Mohammed Jawad was captured in Kabul and given over to the US forces in 2003. At the time he was around 14 years young. And this is what the US has done to him:
What is not in dispute is that he was no older than an adolescent, and that since his capture he has been tortured and otherwise put through hell. The evidence against him has been discredited. He has tried to commit suicide. But the U.S. won’t let him go.
The treatment of the young captive was so egregious that the decorated U.S. Army officer assigned to prosecute him — a man gung-ho to secure a conviction against a defendant he believed had committed a serious crime against the American military — ended up removing himself from the case and declaring that he could no longer “in good conscience” participate in the military commissions set up to try accused terrorists.
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It turned out, as a military judge would later rule, that Jawad’s Afghan captors had obtained his confession by torturing him. Then the boy was taken by U.S. authorities to Bagram Air Field, the main U.S. military installation in Afghanistan, where he was held before eventually being transferred to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
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In a sworn affidavit, Colonel Vandeveld said, “This abuse included the slapping of Mr. Jawad across the face while Mr. Jawad’s head was covered with a hood, as well as Mr. Jawad’s having been shoved down a stairwell while both hooded and shackled.”
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Jawad also complained about being mistreated at Guantanamo, saying he had been moved with absurd frequency from cell to cell — the idea being to deprive him of sleep. A check of the official prison logs showed that Jawad had in fact been moved 112 times, without explanation, from one cell to another in a two-week period — an average of eight moves a day for 14 days.
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On Dec. 25, 2003, Jawad tried to kill himself by repeatedly banging his head against a wall of his cell.
There is no credible evidence against Jawad, and his torture-induced confession has rightly been ruled inadmissible by a military judge. But the Obama administration does not feel that he has suffered enough. Not only have administration lawyers opposed defense efforts to secure Jawad’s freedom, but they are using, as the primary basis for their opposition, the fruits of the confession that was obtained through torture and has already been deemed inadmissible — without merit, of no value.
There may be some Christians—who support the wars, or who support torture; who are strong Republicans, or absolute Bush backers—who will take that statement about “the Obama administration” not feeling that Jawad “has suffered enough,” and interject, “See! It’s Obama’s fault. He’s the one torturing this boy.”
That’s not where the responsibility lies. This boy—as well as all others tortured, killed, humiliated, wrongly imprisoned, falsely held, etc. during this disgusting, reprehensible and absolutely anti-Jesus1 crusade—was placed in that situation by the guidance and direction of the George Bush administration, with the unabashed support of the larger Christian community in this country.
I am a pacifist. I believe it would be hypocritical of me to force anyone to think the way I do, or believe what I believe, practice what I practice. I can’t force it. I take a nonviolent approach to even that. But I’m not talking about becoming a nonviolent follower of Jesus here. I’m denouncing the way so many Christians in this country have laid down there cross, taken up the sword, and have clearly hated their neighbors and their enemies. When that happens we must stand up and take a stand.
So many of those same Christians supported the capture, and even the execution, of Saddam Hussein because the man was evil. What the Bush administration has done, what the wars have done, is evil.
I urge you to read the entire article: How Long Is Long Enough? I agree with Michael Westmoreland-White, and thank him for the tip off.
1 Not only without Jesus, or outside the teachings and commands of our Lord and communion with Jesus and his Church, but truly anti-Jesus or against our God.
