Ishmael Beah Reads from a Sworn Statement of Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld
Ishmael Beah reads an excerpt from a sworn statement of Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld, former lead prosecuter in the military commission case of detainee Mohammed Jawad, as part of the 2009 PEN event Reckoning with Torture: Memos and Testimonies from the “War on Terror”. Read the statement below.
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Sworn Statement of Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld, Former Lead Prosecuter in the Military Commission Case of Detainee Mohammed Jawad
I, Darrel Vandeveld, declare as follows:
I am a Lieutenant Colonel in the Judge Advocate General Corps. Since the September 2001 attacks, I have served in Bosnia, Africa, Iraq and Afghanistan. My awards include the Bronze Star Medal, the Iraqi Campaign Medal, and two Joint Meritorious Unit Awards.
I offer this declaration in support of Mohammed Jawad’s petition for habeas corpus.
I was the lead prosecutor assigned to the Military Commissions case against Mr. Jawad until my resignation in September 2008. Initially, the case appeared to be as simple as the street crimes I had prosecuted by the dozens in civilian life. But eventually I began to harbor serious doubts about the strength of the evidence.
Mr. Jawad was alleged to have thrown a grenade at U.S. troops, but the victims of the attack had not seen the attacker. At least three other Afghans had been arrested for the crime and had subsequently confessed, casting considerable doubt on the claim that Mr. Jawad was solely responsible for the attack. And I learned that the written statement characterized as Jawad’s personal confession could not possibly have been written by him because Jawad was functionally illiterate and could not read or write. The statement was not even in his native language.
I also found evidence that Mr. Jawad had been badly mistreated by U.S. authorities both in Afghanistan and Guantanamo. Mr. Jawad’s prison records referred to a suicide attempt, a suicide which he sought to accomplish by banging his head repeatedly against one of his cell walls. The records reflected 112 unexplained moves from cell to cell over a two week period, an average of eight moves per day for 14 days. Mr. Jawad had been subjected to a sleep deprivation program known as the “frequent flyer program.”
I lack the words to express the heartsickness I experienced when I came to understand the pointless, purely gratuitous mistreatment of Mr. Jawad by my fellow soldiers.
It is my opinion, based on my extensive knowledge of the case, that there is no credible evidence or legal basis to justify Mr. Jawad’s detention in U.S. custody or his prosecution by military commission. Holding Mr. Jawad for six years, with no resolution of his case and with no terminus in sight, is something beyond a travesty.
I have taken an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States and I remain confident that I have done so, spending over four of the past seven years away from my family, my home, my civilian occupation—all without any expectation of or desire for any reward greater than the knowledge that I have remained true to my word and have done my level best to rise to our Nation's defense in its time of need.
I did not “quit” the military commissions or resign; instead, I personally petitioned the Army's Judge Advocate General to allow me to serve the remaining six months of my two year voluntary obligation in Afghanistan or Iraq. In the exercise of his wisdom and discretion, he permitted me to be released from active duty. However, had I been returned to Afghanistan or Iraq, and had I encountered Mohammed Jawad in either of those hostile lands, where two of my friends have been killed in action and another one of my very best friends was terribly wounded, I have no doubt at all—none—that Mr. Jawad would pose no threat whatsoever to me, his former prosecutor and now-repentant persecutor.
Six years is long enough for a boy of sixteen to serve in virtual solitary confinement in a distant land, for reasons he may never fully understand. Mr. Jawad should be released to resume his life in a civil society, for his sake, and for our own sense of justice and perhaps to restore a measure of our basic humanity.
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