Interview with Dr David Nicholl

Dr David Nicholl is a consultant Neurologist based in Hagley. He has campaigned tirelessley for the release of all Britons in Guantanamo, and shows no signs of stopping until the last one, Shaker Aamer, is released.

Can you please introduce yourself to our readers?

I grew up in Belfast during the Troubles. Although I was not affected first-hand by violence, you could not live in Northern Ireland at that time and not witness the effects of bigotry, terrorism and lousy politics. Before studying medicine in Birmingham, I had spent a year living in the US- so, much as I loved America, I was well aware of how unworldly wise many Americans are.

 
What made you, an NHS consultant from Hagley, first get involved in the cause of the Guantanamo prisoners? 

After 9/11, I was angry, as many were, at such an utterly atrocious act (I had once spent an amazing evening with friends in the World Trade Centre some years before), but was incredulous as the US made the error of treating an abominable act of terrorism for an act of war. With the opening of Guantanamo and the transfer of people like yourself, Moazzam, I was very worried that the US was repeating the mistakes of Northern Ireland but in a much bigger more global manner which would have catastrophic consequences for all of us. You see, in Northern Ireland during the 1970s when detention without trial took place, (‘internment’) your chances of being blown up or murdered trebled. Quite literally imprisonment without charge alienated people and made it more likely for terrorism to occur.
 

When did you first get actively involved and why?

It was a simple thing. I recall seeing your father speak out, ‘Either charge my son or release him’ and travel to Washington DC with Terry Waite, and I could totally relate to that. Yet it was very clear that politicians like Blair had no interest in what was happening in Guantanamo. I had been a member of Amnesty since a student, so I wrote a letter to my MP, but the government wasn’t listening.
Around the same time, I was coming up to my 40th birthday in 2005 and had started running. When I was out for a run, I got thinking: could I combine my passions for running and politics together? I knew that the London marathon in 2005 would be a few weeks before the general election and I had this haunting idea. The image of a white (clearly non- Muslim) guy in an orange Gitmo jump suit running through a bunch of athletes would be somewhat striking!
 

I recall our first meeting in Birmingham City Centre when you were wearing an orange Guantanamo-style boiler suit and a chain wrapped across your chest, in preparation for the London marathon which you later ran in the cause of the Guantanamo prisoners - especially Shaker Aamer. How much preparation did you have to do for that and, what do you think was achieved?

That run into Birmingham was, in fact, a test run! I had to run in the kit to make sure I could do it and didn’t get chafed in places I shouldn’t get chafed!! The whole experience taught me so much about campaigning. In fact, I remember having run 13 miles, running to meet you – and being a bit emotional. Afterwards watching the footage, I thought my passion had got the better of me. It made me reflect on the importance of keeping one’s cool…but I had run 13 miles. I built up my training for the marathon over about 6 months, having never run much beforehand. Running is such a good way to clear your head and think. I’m sure this helped with planning. When it came to the London marathon, I was much more nervous about going to Downing Street with some of the relatives of Gitmo prisoners. I knew that on the one hand, I needed to go to Downing Street in ‘costume’ (for media attention), yet with an election weeks away, in reality this was never going to work. Would they really have let the relatives in to deliver a letter? No chance; I felt as if I had let them down. Yet what struck me was how dignified the family members were; they all looked so unsurprised as in ‘we have all been here before’. As a consequence, I got to know some of them, especially the family of Omar Deghayes. That led to much campaigning, but ultimately the successful release of Omar, much to everyone’s relief. The same week as the marathon, I got a phone call from the lawyer who represented many of the Guantanamo prisoners, Clive Stafford-Smith, the legal director of Reprieve. I will never forget that call when he opened with “Dr Nicholl your shackles are great, but the real ones are made in Birmingham”. I was so shocked, that I didn’t believe him, but after the marathon, I knew I couldn’t stop there. Both for the sake of the families I had met and also the issue of the Guantanamo shackle factory that was literally up the road from where I worked.

So I think apart from raising over £2000 for Amnesty, I still find it amazing the ‘spin offs’ that came from running the marathon. Indeed I learnt so much on how to campaign, not just on human rights issues, even NHS issues and our local school gym! En route, I have met some truly remarkable people from pretty diverse backgrounds.
 

We met several times after, including the time when you demonstrated - many years before Mos Def's experiment - how force-feeding is carried out in Guantanamo in order to break the hunger-strikes. As both doctor and activist please describe what that experience was like and why you felt it necessary to demonstrate the process to others?

Inherently, I cannot stand a lie, and the bigger the lie, the more I can’t stand it. I got increasingly fed up with the lies coming out from the Pentagon about the humane medical treatment at Guantanamo, when I had seen (via Reprieve) the affidavits from the doctors involved. So when I was driving home one Friday night I heard a Pentagon spokesman speak on the radio about the bland ‘involuntary feeding’ - I felt I had to challenge that lie head-on. I reflected on this over the weekend, I had the affidavits describing the methods, I knew I was going to be in London the following Tuesday. So I made a few calls, we couldn’t do it outside Parliament (that would have a breach of the SOCA law prohibiting protest) but the US embassy was OK. As I recall, I had a pint of Guinness for courage or maybe good luck beforehand? The police weren’t bothered but did ask me “Dr Nichol could you quieten down please, you are frightening some young tourists”. In fact, I had to use the safety signal to get them to stop, it was just too dangerous. In fact, afterwards I can remember reading about the Suffragettes and how some had died whilst being force fed. I promised my wife I would never do anything so dangerous again. I haven’t.
 

You have now begun a 5-day hunger strike in solidarity with Shaker Aamer. There are many less painful ways to campaign against injustice, what makes you opt for methods very few others would be willing to endure?

Maybe I’m getting cocky, but I think this will be the most boring protest I’ve done, though clearly it is very emotive. I have had to be extremely careful, so although on the one hand a hunger strike sounds very dangerous, as a doctor, I have to put my patients first. If Sept 11th 2013 had been on a Tuesday, I wouldn’t have done this, but a Wednesday was OK. I studied the evidence from hunger strike cases and there just was no evidence that an otherwise fit man would come to any harm in the first 72 hours (when I would be working). I had to check with my medical defence organization and have a contingency plan ‘just in case’ I became ill. So in reality that was the hard part, making sure I had a plan that was totally safe for my patients. After that, the fasting will hopefully be a bit dull.

When it comes to any protest, I have to be comfortable in my heart that it is the right thing and in my brain that I can achieve the correct outcome. In this instance, when the comedian, Frankie Boyle, and the actress, Julie Christie , did a 7 day fast,  this did not ‘float my boat’ as it were. When I heard that  ex MI6 spy, Harry Ferguson, had done this,  my attention was caught. It appeared that he, like myself, was convinced that Shaker Aamer had been stitched up by the security services. Something I had been suspicious of for  some years . That photograph from my 2005 marathon bid had increasingly rankled me, as all the relatives bar one had seen their relatives released, apart from Shaker’s father-in-law, Saeed Siddique. To me that feels like unfinished business, like a stone in my shoe, but also the further revelations that  M16 were present  during his torture disturbed me greatly.
 

Your hunger strike begins began on September 11th, twelve years to the day since the attacks in the US, which led to the “war on terror”. What does this date mean to you today?

It was such a profound moment for all of us. On the one hand, I saw my oldest daughter take her first steps, so it kind of felt like the end of the Age of Innocence. Yet, it is just horrendous that Shaker has not even met his son Faris - I just cannot imagine how that feels. Although, I profoundly disagree with the approaches that were used post 9/11, personally I am very proud of the things I have done and learned as a consequence. I guess I am an optimist even in dark times.
 

Did you have to make any preparations - physically or psychologically - before you started this?

That is always the most important part, to think of the unthinkable things that could go wrong and prepare for them or look at how to minimize the risk. So I have involved many colleagues and other experts in planning this. In this instance, for example, I had to ensure there was no risk to my patients, which was why I am only doing a 5 day fast compared to others who have done 7 days. In fact, the person who has been the most help, has been Shaker! His advice on hunger striking has been invaluable- I was cursing him over the prunes, but I think they were invaluable in my preparations now! Enough said.
 

Hypothetically speaking, how long do you think you could sustain a hunger strike, if you had to?

Ask me when I’m finished! I would not want to compare the minor inconvenience I am going through compared to the nightmare from hell Shaker is going through.
 

You've often made reference to your children when campaigning for people like Shaker Aamer who have been separated from - or not even met - their own children. Would it be possible to empathise with such cases without such personal self-reflections?

I’m not sure that it is, we are all human and it is our families and friends that make us who we are, and life worth living.
 
There are those who would argue that there's 'no smoke without fire' and that people like Shaker are rightfully kept interned to keep the rest of us safe or to punish them for their past actions and associations. How would you respond?

Really what kind of country do we want? A dictatorship or a democracy? If people really feel like that, would they be entirely happy if an innocent member of their family, their husband, wife or child were held without charge for 11 years at a time? Of course not. If they are happy with that, then welcome to the dictatorship of your worst nightmares. Personally, I want to live in a country where the law is respected and so are all people.
 
 
What would you say to President Obama and Prime Minister Cameron if you had the chance to speak to them about Shaker? 

I know that government is difficult, but really releasing someone you cleared for release 6 years ago has got to be one of the easier decisions. Yes you can release Shaker, so do it, and then get onto the hard decisions.
 

What advice do you have for those who wish to help in the campaign to get Shaker released?

The hardest step is always the first one - convincing yourself to do anything. Yet truly apathy is the disease of our age, it must be stopped. I prefer to think of the words of Nelson Mandela ‘the struggle is my life”. Embrace struggle, take part in it, but always with determination and a smile.