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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
CONTACT: Human Rights First |
Closing Guantanamo Remains National Security Priority as 8th Anniversary Approaches
In a statement issued today, Human Rights First President and CEO Elisa Massimino notes:
"Closing the Guantánamo detention facility is a necessary and important step toward strengthening counterterrorism efforts and rebuilding the United States' standing as a nation committed to the rule of law.
"Though efforts to close the Guantánamo detention facility have faced a number of political obstacles during the past year, we welcome President Obama's continued commitment to shutter the facility quickly and safely.
"The Obama Administration should work closely with Yemeni officials to address current security concerns and to minimize potential risk before reinstating transfers there. With all transfers the administration can and should take steps to mitigate risk by focusing on expanding risk assessment efforts, monitoring, and other security programs, including allotting sufficient resources to successfully reintegrate former detainees into society.
"To fully restore the rule of law and rebuild strained relationships with foreign allies, the Administration must also commit to driving the number of detainees held without charge down to zero and to pursuing timely federal criminal prosecutions of those alleged terrorists who remain at Guantánamo."
"The day the Bush administration decided to use Guantánamo as a means to put prisoners beyond the law, it handed America's terrorist enemies a powerful recruiting tool which they have used successfully to lure fighters to their cause. Every day the facility stays open is a gift to al Qaeda's propaganda machine. We support the President's continued commitment to eliminating this national security liability and restoring America's reputation by closing Guantánamo."
2 Comments so far
Show Allclosing guantanamo is bad idea, unless we vacate cuba altogether; why? because torture is not a place, it's a state of mind. supermax federal prisons are much less humane, especially considering that some of our captives are innocent and only peripherally involved with the so-called enemy. why not just humanize the conditions at gitmo by firing the torturers and letting the prisoners have mail and visitors? at least the red cross could let the arab families know how their next of kin are doing. torture is not a piece of land, but it is a place in someone's mind that tells people to mistreat captives. but, it can happen anywhere. and 23 hour a day lockdown in the states is immeasurably more cruel.
the placement of prisoners should depend on classification, and the classification should depend on the degree and kind of involvement that each prisoner had in 9/11 or other terrorist acts. it is important to note that every country has a right to detain the soldiers of opposing armies. thus, the first priority becomes their humane treatment. good treatment, over time, will foster what cooperation they can give. if, on the other hand, we have no assurance that a deainee is an enemy, we must take the risk of releasing him, as we must admit that many of our early prisoners were swapped for bounty payments to the northern alliance, who may have been just settling tribal scores. some will return to the battlefield, but only because we manufactured their enmity. and we must realize that most in gitmo had no inkling of 9/11; the training camps attracted them because they wanted to drive foreigners out of the region. they came from countries where work is scarce, and they have nothing to lose by risking their lives fighting a foreign invader. they do not bring an internationalist perspective to their work, and probably would have never left their villages had we not invaded so many arab countries, killed so many civilians, stationed huge military bases on their soil, and exploited them economically. most americans think the arabs are ungrateful and don't appreciate our sincere efforts to better their existence. but, that view is self-serving and benignly ignorant for a people who should know better than to take the word of their generals and presidents.