Last Thursday, however, another cause close to Cullen’s heart got priority treatment by President Barack Obama: executive orders signed by the new commander-in-chief will evetnally close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, and also other secret CIA prisons around the world.
“We got a call from someone at the National Security Council, asking us if we could come down to Washington, and come to the White House to witness President Obama signing the executive orders,” Cullen told the Echo
“I was at my vacation house in Dutchess County when I took the call.”
Brigadier-General Cullen, a New Yorker and child of Irish immigrants, became chief judge of the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals during a distinguished military career.
He had been doing some spring cleaning, and when his phone rang, had in fact been clearing out mouse droppings from an old cupboard.
“It was a tough decision,” joked Cullen, “but going to Washington narrowly won over cleaning up mouse droppings.”
He and 15 retired military colleagues have campaigned against the extra-judicial measures taken by the Bush administration against so-called “enemy combatants” in the War against terror since the Sept. 11th attacks.
At best unlawful and un-American according to Cullen and his colleagues, the retired military men have argued that the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq demonized the U.S. military in the eyes of many Iraqis, and at Guantanamo Bay, only about five percent of those incarcerated had been apprehended by U.S. personnel.
The majority were passed to the U.S. by foreign powers, and as such, Cullen noted, could have been hapless victims of feuds or score-settling in their home countries.
Often as much as $5,000 was paid for “enemy combatants,” an incentive which would be, said Cullen, “a fortune in somewhere like Afghanistan.”
For Cullen – a Vietnam veteran and a leader in the campaign to secure a full inquiry into the murder of Northern Ireland attorney Pat Finucane – and his 15 colleagues, all of them retired senior officers, the invitation to the White House was a shock, but a good one. It has confirmed to them that the new administration considered their cause of the highest importance, given that President Obama saw fit to deal with the matter on his third day in the job.
Still, they were unprepared for what they assumed would just be a photo opportunity and a very brief meeting with the President.
Instead, said Cullen, both Obama and Vice President Joseph Biden spent almost an hour with the men in the Roosevelt Room, next to the Oval Office, before the signing ceremony got underway.
“He and Vice President Biden sat with us quietly for that time, talking about the matter,” Cullen said. He recalled that he and his colleagues first met with Obama about a year ago in Des Moines, introduced to the then Democratic candidate by an advocacy group, Human Rights First.
On Thursday last, that meeting clearly paid dividends.
“We all went into the Oval Office for the signing,” Cullen said. “The President wanted to make sure we gathered around him.”
After signing the executive orders, President Obama said of the retired military men: “They have made an extraordinary impression on me.”
Cullen said that the president and vice president both said that the testimony of the retired officers about the secret prisons and special interrogation methods, was “one of the most compelling experiences they had during the campaign.”
“They got it,” Cullen said of Obama and Biden. “We did not have to sell it to them.”
“One of the things the new administration has been doing,” Cullen said, “was asking their experts, what were the best arguments on the opposing side, for keeping Guantanamo and the secret prisons operating. And there were no good answers. The Cheney cabal operated in a climate of fear.”
Arguments had been made which tried to justify the un-American, unjust torturing of prisoners of war, Cullen continued, but they took the form of the “Alan Dershowitz argument,” that if there were a ticking time bomb somewhere, then torturing suspects to have them reveal the bomb’s whereabouts would be justified.”
Cullen added: “If there is a time bomb ticking somewhere, then there has already been a massive failure of intelligence.”
Of President Obama, Cullen said: “He comes across as a man with a lot of common sense. Also, he has a good sense of self-deprecating humor. He had mentioned the Oval Office before we went into it, and called it ‘my little home office.’ But he also said to us that being in that office was a constant reminder of his responsibilities for the safety of the American people.
“Speaking as a military man, what you want in a leader is that they be courageous,” Cullen said. “And Obama is.”