Ten years of 'Gitmo' -- and more to
come
11-01-12
Exactly 10 years ago Wednesday, the
first batch of terrorist suspects seized in Pakistan and Afghanistan arrived at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on board a C-141 transport plane. From freezing nights in
the depths of the Afghan winter, the 20 detainees stepped into a tropical
breeze looking dazed and bedraggled.
- ·
171
prisoners are now held at Guantanamo, including some from the first batch 10
years ago
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Many detainees have been released
or transferred to third countries over the past decade
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"Gitmo" has been a
focal point of debates about habeas corpus and alleged abuse
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Human rights lawyers dub a
detention facility in Afghanistan "the new Guantanamo"
As more arrived over the next
weeks, then-U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld described them as the
"the worst of the worst." And a few weeks after GTMO (as it quickly
became known) opened its doors, President George W. Bush said the detainees
were not entitled to the protection of the Geneva Conventions -- because they
were not part of a regular army.
Guantanamo's population grew
rapidly to a maximum of 680 the following year, and expanded beyond "Camp
X-Ray" to other blocks. In those early days, Human Rights Watch says,
detainees were subject to "painful stress positions, extended solitary
confinement, threatening military dogs, threats of torture and death" and
other abuses. The Bush administration, while insisting enhanced interrogation
techniques did not amount to torture, contended that exceptional methods were
legitimate in the face of an ongoing threat from terrorism.
Over the past decade, the very word
Guantanamo has become a touchstone in the debate over how democracy can protect
itself from terror while not denying access to justice. It has also become a
byword for political point-scoring and the subject of bitter argument in
federal court over the principle of habeas corpus. It has found its way into
popular culture, featured in Michael Moore's film "Sicko" and a Patti
Smith song.
Administrative reviews of detainees
obtained and published by WikiLeaks indicated that in many cases interrogators
knew little about those first groups of detainees. The evidence against them
was often anecdotal and anonymous, and in April 2003 Rumsfeld complained that
the military was "populating Guantanamo Bay with low-level enemy
combatants."
Many detainees have been released
or transferred to third countries over the past decade. But it has often been
difficult for the United States to find governments willing to take them. In
2009, four Uighirs from western China, who maintained they had fled to
Afghanistan to escape persecution by Beijing, were suddenly transferred to
Bermuda. Another 13 ended up on the Pacific Island of Palau, and yet another is
now a pizza cook in Albania.
But some of that first batch to
arrive at Guantanamo are among the 171 prisoners held to this day. Several
high-value detainees are likely to face trial by revamped military commissions.
In addition, 46 are deemed too dangerous to be released -- but too difficult to
prosecute, in either a military or civilian court.
Another 89 have been cleared for
release by multiple federal agencies, but they remain in limbo. (The last
detainee to leave Guantanamo was a 50-year-old Algerian, exactly one year ago.)
On New Year's Eve, President Barack
Obama signed into law new provisions that bar the transfer of detainees
currently held into the United States. for trial. The law also extends
restrictions on the transfer of detainees to home or third countries --
including those cleared for release by the administration. And it reaffirms the
executive's authority to detain anyone determined to be a member of al Qaeda,
the Taliban or associated forces "without trial until the end of hostilities."
Apparently without irony, the
remaining detainees are offered classes in "time management."
Attitudes have hardened in part
because a significant minority of GTMO detainees who were released or
transferred -- perhaps as many as 25% -- have returned to jihad. Some are now
senior figures in al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
The prevailing climate is a far cry
from the executive order Obama signed two days after taking office that pledged
to close Guantanamo by January 2010, as he declared that the "existence of
Guantanamo Bay likely created more terrorists around the world than it
detained."
Human rights groups have
consistently criticized Guantanamo's very existence, the mistreatment of
detainees and their lack of access to legal recourse. Attorneys specializing in
human rights issues have devoted thousands of hours to petitions in federal
court to win the release of detainees. But the Court of Appeals in Washington,
D.C., has invariably ruled in the government's favor. The latest case reached
the U.S. Supreme Court this week.
Some on the political right argue
that by their actions, detainees have forfeited their right to legal
protections. In 2008, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska mocked Obama's promise to
close the prison. "Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic
harm on America and he's worried that someone won't read them their
rights," she said.
Mitt Romney's view at the time was
that "Guantanamo is a symbol of our resolve. It's also just frankly smart
to keep these people not on our soil and not to have them having access to our
legal system." And Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) said last year
of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: "We're at war. ... He did not rob a liquor
store, he attacked our country."
Not all Republicans agree with such
an approach. In 2008, Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) suggested bringing all the
GTMO inmates to military tribunals at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. Still, a 2010 poll found that 60% of Americans favor keeping the prison open.
Unable to fulfill his election pledge
to close Guantanamo, Obama explored the option of trying more accused
terrorists in federal court, only to run into a political firestorm. A plan
announced in 2009 to try Mohammed in federal court in New York was dropped
after complaints about cost and security.
Mohammed and four others accused of
some role in the 9/11 the attacks will now face military tribunals at
Guantanamo, but have yet to be formally arraigned. The American Civil Liberties
Union has opposed the tribunals, saying they "are sure to be subject to
continuous legal challenges and delays, and their outcomes will not be seen as
legitimate. That is not justice."
Saudi-born Abd Al-Rahim Al-Nashiri,
a suspect in the USS Cole bombing, is the first detainee to face one of the new
military commissions, but his trial won't begin until late this year -- and the
prosecutor in the case has said there is no guarantee he would be released even
if acquitted. Al-Nashiri's case is emblematic of much of the controversy
swirling around Guantanamo. The CIA inspector-general found in 2004 that he was
water-boarded and had a power-drill revved close to his head while being
interrogated in 2002 at a "black site" in Thailand, which may
complicate the task of prosecuting him. The new commissions prohibit admission
of evidence obtained by cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.
According to human rights groups,
the fate of the prisoners left at Guantanamo is only a small part of a more
troubling picture, with nearly 3,000 alleged enemy combatants held without
trial in Afghanistan. More than a third of them, including
"high-value" Taliban, are held in a detention facility at the Bagram
Air Base, dubbed "the new Guantanamo" by human rights lawyers.
The Afghan government is now
demanding it take over the prison, saying detainees have alleged torture, strip
searches and freezing conditions (though these appear to have occurred in the
part of the prison already under Afghan control). Under international law, the
United States cannot hand over any detainees likely to suffer torture, and the
United Nations reported last year that detainees in Afghan custody are
routinely subject to such treatment.
As the allied military presence in
Afghanistan winds down, the fate of the detainees at Bagram seems certain to
grow in importance, especially if no political solution that includes the
Taliban is reached. The fate of the nearly 200 prisoners still held in a corner
of the Caribbean may exercise some of the best legal minds in America and
produce reams of paper from human rights organizations. The future of thousands
more in the unforgiving mountains of the Hindu Kush may have a greater bearing
on America's future security.
