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From the Horrors of Long Kesh to the Horrors of Abu Ghraib

24/08/08

It has been revealed that two men, Pól Brennan and Lane McCotter, each synonymous with one of the two most notorious prisons in modern history, one as a captive the other a jailer, are currently engaged in a battle of wills, one for freedom the other for confinement.

Many will be familiar with the plight of Pól Brennan. Originally from west Belfast, Pól Brennan was just one of many young Irishmen who were unwilling, yet courageous, passengers on the British conveyer belt consisting of Castlereagh torture centre, non-jury Diplock courts and ultimately the H-Blocks of Long Kesh. However, having endured the Blanket protest and the Hunger Strikes, where countless Irish republicans suffered and ten gallant men died, in 1983, Pól Brennan and 37 of his comrades escaped from the horrors of Long Kesh.

As we move from fame to infamy, we can examine the other part of this puzzle, Lane McCotter. Lane McCotter is the antithesis of Pól Brennan. Whilst Pól has struggled for freedom and justice his entire adult life, Lane McCotter has facilitated captivity and injustice for all of his.

In 1987, McCotter finally relented to public and political pressure and resigned from his post as ‘Executive Director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’ following scathing criticism surrounding overcrowding and violence, which resulted in the death of 12 prisoners.

Again, in 1997, McCotter was forced to resign from his post as ‘Director of the Utah Department of Corrections’ following the death of a schizophrenic prisoner who had been strapped naked to a chair for 16 hours for refusing to remove a pillowcase from his head. Such practices were later explicitly outlawed as a result of a courageous court battle waged by the dead inmate’s family, in which Lane McCotter was specifically named.

Already the subject of national notoriety, Lane McCotter’s name reached international infamy as a result of his involvement with the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, which is run exclusively by the occupation forces. Perhaps as a declaration of the occupation forces intent towards Iraqi prisoners, in 2003, the US administration selected Lane McCotter, an already publicly reviled and disgraced figure, to execute another ugly role. He became part of a four-man team tasked with reviewing the Iraqi ‘criminal justice system’, supervising the reconstruction of prisons and training Iraqi civilians to act as prison screws.

Following the international public outcry over the horrific treatment meted out to those Iraqi citizens with the misfortune of being interrogated, imprisoned and brutally tortured in Abu Ghraib, the US administration was at pains to point out that Lane McCotter had not personally managed Iraqi prisoners. Nor had he managed US military personnel based at Abu Ghraib, yet, he was the subject of intense criticism in the US Senate and elsewhere.

In relation to the denials of any wrong doing on Lane McCotter’s behalf, it is worth considering the following:

Are we to believe that when US ‘military police’ brutalized, humiliated, tortured and murdered Iraqi prisoners, they did so independently of men like Lane McCotter who were tasked with overseeing the reconstruction of Abu Ghraib and the training of its Iraqi personnel?

More to the point, are we to believe that Lane McCotter, a former ‘Lieutenant Colonel’ and ‘Military police officer’ also forced to resign from a number of prisons in the US following the mistreatment and deaths of prisoners under his ‘care’ was beyond fault in these cases.

Are we to believe he played absolutely no role in directing, inspiring or ignoring the brutalisation and deaths of Iraqi prisoners in a prison he set-up, by a section of the army he once commanded?

Whatever the answers to those questions, one pressing question that all Irish republicans need to ask themselves is this – is this the type of person we are willing to accept holding the key to a fellow republican’s freedom?

For in 2008, McCotter is now employed as the ‘Director of Corrections Business Development’ with the private prison company named Management & Training Corporation (MTC). One of the prisons under his control is that of the Willacy County Detention Center, also known as 'Tent City', which is currently under fire for having inadequate and overcrowded accommodation, in the form of tents, and according to reports leaked by prison staff, serving food ridden with maggots. Willacy County Detention Center is also where Pól Brennan is being held captive.

Pól Brennan is a danger to no-one. Since his escape from Long Kesh he has been living openly in the Bay area of San Francisco with his American born wife Joanna Voltz and their daughter. He and his family have already endured one lengthy legal battle in the US when he was arrested on the foot of a British extradition warrant. That warrant not longer exists. Pól’s most recent abduction and detention by the blunt US ‘Homeland Security’ apparatus is unjust, unwarranted and inhumane.

Pól Brennan has led a more honourable life than those that incarcerate him. Perhaps, those that detain him could at long last do the honourable thing and release him so that he may live in peace with his family, friends and community of the Bay area.

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