Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba: President Joe Biden turns the page on a legacy of 9/11 by ending the war in Afghanistan. But they have yet to do much about another: the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center.
The White House says it intends to close the prison at the US base in Cuba, which opened in January 2002 and where most of the 39 people still have not been charged with a crime. When and how the administration will execute that plan is unclear, although early steps to free one prisoner and place five others on a list of those eligible for release have generated optimism among those eager to watch it closely, including prisoners. has done.
The fact that Biden, at least, is saying the right things has given people hope, said Clive Stafford Smith, a lawyer who was recently on his 40th trip to Guantanamo Bay, watching the inmates he sees. Haven’t been able to travel since the start of the pandemic. . Hope is a dangerous thing because it is easily crushed. But at the same time, at least, they have hope and that’s good.
As he did with Afghanistan, Biden faces a complicated task in shutting down Guantanamo. It was a pledge that President Barack Obama famously made, and then failed to fulfill. The shutdown was completely abandoned as a target under President Donald Trump, who once vowed to load it up with some bad dudes, but mostly ignored the place.
Now the challenge remains: what should the US government do with the few people in Guantanamo, with a dozen or so unwilling to be released?
Among them is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, once a senior al-Qaeda figure believed to be the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. He faces a trial by the military commission, along with four co-defendants, stuck in the pretrial stage in a specially constructed high-security courtroom for more than 9 years amid legal and logistical challenges, personnel issues and the pandemic Is. There is no beginning in sight.
Mohamed and his co-defendants were in court for the first time this week to hear the merits of a new judge, Air Force Colonel Matthew McCall, to preside over the death penalty case since the start of the pandemic. This was the 42nd session of the pre-trial hearing since the hearing in May 2012.
With time come new problems. The oldest prisoner, a Pakistani who was released in May but who lives in Guantanamo, is 74 and has heart disease and other ailments. Many other men also have significant physical and mental health issues that will need to be addressed if the indefinite detention lasts longer. Since the opening of Guantanamo, nine prisoners have died of natural causes, and seven have died in apparent suicides.
People are getting older, sicker, more and more desperate, said Pardis Kebriye, a lawyer for the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents a Yemeni prisoner who was recently released but still held Is.
It’s not surprising, in fact, that no one made long-term plans for a detention center. It was a temporary project from the beginning.
Following the invasion of Afghanistan, in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks, the US wanted a place to hold hundreds of prisoners from dozens of countries who had been recaptured by US forces, many handed over, as later Turns out, whether they had ties to al-Qaeda or the Taliban.
The administration of then-President George W. Bush declared that they were the worst, and claimed it could capture men overseas as illegal enemy combatants without charge, prisoners of war at a sleepy naval outpost. not entitled to full protection. The jagged southeast coast of Cuba.
A photo released by the Pentagon shows the first detainees wearing orange jumpsuits and kneeling in outdoor cages under the tropical sun. Karen Greenberg, director of the Center on National Security at Fordham Law, said the purpose was to show that we are doing what we need to do in an outrageous message to the world.
Greenberg, author of The Least Worst Place: Guantanamos First 100 Days, said he regretted that decision too soon, within days if not weeks.
As reports of the brutal treatment surfaced, Guantanamo became a source of international outrage, which eroded America’s sympathy and support after the 9/11 attacks.
The US will eventually take 779 prisoners at Guantanamo and spend hundreds of millions building and operating what it is today, a tiny state prison surrounded by razor wire and guard posts on the shores of the shimmering Caribbean Sea.
Bush would eventually let 532 prisoners out. Obama released 197. Trump released a single captive, a Saudi, who went back to his homeland after a plea agreement in problem-ridden military commissions.
Some of those caught may be charged with a crime because when they were caught, no evidence was collected, or there was none, or when detainees were subjected to the CIA, this use Beyond was tainted by what the CIA called a better interrogation. Of those who survive, 10 are facing trial by the military commission, all still in the early stages.
Over the years, the population has been steadily declining as the US has decided that some men are no longer a threat and are not fit to hold up amid legal challenges. It has also been affected by hunger strikes and clashes between prisoners and guards, largely out of desperation over being held indefinitely without charge, which the US asserted under international laws of war. Was.
Guantanamo is smaller and quieter now. But Stafford Smith, founder of human rights organization Repriv, says it’s still oppressive. He said that it is not so much a physical condition, but a psychological condition. Being told that you are in Hotel California and you can check out but you can never leave is extremely damaging to people psychologically.
Obama, who issued an executive order soon after directing Guantanamo to close within a year, ran into political protests when his administration announced it would take military trials to federal courts. Congress eventually added the language to the annual Pentagon authorization bill, which prohibited the government from transferring Guantanamo prisoners to the United States for any reason.
In a sign that political winds may be shifting, Congress recently lifted a ban on relocating Guantanamo Bay prisoners from Pentagon authority and eliminated funding for the detention center from next year’s budget. It remains to be seen whether this will change, especially after many former prisoners released under both Bush and Obama emerged as Taliban leaders in Afghanistan.
The Biden administration, which did not respond to requests for comment for this article, did not say much about its plans.
When asked about the closure of Guantanamo in July, press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters, “I don’t have a timeline for you.” As you know, there is a process. There are different layers of the process. But it remains our goal, and we are looking at all available ways to responsibly move detainees and of course to close Guantanamo Bay.
Those supporting the shutdown are encouraged by the fact that the new administration has revived a review board process and approved five for release (none was approved under Trump). But they are concerned that the Biden team has yet to name anyone at the State Department to lead an effort to secure agreements with other countries to rehabilitate prisoners, as it did under Obama. had gone.
Many argue that the simplest solution would be to transfer the cases of 10 detainees facing trial by a military commission to federal court in the US and find a way to transfer or release the rest. Lawyer Kebriye, awaiting the release of the Yemeni client, said the administration only needed to address the issue.
There is a feeling that it has to be done and there is a very practical possibility that it can be done,” she said.
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Ben Fox writes about national security for the Associated Press in Washington. He has reported from Guantanamo Bay several times since 2005. Follow him on Twitter http://twitter.com/benfoxatap
Disclaimer: This post has been self-published from the agency feed without modification and has not been reviewed by an editor
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