Heather N. Cerveny is a service member of the United States Marine Corps. In October 2006, she became the focus of national attention after her report about alleged mistreatment of detainees held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba was leaked to the media. Initially, her claims were rejected by a military investigator Col. Richard C. Bassett, and Cerveny was accused of making a false statement. Later, the Department of Defense's Inspector General announced that another inquiry would be launched into detainee treatment, based on Cerveny's affidavit. Prior inquiries, like the Schmidt Report, concluded that abuse at the camps was degrading, but did not rise to the level of "inhumane".
Incident
In October 2006, Cerveny served as Regional Defense Counsel Chief for the Marine Corps' Western Region in the Marine Corps Defense Services Organization and was ordered to take part as the paralegal in the Guantanamo military commission case of the United States v. Omar Khadr assisting Marine Lt. Col. Colby Vokey who acted as defense counsel. While at GTMO, she talked to a group of servicemen in civilian clothes in the Windjammer Club who apparently performed duties at the detention camps. Unbeknownst of Cerveny's affiliation with the United States Marine Corps Judge Advocate Division, they told her stories about certain coercive practices such as "hitting detainees, denying them water, and removal of privileges for no reason," among other things. She reported to Vokey all of that she heard and signed an affidavit describing alleged boasts of abusive treatment meted out to detainees. In his turn, Vokey filed a complaint with the Department of Defense based on Cerveny's affidavit.
Investigation
Gag order
, the civilian lawyer for Omar Khadr, shared that Cerveny, and her boss, Colby Vokey, Khadr's military lawyer, had been ordered not to speak to the media pending Marine chief defense counsel Col. Carol Joyce's review of Cerveny's claims. The report quotes a statement released by the Marines explaining that Col. Joyce:
... had directed him not to communicate with the media "pending her review of the facts. This is necessary to ensure all actions of counsel are in compliance with regulations establishing professional standards for military attorneys."
Colonel Richard Bassett was the officer assigned to investigate the allegations in Cerveny's affidavit. The investigation started on October 13 and lasted till November 15, 2006. The Associated Press quoted one of Bassett's superiors, who said Bassett: "...interviewed guards and some detainees during a visit to the naval base in southeast Cuba. He also traveled around the U.S. to speak with guards who had left Guantanamo," The Bassett Report was submitted to the United States Southern Command on December 10, 2006 and the results were made public in February, 2007. The report recommended no disciplinary action against the five Army and Navy servicemen, whom Cerveny accused in her affidavit, as Bassett asserted there was insufficient evidence to support Cerveny's claims. Based upon his findings through the investigation, Colonel Bassett then accused Cerveny of filing false reports. On December 18, 2008, Fox News, MSNBC and other media outlets published an Associated Press story based on previously classified portions of Bassett's inquiry they had acquired through a successful Freedom of Information Act request. had determined one of the men Cerveny had named had been part of the riot squad that had left a GI with brain damage who had been asked to masquerade as a detainee who represented a threat for a training exercise. The previously classified portions of the inquiry reported that another of the men had acknowledged abusing captives. According to Fox News Vokey reacted to the new information, saying: "the report shows the military ignored statements that undermined the sailors' denials." Fox News quotes spokesman Colonel William Costello saying he had nothing to add to "what we announced publicly almost two years ago."Fox News'' quoted Ben Wizner, of the American Civil Liberties Union, characterizing the original inquiry as "narrow", and pointed out that the inquiry hadn't reported the men hadn't abused captives, merely that there was "insufficient evidence" that they had bragged about doing so to Cerveny.
Aftermath
Some facts of undesirable treatment of detainees were established by independent observers such as Physicians for Human Rights and confirmed in The Report of the Constitution Project's Task Force on Detainee Treatment being reinforced by eyewitness corroboration.
