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January 11, 2012 in Nation/World
Ten years after first detentions, controversy remains
First prisoners arrived 10 years ago
Ten years ago today, U.S. troops marched 20 men in chains off a military cargo plane at Guantanamo Bay to launch America’s war-on-terror experiment in offshore detention and justice. Now, the prison camps enter their second decade with death penalty tribunals on the horizon and President Barack Obama still struggling to find a formula for closure.
Here are some developments Guantanamo watchers can expect to see:
Pressure to expand
Congress has through a variety of legislation tried to grow the enterprise that has hundreds of empty cells in the crude complex that sprawls along the U.S. Navy base’s waterfront. But the Obama administration’s goal is to shrink then close it.
“It’s the president’s stated objective to never send anyone to Guantanamo again,” Army Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale said on Tuesday. As of this week, the military had 1,850 U.S. troops and Defense Department contractors on staff of the prison holding 171 captives.
Prison camp unrest
Tensions are high over a toughening of rules. Captives complain that the camps instituted a new 25-day punitive segregation regime for rule breakers in a cramped cell at the once-secret Camp 5 Echo; that guards are seizing captives’ spare blankets and clothing after years of a more liberal cell “comfort item” policy; and that guards are now shackling a captive by all four limbs, not just at his ankles, at medical appointments.
On Tuesday, captives told their guards they’d be refusing meals, staging sit-ins and hanging protest signs for three days surrounding the anniversary, according to accounts from the military and defense lawyers.
Justification
The White House wants to wind down the war in Afghanistan. And it’s the heart of the conflict that Congress OK’d in the Sept. 18, 2001, Authorization for the Use of Military Force, from which the Pentagon designed its indefinite detention regime.
But, “If there are peace talks and if the war is considered over, what will the courts say about continued detention?” says Andrew Prasow, a former Guantanamo defender and now senior counterterror counsel for Human Rights Watch.
Ten Guantanamo captives are Afghan, and some of the 171 prisoners probably never even set foot on Afghan soil after 9/11. But the basis for captivity in Cuba stems from the conflict in Afghanistan.
“Will a court say the conflict has ended?” Prasow asks. “After Osama bin Laden is killed, after peace talks with the Taliban, it may no longer justify indefinite detention.”
Death penalty
Prosecutors expect to bring the alleged 9/11 plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four co-defendants before the war court on death penalty charges. And the first man to face a capital trial is the alleged USS Cole bomber, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. CIA agents waterboarded both men.
The two cases, says attorney Matt Waxman, who ran detainee affairs in the Bush years, “combine ‘big fish’ defendants, interrogation controversy and the prospects of death penalties.
Those factors combine to raise the profile of these cases, if not their stakes.”
The public should also expect to learn in the 11th year whether the Obama administration ramps up its reformed commissions or continues to rely on federal civilian prosecutions for terror cases.
Canadian may go
The Canadian who threw a grenade at age 15 that killed a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan in 2002 could go to a prison in Canada any day now.
Under an October 2010 plea agreement, Omar Khadr pleaded guilty and got at most eight more years confinement, in consideration of his age.
Now, says his Toronto attorney, John Norris, the latest defense bill makes it easier for the Obama administration to transfer the 25-year-old from Guantanamo. The Toronto-born Khadr’s lawyers expect he’ll suddenly turn up in a federal penitentiary in Ontario or Quebec, where the country keeps convicted terrorists. Then in 2013, after a third of his sentence, Khadr can apply for parole under Canada’s legal code for juvenile offenders.
More attention
With the Iraq war over, the show business theater is shrinking, too. So expect more entertainers to join the pilgrimages by everyone from musicians to comedians to Shakespearean actors to Lady Gaga lookalikes to the Navy outpost that gets free first-run movies every night.
Entertainers get easy commutes, the run of the base’s bars and guest quarters with 24-hour cable TV. Next up: The Atlanta based pop-rock quintet Cartel plays a rock ‘n’ roll half marathon Jan. 29.
Also, Guantanamo continues to provide fodder for the imagination with this year’s release of the novel “From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant.” It’s Alex Gilvarry’s tale of a Filipino design school graduate who is swept off to the prison camps and trial as a “Fashion terrorist.”
Inquests end
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service should close the books on what killed Awal Gul, 48, whom the prison camps say collapsed in a prison shower in February after working out on an exercise machine, and Haji Nassim, 37, whom guards reportedly discovered in May hanging by a bedsheet in a prison recreation yard.
Investigations of the deaths of both Afghan “indefinite detainees” are still considered open, says Ed Buice at the NCIS in Quantico, Va.
“All death cases go through the Death Review Board, then Death Review Panel process.
“They get very careful scrutiny to make sure that every conceivable lead has been found and followed, evidence gathered and analyzed, every step documented, etc.”
Campaign theme
Expect the Republicans to portray Obama as soft on terror for still wanting to close the camps that have stirred anger in the Muslim world and unhappiness among U.S. allies.
And expect the president to reply that it was on his watch that U.S. forces killed bin Laden, for whom America built a prison compound at Guantanamo.
Salmonella linked to chicken handling 
misjustice on January 11 at 5:36 a.m.
Gitmo, brought to us by the Cheney Criminal Enterprise…it is past time to close this site and end the practice of indefinite detention.
dataxman on January 11 at 6:09 a.m.
While Obama has failed to live up to this campaign promise, at least he is doing his best to keep the population from going up, by killing suspected terrorists - including US citizens. But hey - I guess when a president authorizes extrajudicial it doesn’t bother the left as long as he is member of the democrat party…
Pigrobin on January 11 at 6:14 a.m.
You guys are right, we had no reason to keep these people alive.
greyhound2 on January 11 at 6:39 a.m.
Part of the problem is that the US military paid a $500 reward for information leading to arrest of suspected terrorists. In a US court, heresay (somebody told me that so and so did something but I did not personally see it) is not admissable. In Afganistan, people would turn in their own mother for $500 as it is a lot of money there. If Al Queida’s objective was to repeal the US Bill of Rights, they have done a pretty good job. Another problem is, when do you expand unlawful detention to just somebody you don’t like?
RedCedar on January 11 at 8:12 a.m.
I think I will never understand why so many conservatives believe that anyone the US government alleges is a “suspected terrorist” has no rights. It makes me wonder if they really feel any differently about anyone the local police feel is a “suspected criminal”. When it comes the use of force by government, we either have the rule of law or summary judgment, and with summary judgment there will always be plenty of mistakes going both ways.
Guantanamo was a bad idea to begin with and I’m disgusted with Obama for failing to close it. If nothing else, there are no doubt plenty of secret prisons around the world where undesirables can be hidden away and/or tortured by third parties. At this point, it does no good to blame Bush and Cheney for it. They are no longer in positions of power. What I blame directly are the liberal president who doesn’t have the cojones to keep his campaign promise, out of fear of being called “weak”, and the “conservative” Republicans who are so scared of a handful of “ragheads” on the far side of the Earth that they can’t even give them an honest trial in a real court before executing them.
These conservatives are particularly disgusting because they generally claim to be strict constitutionalists. The constitution clearly says that only congress shall have the power to declare war. it also clearly binds the federal government to adhere to basic rules of law when depriving people of their rights (e.g. imprisoning them or killing them). The language is “no person”, not “no US citizen”. Conservatives can give you a plain reading of the Constitution when it comes to the second amendment, but when it comes to the “war on terror”, they’re happy to dance all around the definition of a war, the notion of an “unlawful combatant”, and the requirement for habeas corpus and a proper trial in a proper court. And of course the idea of a “unitary presidency” (e.g. a dictator) for all matters that can possibly be considered to be in some way related to national security, is just fine with them too, so long as they like the President.
gmorton on January 11 at 10:32 a.m.
Excellent comment, RedCedar. I second every word.
liberal_in_right_wing_land on January 11 at 11:39 a.m.
Remember Obama has tried closing Gitmo a couple of times and move the prisoners to prisons somewhere else in the country only to be rebuffed by republican, and a some democrats, efforts saying they don’t want these people on American soil.
Here is one example of a town in Montana that wanted to hold these prisoners, blocked by Democrat Max Baucus, a true DINO, but even republicans in Montana were supporting this proposal.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1894373,00.html
mikeln on January 11 at 11:40 a.m.
How much is this costing us? Not only in dollors but respect from the rest of the world. How many are defense contractors and how many are military? And the big question for me is why do we have a military base in cuba anyway. This whole thing stinks and it seems americans will never get the truth. Could it be that some of the people we have locked up could put light on the crimminal activities our corporate ran government is up too? The people that really belong locked up are sipping thier servant made coffee while making plans for a weekend on the big boat. Why we keep letting these people use our military to secure thier stolen booty in other peoples countries is beyond me.
pjc on January 11 at 1:13 p.m.
To overcome extremism, we must also be vigilant in upholding the values our troops defend – because there is no force in the world more powerful than the example of America. That is why I have ordered the closing of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, and will seek swift and certain justice for captured terrorists – because living our values doesn’t make us weaker, it makes us safer and it makes us stronger.
BARACK OBAMA, Address to Joint Session of Congress, Feb. 24, 2009
Coffee on January 11 at 6:03 p.m.
Things will improve down there once we start sending US citizen picked up under the new laws allowing indefinite detention without charge or trial.
http://rt.com/usa/news/obama-detention-ndaa-aclu-303/
gmorton on January 11 at 8:59 p.m.
Coffee,
Never expected to see the US called to task in the Russian press for civil liberties offenses – and they be right.