January, 26 2018, 01:15pm EDT
Guantanamo Attorneys Condemn Trump's Planned Executive Order to Keep the Prison Open
WASHINGTON
In response to the leak of a State Department cable saying that Trump plans to sign an executive order to keep Guantanamo Bay prison open, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) issued the following statement:
News of Trump's forthcoming executive order on Guantanamo is confirmation of what his words and actions have already shown: that he intends to keep the prison open and keep everyone in it imprisoned. As some men enter their 17th year of detention without charge, and five continue to languish while being cleared for release, the only thing Trump has to say or do about it is issue an order further entrenching the prison and effectively sanctioning detainees' continued punishment. His defiance in the face of national and international calls for Guantanamo's closure is, of course, rooted in his executive hubris, his anti-Muslim animus, and his disregard for law, under which these detentions are without question unprecedented.
On the 16th anniversary of the prison's opening, this past January 11, we filed the first major legal challenge to Trump's Guantanamo policy, on behalf of 11 of the remaining men detained there, many of whom have been held for more than 15 years without charge. This executive order is further proof, if we needed it, that these detentions, like the prison itself, are perpetual and potentially permanent, and that the status quo will persist without the intervention of the courts.
It is fitting of Trump as an outlier that as he prepares to issue an order keeping open one of the most glaring symbols of U.S. torture, others in Europe are beginning to move forward with appropriate accountability. Recently, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) made a formal request to investigate crimes in Afghanistan, including crimes of torture by the CIA and U.S. military after 9/11, some of the victims of which remain detained in Guantanamo today. The juxtaposition of such steps with a man who believes the United States should bring back waterboarding and worse could not be more stark.
To learn more about CCR's recent mass filing visit our resource page and CCR client Sharqawi al Hajj's case page.
The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. CCR is committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change.
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