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Guantánamo: A Prison That Stains US Moral Authority
The barbed wire fences of Guantánamo's infamous Camp X-Ray have been reclaimed by tropical vegetation and the detainees have been released from their steel shackles. But, as our series of special reports this week highlights, there are still 176 men held in custody in open defiance of the rule of law at the US naval base in Cuba where they have little hope of release. Their continuing detention, eight months after Barack Obama's self-imposed deadline for closing the camps, is an ongoing affront to international law and critically weakens America's moral authority.
That authority was further undermined this week when the US administration resumed the hearings of the discredited military commissions which ensure American soldiers, sailors and airmen sit in judgment on those accused of war crimes against America. The first case to be tried under the new commissions is that of child soldier Omar Khadr, who was 15 years old when he was accused of throwing a grenade which killed a US serviceman in Afghanistan in 2002. Mr Khadr's trial has been condemned by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, who stress that it is America which has led the world in recognising that children caught in war zones in Africa must be treated as victims and not combatants.
The Khadr case serves only to confirm the alternative legal universe in which Guantánamo exists. Long after its founding fathers were ejected from office, the prison camp continues to defy both the will of a president and the condemnation of the world. President Obama appears powerless as he watches his administration being sucked into a legal black hole. He has done nothing to stop government lawyers continuing to defend America's right to imprison men for eight years without charge or trial by arguing that the US remains in a state of war with al-Qa'ida and the Taliban.
The Pentagon has said that it does not have to grant enemy combatants the right to a lawyer or access to the courts to challenge their detention. That argument was struck down by the US Supreme Court. The Obama administration now says that, while it accepts that the Geneva Conventions apply to Taliban detainees, it does not believe they are entitled to Prisoner of War status and the protections that go with it.
There is no doubt that President Obama's intention to deal with Guantánamo Bay is honestly held. Before his inauguration he said its closure would send a message to the world that America was serious about its values. But the greatest obstacle to closing the seven prison camps is not the perceived threat posed by the 176 detainees who live a relatively peaceful existence in a communal environment on the edge of the waters of the Caribbean. The greatest obstacle is the destructive politics surrounding any Guantánamo deal.
When the White House tried to implement a transfer policy by building a new prison near Chicago in Illinois, the Obama administration ran into fierce local and national opposition. First the people of Illinois raised objections, and then Congress postured to block any plan that involved the movement of prisoners to camps on American soil. The truth is that President Obama has run out of ideas and the White House has quietly given up the idea of closing Guantánamo.
Any international solution also looks doomed to fail. Mr Obama has discovered that on this issue there is little interest in saving America from its biggest human rights problem. The desperate search to find homes for the majority of detainees who have been cleared for release has run into the buffers. There is also scant prospect of even putting on trial the so-called high-value detainees held in isolation at the camp. Unless Barack Obama stands up to both Congress and US nay-sayers, Guantánamo Bay and its military commissions will remain an appalling stain on the reputation of his administration and those that follow.
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27 Comments so far
Show AllAs far as I'm concerned, only the abandonment of the whole "global war on terror" and the mentality it's created in Mordor-on-the-Potomac will help this country now. Otherwise, kiss goodbye to US "moral authority" forever.
The US has never had any "moral authority." Its authority in WWII was only relative to the evil of the Nazis, and was mostly an accident of fate.
If Obama had any guts, he would start offering complete and full pardons to one each day until the thugs in congress allow him to close this ugly prison. But of course he has no gonads. His administration can only stand up to his BASE and no one else.
The problem is American bigotry and hatred. Which is also on ugly display in the anti mosque protests (and, similarly, the anti immigrant posturing as well). A country nurtured on fantasies of divinely sanctioned violence and vengeance doesn't care a fig about human rights. America will have to re-imagine itself before it can deal honestly and fairly with those it chooses to see as its enemies - which is just about all the rest of the world.
US moral authority?
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha . . .
Exactly! ROFLMAO @ the subcretinous Brits.
Sneaker, you said it!
Once Obama finds out about this prison, whoever authorized it will be in big, big trouble.
you betcha!
As Nike says: "Just do it!" Close the damned thing and the illegal base too, give the prisoners a $20 bill and a new suit and let Castro deal with them. What's the big problem?
Once, Obama, the constitutional law professor become President, finds out about these unconstitutional military tribunals, torture, imprisonment without charge, violations of the Geneva Accords he will order them ended at once. Then he will order the Attorney General Holder and the head of the Judge Advocate General Office in the Pentagon to immediately move to prosecute all those responsible, civilian and military, for these multiple violations of law and the Constitution.
Soitanly...
"There is no doubt that President Obama's intention to deal with Guantánamo Bay is honestly held."
Can there be a more nonsensical statement? I like many of the things the Independent prints, but that statement is quite absurd. They know Obama's "intentions" and that they are "honestly held"? Unfortunately it makes swallowing anything else in the opinion too difficult.
I did go back and finish reading the opinion and came to
"The truth is that President Obama has run out of ideas and the White House has quietly given up the idea of closing Guantánamo."
WTF, Common Dreams? I know your guys read the opinions you post here. If you print nonsense like that the website looks bad.
WHAT MORAL AUTHORITY? Ever since the US outdid Hitler and dropped two completely unnecessary atomic bombs on innocent civilians in 1945 (the only country to ever do so) they lost all moral authority.
Since then it's been one crime against humanity after another, the creation of Israel, the imperial invasions of Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Panama, Haiti, Iraq, Kuwait, etc. my fingers are getting tired, not to mention all the US backed coups and assassinations in more than 60 other countries.
So what moral authority? Please, Guantanamo is just another crime.
!
which moral authority would that be?
the one that passed out smallpox infested blankets?
the one that held slaves?
the one that stole half of Mexico?
the one that sold arms to both sides in the early years of wwi?
the one that dropped two atomic bombs on civilians?
the one that napalmed Vietnam?
the one that locks people up for their smoking preferences?
the one that allows the bush gang to walk free?
which moral authority exactly?
[the one that passed out smallpox infested blankets?]
I thought that was the British who did that in Canada??? Did you guys do that too?
Other than that I agree with what you say.
you're right chief - it was the Brits - Lord Amherst.
A nation engaged in war crimes has no moral authority !
More idiot media.
To speak of the United States' moral authority in 2010 with a straight face, one must be severely reality-challenged or have a very perverse notion of morality.
There is no question at all that Guantanamo does indeed contain some high figure terrorists like Khalid Sheikh Mohammad.
Unfortunately it also contains hundreds of other young men who have never been charged with any crimes and who have not been given access to lawyers. The crux of the problem is that without access to appropriate legal avenues it is impossible to determine which detainees are innocent and which ones are guilty.
The indefinite detention of people without charges, evidence or legal representation makes a mockery of both the spirit and the letter of every legal system. If the US authorities have any evidence these people have done something wrong, they should show the evidence and charge them, and if there is no evidence they should let them go. Unless they are tried, how are we to know which ones are innocent are guilty.
Guantanamo is a travesty both ways - if a detainee is innocent then they should not be there without charges indefinitely, and if they are guilty it is scandalous they are not being charged in a manner that is transparent.
The US government HAS no moral authority. By its actions, it is a pariah on anything resembling morality.
We are the world's torturer, and much much more.
what is this about? the author wants Obomber to "stand up" to...who? to the guy who's running the military commission show trials? right. that would be the guy obomber sees when he looks in the mirror. it's bad enough when usans try to imagine they have a real president. british press used to know better
And not just Guantanamo is staining US moral authority.
Bring America Back !!!!
**No moral authority has existed here for many a decade.
**Speaking from the UK media platform we just have to remember King W and Prince Tony holding hands while GITMO was opening up in the first place==and while a soverign defenseless nation==Iraq--was invaded based on lies.
**The US congress and senate passed Bush' military commissions act==approving torture and kangaroo court trials
of the detainees captured.
**The US military industrial complex has had its way, especially creating Patsies of the Islamic captives, who, after being waterboarded and tortured a hundred times, are only too willing to admit to masterminding the 9/11 attacks.
**Mainstream media chimes right in with court trials for these Patsies, then executing them to close the wide open chapters and gaps and lies of the real truth of 9/11 !
**Since Obama lied his way into Office with false promise of changes, there can be no real expectation that Team Obama will not further "Stain" any perceived moral authority of the US. His proliferation and newfound drone warfare exhibit just as much shallow morality as he has shown about Israel's genocide at Gaza.
Here is the definitive song about Guantanamo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_zkTzBTg3Q
The Lyrics, if youdon't feel like hearing the song:
GUANTANAMO
by Joan Wile, ASCAP
GUANTANAMO
HELL IN PARADISE
HEAR THE TORTURED CRIES
WHERE SUGAR CANES GROW
GUANTANAMO
NO HABEUS CORPUS
THEY IMPLORE US
TO LET THEM GO
AMERICA
WHERE'S THE OUTRAGE
FOR THE CRIMES WE WAGE?
WE'RE THE WARFARE IMPRESARIO
AMERICA
TIME TO WAKE UP
WE MUST SHAKE UP
THE STATUS QUO
NOT SO LONG AGO WE HAD GENEVA
THAT WAS IN THE DAYS WE COULD BELIEVE A-
MERICA WAS RIGHT
THEN CAME THE NIGHT
GUANTANAMO
WHAT A SAD DISGRACE
I CAN'T SHOW MY FACE
WE'VE SUNK SO LOW
GUANTANAMMO
WE GOTTA TAKE A STAND
WE MUST ALL DEMAND
LET THEM GO
LET THEM GO
LET THEM GO!!!