Captain Kirk Black: the hidden hero

Former Guantánamo guard Captain Kirk Black's suggestions on how to deal with the rest of the Bay's prisoners have fallen on deaf ears.

Disappointment has rippled through the ranks of Obama supporters in recent days, with his backtracking over the Guantánamo military commissions and other "War on Terror" issues.

On Monday, the Times reported another opportunity to rehabilitate America’s image, and it seems that the Administration is poised to pass this up as well.

Captain Kirk Black is the hero of the piece. He was a Swat team police officer in civilian life, mobilised into the military. I met Capt. Black in Guantánamo in 2006; I was representing prisoners and he was guarding them. He is now stationed in Ghazni, Afghanistan, where his job includes meeting with the local shura council and trying to resolve their complaints.

Gul Khan is, according to Capt. Black, an innocent sheep farmer who was swept up by the US military. They mistakenly thought he was one Qari Idris, a Taliban honcho. Khan was badly beaten by US forces, then banged up in Bagram Air Force Base where he has languished without legal rights for more than nine months.

There are two approaches that the Obama Administration might consider here: One is to replicate Guantánamo. We can ignore our 220-year commitment to due process and hope that the military sort things out for Mr. Khan sometime in the next several years.

The Guantánamo experiment has not gone well. We have made an alarming number of mistakes, and the military has proven incapable of sorting the al Qaida wheat from the bystander chaff. Of the 779 prisoners held to date, 539 have been released, most long since. After seven years, the remaining 240 should have been whittled down to the very worst “enemy combatants”: of the 30 men to reach federal court so far, judges have ruled that an embarrassing 25 are entirely innocent. An 83 per cent error rate is not good enough even for government work. Meanwhile, the mere mention of Guantánamo inspires anger around the world – anger at our hypocrisy, for preaching law and practicing lawlessness.

Notwithstanding this, the Guantánamo model has thus far been adopted in Mr. Khan’s case. As Capt. Black feared, we have only managed to alienate the local population and amuse the real Qari Idris, who is probably hiding in the mountains taking the occasional shot at an American soldier. We have made Capt. Black’s life more dangerous, and minimized our chance of success in Afghanistan.

Alternatively, we could try the program that Capt. Black proposed to his superior officers. Capt. Black suggested that he listen to the shura council and identify anyone who seemed to be the victim of an injustice. He would then – as in the case of Gul Khan – send the family’s version of the case to me at the charity Reprieve. With no cost to the government, we would secure pro bono assistance for the prisoner, and make a submission to the authorities at Bagram. Sometimes this would resolve the case. Sometimes it would not – in which case we would file a habeas petition in the US, again at no cost to the government or the prisoner.

Capt. Black offers to rehabilitate America’s reputation, and perhaps truly win some hearts and minds. The per capita annual income of the average Afghani is roughly $400, so Mr. Khan could hire a major US law firm for about one hour a year. Capt. Black promises free legal assistance those who believe they have been treated unfairly. He believes – and who could honestly disagree with him? – that his work would do more for the safety of his fellow soldiers than wielding a gun.

Thus far the military’s response has been to threaten Capt. Black with sanctions, and forbid him from making any further comment on the case. The hero has been punished, and justice muzzled.

Meanwhile, I have pitched the plan to the White House through various channels over the past two months, receiving only the most profound silence in reply. But the offer still stands. Does President Obama have the courage to seek true change, or should we expect our lives to be bound forever in shallows and in miseries?

This article first appeared in the New York Times.