Dixon, J. Wells - short clip - FailuretoClose

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-	They began their sort of renewed efforts	0:00
	to close the prison	0:03
	with these transfers to Algeria,	0:03
	which were, you know, highly controversial to say the least	0:05
	and disputed in the case of a number of the men,	0:10
	including my client, Mr. Missoulian.	0:12
	And so I sort of questioned the judgment	0:14
	their judgment in doing that.	0:16
	I don't know why in the world	0:19
	they would begin renewed efforts to close Guantanamo	0:21
	with contested transfers, but that's	0:24
	that's what they've done.	0:27
	And they've been, I would say marginally successful	0:28
	you know, they they've transferred several Algerians	0:31
	some of them against their will.	0:35
	Some of them voluntarily they've transferred	0:36
	I think two Saudi's three Uyghurs,	0:39
	if I'm not mistaken, that's it.	0:45
	And no one since, since January	0:47
	and there remains 77 men who were approved for transfer	0:50
	56 of them are from Yemen.	0:53
	I think a lot of people are surprised	0:55
	that Guantanamo still exists, or they think that	0:58
	everybody who is safe to release has already been released.	1:02
	They don't realize that more	1:06
	than half of the people are approved	1:08
	for transfer unanimously by all the government agencies.	1:09
	They don't realize that that the prison is now	1:14
	increasingly a prison for men from Yemen and you know	1:18
	out of sight, out of mind too, to a large degree.	1:24
	But I think when you, when you sit	1:27
	and you tell people the stories	1:28
	about the men who were there	1:30
	they're surprised and they're shocked and they're appalled.	1:32
	When I tell people about Jamella Mezzian	1:36
	my Algerian client, when I tell people that he was there	1:39
	for years, despite the government's admission	1:42
	that there was no need to detain him.	1:44
	When I tell them about Luxembourg offering to take him.	1:47
	When I tell them he's been forced back	1:50
	to Algeria and left utterly destitute	1:52
	with nothing but his prison uniform, people are appalled.	1:54
	They don't know these stories.	1:57
	They don't know that this is happening.	1:58
	And, and so that's one of the challenges that we	2:02
	face to try to convey these stories	2:05
	to tell people what's happening.	2:08
	And I think, you know, someday Guantanamo	2:10
	I guess we'll close, right?	2:12
	I mean, you know, it may be like as, as	2:14
	as a journalist who I'm forgetting is said, you know	2:20
	maybe like Spandau prison in, in Germany	2:22
	after world war II, you may end up with, you know	2:25
	one toothless old alleged Taliban foot soldier	2:28
	or a shepherd for all we know, you know, roaming around	2:35
	inside an empty prison until he dies of old age or neglect.	2:39
	You know, at some point, you know	2:44
	these men are gonna die and they're gonna,	2:47
	or kill themselves or it's inevitable.	2:50
	It's inevitable.	2:54
	There, there is no other alternative.	2:55
	And that's something that the US	2:57
	is going to have to deal with.	2:59
	And, and it's, it's going to be terrible.	3:02

Item Info

Title:

Dixon, J. Wells - short clip - FailuretoClose

Date:

May 13, 2014

Interviewer:

Honigsberg, Peter Jan

Interviewee:

Dixon, J. Wells

Role:

Detainee Attorney

Description:

This interview may include descriptions of violence.
Detainee Attorney
J. Wells Dixon, male, age 42, is Senior Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, where he specializes in challenging unlawful Guantanamo detentions in federal court, before the military commissions at Guantanamo, and in international proceedings.
Description was provided by Witness to Guantanamo.

Subject:

United States

Format:

oral histories

Language:

English

Extent:

2:08:25

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:

114f0367c1cdabf82d9799077fc1db31
witnesstoguantanamo
ark:/87924/r4k35tz8m
6fa2bcfc-e1a3-4b64-81a1-f4b5a259a4b6

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4k35tz8m

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Dixon, J. Wells - short clip - FailuretoClose

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