	Weeks would go by sometimes I think even more than a month	0:52
	where he would be denied recreation, denied ability to	0:54
	even go outside or to see the light of day.	0:56
	And there was no light that entered his cell.	0:59
	They actually deliberately blackened over the window.	1:01
	And we know this from documents.	1:03
	We were later receiving litigation.	1:05
	With no light, just be in his cell, you know	1:07
	24/7, with nothing.	1:09
	But the worst thing for Almari	1:12
	really was the isolation	1:13
	and the sensory deprivation.	1:15
	What was unique about his case	1:17
	is he was held in	1:19
	complete isolation for six years.	1:20
	Six years at the brig in South Carolina.	1:24
	For the first 18 or 17 months	1:27
	when he was declared an enemy combatant until	1:30
	June of '03, or sorry, October of '03	1:32
	when we got our first visit to see him,	1:35
	he wasn't even allowed to speak to anybody.	1:38
	And the guards wouldn't speak to him either,	1:41
	they were not allowed to talk to him.	1:43
	The idea was to sort of	1:46
	cut off all human contact to basically try to	1:48
	create a sense of hopelessness and despair.	1:51
	I mean, it was this crueler form	1:53
	of psychological torture that I've ever seen	1:54
	or read about.	1:57
	We have seen, some of the videotapes remained	1:59
	but what we've seen are there were really two types of	2:01
	recordings. One were recordings of	2:03
	the interrogations were some of the most	2:06
	really egregious con conduct took place.	2:09
	And those were the ones that were destroyed.	2:11
	There was also a video camera.	2:13
	it was basically just a surveillance camera	2:14
	of Almari and his cell.	2:16
	Some of that was destroyed as well	2:18
	but some of that remains.	2:20
	And that was just basically like the camera that they had	2:21
	on Almari 24 hours a day, seven days a week.	2:23
	And so we have seen some of these videos and what	2:26
	what comes across from those videos is	2:28
	just the sense of despair and total boredom.	2:31
	And I say "boredom" in a way that	2:35
	can drive you crazy.	2:37
	Almari, just sitting like a caged animal	2:38
	in a room with nothing to do again	2:41
	but just stare at the four walls, you know	2:43
	hour after hour, day after day, year after year.	2:46
	And I think, you know, if you really can	2:49
	visualize what that must be like.	2:51
	I mean, just, I imagine even just spending a day	2:52
	or two or three days in a room	2:54
	without anyone to talk to or with nothing to do.	2:56

Item Info

Title:

Hafetz, Jonathan - short clip - SoftTorture

Date:

April 16, 2010

Interviewer:

Honigsberg, Peter Jan

Interviewee:

Hafetz, Jonathan

Role:

Detainee Attorney

Description:

This interview may include descriptions of violence.
Detainee Attorney
Jonathan Hafetz, male, age unknown, works for the National Security Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, has helped coordinate the Guantanamo detainee habeas corpus litigation since its earliest stages, including testifying before Congress.
Description was provided by Witness to Guantanamo.

Subject:

United States

Format:

oral histories

Language:

English

Extent:

1:43:21

Digital Collection:

Witness to Guantanamo

Source Collection:

Witness to Guantanamo Video Collection, 2009-2017

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Rights Note:

Unless otherwise noted, copyright is held by Peter Hongisberg. Under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license, you are free to use and share these materials subject to the following conditions: You must attribute Peter Hongisberg as the rights holder. You may not use the material for commercial purposes. You may not distribute any modifications to the materials. For other uses, including commercial uses, please contact Rubenstein Library at http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/ask.

Identifier:

1d5e9923cf0f9236f430a0cf405525fd
witnesstoguantanamo
ark:/87924/r4cr5vz0v
20865ed2-eab6-4b11-9bcb-5bfb2b614082

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Hafetz, Jonathan - short clip - SoftTorture

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