Hegseth's call to execute Guantánamo detainees exposes the the tyranny of the United States regime

Guantanamo Bay — Hegseth's remarks are abhorrent as well as an admission of failure - a reminder that Guantánamo represents the US attitude to the rule of law. This is a man who wrote a book titled American Crusade, wears the battle cry of the First Crusade tattooed on his arm, and who began his career as a guard for the prisoners he wants dead. 

 Twenty-four years on, the Kafkaesque legal system has collapsed under the weight of its own corruption. Of the nearly 800 men once held, the overwhelming majority were released without ever being charged, cleared for transfer by the US government's own law enforcement agencies. Of the 15 who remain, only two have ever been convicted, and not in a proper court. The 9/11 case itself, the supposed justification for the entire system, has never reached a verdict. The prosecutions failed because the evidence was extracted through waterboarding and torture that no court could launder. Unable to convict, the crusader simply demands the killing proceed without trial.

It is against this record that the Secretary of Defense, calls for the execution of men who were never charged, never tried, and never given a single day of justice. His visit came on the same day as the 20th anniversary of the deaths of Yasser Al-Zahrani, Mani'a Al-Habardi Al-Utaybi and Ali Abdullah Ahmed, three men whose murders in the camp in June 2006 were declared “suicides” and have never been independently accounted for.

Mansoor Adayfi, Guantánamo Coordinator at CAGE International and a former detainee, said:

"He was there. I was there. I know what men like him did. The same system that tortured Yasser Al-Zahrani, Mani'a Al-Habardi and Ali Abdullah Ahmed and called it suicide is now calling for more killing. Twenty years later - no accountability, no truth, no justice.

"These men were kidnapped, sold for bounty, tortured and held for decades without trial. And now a former guard stands at the podium as the most powerful military official in the United States and calls for our execution. This is not justice and it is not law. It is the continuation of a crusade built on kidnapping, torture and impunity.

"We will not be silenced. We will not forget. And we will never accept that the torturer gets to decide who lives and who dies."

• US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth visited Guantánamo Naval Base on Wednesday 10 June, the day of the 20th anniversary of the deaths of Yasser Al-Zahrani, Mani'a Al-Habardi Al-Utaybi and Ali Abdullah Ahmed in the camp
• Following the visit, Hegseth told reporters: "These Gitmo detainees should have been executed, in my mind, personally, a long time ago"
• Of the 15 men still held, only two have ever been convicted by the military commissions - neither of a capital offence
• Nearly 25 years after 9/11, the case against the alleged plotters has yet to produce a single conviction
• Hegseth served at Guantánamo as a guard force lieutenant in 2004-05

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