Supreme Court correspondent and author, Jess Bravin, visited West Chester University on Tuesday night in Main Hall auditorium to discuss his new book, “The Terror Courts: Rough Justice at Guantanamo Bay.”
The book follows the story of 9/11 and the aftermath that is still unfolding. Bravin explores the terrorist attacks on the U.S., and the punishment of those captured and imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay. He focuses on the choice of the Bush Administration to use military commissions on the prisoners and to secretly use immoral torture methods so cruel that they led to the release of some defendants.
Bravin referenced WCU in the second chapter of his book. Former WCU student, Michael Horrocks, was the co-pilot of the United Flight 175–which was hijacked and crashed during 9/11. “The FBI concluded that the terrorists slit his [Horrocks] throat and took control of his plane,” said Bravin. The university had placed a life-size bronze statue in memory of Horrocks on campus on the ninth anniversary of 9/11.
“What I want to do in this book is let people reach their own conclusions,” said Bravin. His book follows the true story of Marine Lt. Col. Stuart Couch who began investigating Guantanamo Bay in 2003 and who uncovered the torture the prisoners were subjected to. Bravin, a journalist himself, stated that writing “is not just about putting out facts, but also about telling a story. It is always helpful to have a consistent point of view to connect and diffuse ideas and events. [Couch] was one person who encapsulated what the U.S. government had to deal with after 9/11.”
Bravin explained that Couch was brought into Guantanamo Bay and witnessed a humane interrogation on video, but simultaneously heard heavy metal music playing down the hall. Couch went to investigate, assuming that the guards were throwing a party, but instead discovered a prisoner, Mohamedou Ould Slahi, rocking back and forth in agony while strobe lights pulsed throughout the room. Intelligence kicked him out shortly after.
Couch was assigned to prosecute the prisoners who allegedly were responsible for the 9/11 attack. Bravin said that as a prosecutor, one is “very aware that whatever evidence you have, the defence [will try to undermine it.] For that reason, he [Couch] wants to know what is going on before it gets into trial, and he [too] is surprised.”
Couch discovered that the prison was using SERE methods to obtain information from the prisoners. SERE is the the military’s Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape program that is used on U.S. aviators to prepare them to avoid capture, and if not, to avoid a mental breakdown during capture. The SERE program lasts one week, and “they all break, even though they know the operation is fake,” according to Bravin. The “top officials of the Pentagon specifically said to reverse-engineer [the SERE program] to interrogate instead of survive and resist,” said Bravin.
After his discovery of the methods used to obtain confessions, Couch decided not to prosecute Mohamedou Ould Slahi. “Slahi’s incriminating statements-the core of the government’s case-had been taken through torture, rendering them inadmissible under U.S. and international law,” wrote Bravin in The Wall Street Journal.
Bravin said that Couch could not bring himself to prosecute Slahi, because of the law and Couch’s own personal morals. Bravin stated that not only was torture illegal, but Couch believed that it was “unethical to use fruits of the poisonous tree” to obtain the information the U.S. government was seeking, explaining that Couch was a very religious man.
Guantanamo Bay is still in operation, although “reformed to be far less unfair…now it is neither unconstitutional nor constitutional,” according to Bravin. Bravin stated that 9/11 pre trials have been going on for more than a year, and the actual trials aren’t scheduled to happen until 2014. Bravin said that the defendants are committed fanatics who desire to be martyrs and are willingly pleading guilty. It is the government who is worried about the outcome of the trial, because they will be exposed for “keeping secret what they have done to these defendants,” explained Bravin.
Colleen Cummings is a second-year student majoring in English. She can be reached at CC763510@wcupa.edu.