The Terrorists Win Again

Adnan Farham Abdul Latif should have been released from Gitmo in 2004, when the Pentagon conceded that they screwed up when the snatched him from Pakistan to fill their daily quota of fake terrorists.  He should have been released in 2009, when, by unanimous vote of all United States intelligence agencies, it was concluded there was no reason to hold him.  Instead, Latif remained a prisoner.

Latif is now free, but not because the "land of the free" finally did the right thing. Latif is dead.

Via NBC's World News:

The Guantanamo detainee found dead in his prison cell last weekend had been cleared for  release three years ago by an Obama administration task force that concluded that his detention was no longer necessary, NBC News has learned. 

The disclosure that the detainee, Adnan Farham Abdul Latif, a 32-year-old Yemeni citizen, had been approved for repatriation could raise new questions about the handling of his case and those of scores of others held in Gitmo who also have been cleared for release. Instead, the detainees remain stuck in legal limbo in the U.S. prison for suspected terrorists with no prospect for getting out any time soon. 

At 32 years old, Latif had spent about a third of his life in an American prison.  He didn't take well to it, and it didn't take well to him either.

 

Military officials say that Latif had been a disciplinary problem: He had been on a hunger strike that he ended in June and recently had hurled a "cocktail" of food and bodily fluids at guards, causing him to be placed in a special disciplinary cell in Camp 5, where he was isolated from other detainees.

Isolated. Sedated. After all, maintenance of discipline and control is critical for a prison to run smoothly.  Everybody knows that.  Who does this guy think he is being all pissed off at America for holding him since 2002, having whisked him out of Pakistan and put him in an American-made orange jumpsuit.  So what if he did nothing to justify a decade in prison; you can't expect to hurl a "cocktail" and get away with it.

And so they put Latif in the hole, where he was found dead.  And nobody knows why, because it's not like they have cameras on every body and every place in Gitmo.  But these things happen.

 

Latif's death is the ninth at Gitmo since the U.S. prison for terrorists opened in January 2002 and the third since last year. The case is now the subject of an investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Military officials say that Latif, who had no serious medical problems, was found unconscious and unresponsive in his cell at Camp 5 on Saturday afternoon. After efforts to revive him failed, he was rushed to a hospital at the base and pronounced dead. An autopsy was conducted on Sunday, but the results have not yet been released.

Back in 2002, we were all filled with anger.  So when somebody told somebody who told an American that a guy was a terrorist, that was a good enough reason to snatch him and throw him in Gitmo.  They didn't need charges, because they were enemy combatants, and that was reason enough.  Grab him now and let someone with a higher pay grade sort it out later.  Until then, at least we're proving to the world that we won't let the terrorists get away with this.

And they did sort it out, though no one cared. And even though they sorted it out, and concluded that they grabbed a 22-year-old for no good reason, they held him.  And no one cared.  And ten years after he was grabbed, he was in isolation because he had the audacity to be displeased with losing a third of his life to American Exceptionalism even though there was no reason for him to be there. And no one cared.

And now Latif is dead. And no one cares.

Had someone named Smith been snatched and taken to a prison in Iran, we would care.  We might send in Seal Team 6, or maybe drop the bomb.  And if Smith was found dead in a hole, it would be the lead story on every network that night.  There would be outrage on Sunday morning television, and presidential candidates would be spitting at the camera. 

But this kid in Gitmo has the misfortune to be named Latif instead of Smith.  And misfortune to come from Yemen instead of Missouri.  And so his life means nothing to Americans. 

Eventually, the results of the autopsy will be in, but there will be no media reports about what really happened to Adnan Farham Abdul Latif.  How do I know this?  Do you know how the other eight died?  Do you care?

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