Supervielle, Manuel - short clip - DirectlyInvitingtheRedCrosstoGuantanamo

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-	You know, there's an expression in the military that,	0:00
	that is, that it is better to ask for forgiveness	0:03
	than to ask for permission.	0:06
	That assumes that the person that is acting	0:09
	is going to be acting consistent with all their training,	0:12
	education, and values that they've received over the years.	0:14
	And so we got to a point here where we had,	0:18
	I thought we had pushed this thing as far	0:23
	as we were going to push it.	0:24
	And we had gotten a response which was,	0:25
	you know follow the principles, but not the convention.	0:28
	When you look at the third Geneva Convention,	0:30
	in particular, on POW's,	0:32
	there was a very clear and explicit theme and, and value,	0:34
	if you will, of transparency.	0:40
	And, and because that's, what's going to ensure,	0:43
	I mean that's what we were doing with the Colombians,	0:45
	basically, trying to create a JAG Corps	0:46
	to create transparency.	0:48
	It's the same thing here.	0:49
	So the, you know, the easiest way to do that would be	0:51
	to have the International Committee for the Red Cross,	0:55
	which is very specifically mentioned	0:57
	in the Geneva Convention,	0:59
	and have them be physically there to help us.	1:01
	And, oh, by the way, you know,	1:04
	I, I speak Spanish and I understand Latin America,	1:06
	but I knew that these guys that were coming	1:09
	did not speak Spanish and were not Latin.	1:11
	And so we needed some help, cultural help,	1:13
	and, and many other things.	1:16
	And so I went and spoke with,	1:18
	with our Chief of Intelligence, General Burgess,	1:20
	Chief of Operations, General Jackman,	1:24
	with our chaplain, with our doc, medical officer,	1:27
	and public affairs and others.	1:32
	And everybody was consistently saying,	1:33
	yeah it would be a good idea to have the ICRC.	1:36
-	When was this?	1:39
-	This was taking place, again,	1:41
	I think before the new year, late December.	1:43
-	So that early, you thought the ICRC, the Red Cross,	1:46
	should be present?	1:49
-	Well yeah, I mean, like I said,	1:51
	we had already gotten back the, the answer of	1:53
	treat them in a manner consistent	1:56
	with the principles, but not the convention.	1:57
	And so, you know, the short answer is, okay, well,	2:01
	one of the big, most important principles	2:04
	is transparency, ICRC.	2:06
	Let's do it.	2:09
	So eventually I got a hold	2:10
	of the Geneva office and I called them up.	2:10
-	And what'd you say to them?	2:13
-	Well, I introduced myself, you know.	2:15
	Colonel Supervielle, I'm the, the Senior Judge Advocate,	2:19
	JAG lawyer at U.S. Southern Command.	2:22
	You may have heard that in a few weeks	2:24
	we're going to be receiving these people	2:27
	that were captured on the battlefield from Afghanistan	2:28
	at Guantanamo, and when we're responsible	2:31
	for the operational planning	2:32
	of the detention of these people.	2:35
	Would you all be interested in having representation there?	2:37
-	And to which they said?	2:43
-	There's a long pause.	2:44
	And the guy asked me, he says, "Who are you again?"	2:46
	I said that I'm Colonel Supervielle.	2:49
	And he says, "And so you're you're inviting us	2:52
	"to come and be at Guantanamo?"	2:55
	And I said yes.	2:56
	He says, "Well, yes, we would very much like to be there."	2:58
	"Thank you very much."	3:01
	"That's very kind of you."	3:02
	And I said, "Well, you know, just."	3:04
	That was pretty much it.	3:07

Item Info

Title:

Supervielle, Manuel - short clip - DirectlyInvitingtheRedCrosstoGuantanamo

Date:

September 8, 2012

Interviewer:

Honigsberg, Peter Jan

Interviewee:

Supervielle, Manuel

Role:

Military

Description:

This interview may include descriptions of violence.
Senior Military Lawyer for Detention Operations
Manuel Supervielle, male, age 55, was the chief military lawyer at Southern Command, and the senior military lawyer for detention operations at Guantanamo Bay. In the spirit of transparency, as the first planeload of detainees was about to arrive in Guantanamo, he invited the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to visit the base.
Description was provided by Witness to Guantanamo.

Subject:

United States

Format:

oral histories

Language:

English

Extent:

2:44:51

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:

6efbec593dbbcbf23441f3684dbe4f64
witnesstoguantanamo
ark:/87924/r4b85b33r
d2989e1b-2f55-4f53-a73f-89a199c16f0e

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4b85b33r

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Supervielle, Manuel - short clip - DirectlyInvitingtheRedCrosstoGuantanamo

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