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Eight Years of Guantanamo: What's Changed?
The
first 20 detainees arrived at Guantanamo's Camp X-Ray eight years ago,
on January 11, 2002. Just over seven years later, President Barack
Obama-on his second full day after taking office-issued an order to
shut the prison within a year.
Jan 11, 2010
The
first 20 detainees arrived at Guantanamo's Camp X-Ray eight years ago,
on January 11, 2002. Just over seven years later, President Barack
Obama-on his second full day after taking office-issued an order to
shut the prison within a year.
His rhetoric was clear and
decisive. "There is no time to lose," he said, remarking that the
United States can fight terrorism without sacrificing "our values and our ideals." To that end he committed to real change: "I
can say without exception or equivocation that the United States will
not torture. Second, we will close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp
and determine how to deal with those who have been held there."
That
was January 22, 2009. But the Obama administration has failed to close
the facility, where-by many accounts-inmates were harshly interrogated
and even tortured, by its own deadline. Now there's talk that the
prison will remain open at least through 2010. And the proposal to move
detainees to a maximum security prison in Illinois superficially
retires Guantanamo as a symbol, while retaining the legal problems it
embodies. Equally troubling is the administration's expansion of
detention facilities in Afghanistan that are almost impenetrable for
lawyers and humanitarian groups.
The "prolonged detention"
without charge or trial that Obama plans for some inmates strips
detained men of basic legal and human rights, more deeply corrupting
American governance with the reckless assertion of the executive's
near-limitless power.
The barely foiled Christmas Day attack by
a suicide bomber aboard a flight to Detroit exposed ongoing weaknesses
in our multi-billion-dollar security apparatus. But its aftermath has
revealed how our ideals continue to falter, as Obama's policies mirror
those of his predecessor and fail to match his own high-minded
rhetoric.
The response to Flight 253 hasn't only been long lines, body scans at airports, and mea culpas
from security agencies. There are also swift, loud and vicious
proclamations from Republican leaders and conservative media that the
only way to ensure security is to blast at our enemies and the rule of
law with both barrels. Send "underwear bomber" Umar
Farouk Abdulmutallab to Guantanamo and keep the prison open forever.
Suspend plans for civilian trials of terror suspects. Revive "enhanced
interrogations." Summarily execute al-Qaeda suspects.
The Obama administration hasn't publicly challenged this nonsense.
It has, however, already made a sad concession to this fear-mongering
by suspending the release of all Yemeni men from Guantanamo, even those
who have been cleared through the government's extensive Guantanamo
Review Task Force. This decision, which condemns innocent men to months
or years of more illegal detention, confirms a pattern of the Obama
administration promising change but delivering more of the same.
No
less troublesome are a host of other Obama administration policies: the
continued practice of rendition and operation of secret prisons; the
planned use of use Bush-style military commissions to try some
detainees; the expansion of the Bagram prison in Afghanistan and the
denial of habeas rights to inmates there not captured on the
Afghan battlefield; the repeated, tendentious use of the "state's
secrets" defense to block lawsuits by former detainees seeking redress
for their mistreatment; and the effective grant of immunity to those
who designed, ordered, and executed torture policies under the Bush
administration.
In a worrisome sign of possible things to come, the Bush-appointed Judge Janice Rogers Brown recently asserted in an opinion rejecting the habeas petition of a man held at Guantanamo that
the war against terrorism thrusts us into a new paradigm, "one that
demands [that] new rules be written...War is a challenge to law, and
the law must adjust."
That's exactly the opposite of what must
happen. The law needs our president as an authentic advocate-not just
in words but in deeds-when times are "hard" and war rages. This is the
case right now. To do anything else is to condemn this nation to a free
fall into the "dark side" where Dick Cheney seems so comfortable.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
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Frida Berrigan
Frida Berrigan, a columnist for WagingNonviolence.org, serves on the board of the War Resisters League and organizes with Witness Against Torture. She is the daughter of Plowshares activists Liz McAllister and the late Philip Berrigan and author of "It Runs in the Family: On Being Raised by Radicals and Growing into Rebellious Motherhood", a memoir of her childhood as their daughter and her adult life as an activist and a mother.
The
first 20 detainees arrived at Guantanamo's Camp X-Ray eight years ago,
on January 11, 2002. Just over seven years later, President Barack
Obama-on his second full day after taking office-issued an order to
shut the prison within a year.
His rhetoric was clear and
decisive. "There is no time to lose," he said, remarking that the
United States can fight terrorism without sacrificing "our values and our ideals." To that end he committed to real change: "I
can say without exception or equivocation that the United States will
not torture. Second, we will close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp
and determine how to deal with those who have been held there."
That
was January 22, 2009. But the Obama administration has failed to close
the facility, where-by many accounts-inmates were harshly interrogated
and even tortured, by its own deadline. Now there's talk that the
prison will remain open at least through 2010. And the proposal to move
detainees to a maximum security prison in Illinois superficially
retires Guantanamo as a symbol, while retaining the legal problems it
embodies. Equally troubling is the administration's expansion of
detention facilities in Afghanistan that are almost impenetrable for
lawyers and humanitarian groups.
The "prolonged detention"
without charge or trial that Obama plans for some inmates strips
detained men of basic legal and human rights, more deeply corrupting
American governance with the reckless assertion of the executive's
near-limitless power.
The barely foiled Christmas Day attack by
a suicide bomber aboard a flight to Detroit exposed ongoing weaknesses
in our multi-billion-dollar security apparatus. But its aftermath has
revealed how our ideals continue to falter, as Obama's policies mirror
those of his predecessor and fail to match his own high-minded
rhetoric.
The response to Flight 253 hasn't only been long lines, body scans at airports, and mea culpas
from security agencies. There are also swift, loud and vicious
proclamations from Republican leaders and conservative media that the
only way to ensure security is to blast at our enemies and the rule of
law with both barrels. Send "underwear bomber" Umar
Farouk Abdulmutallab to Guantanamo and keep the prison open forever.
Suspend plans for civilian trials of terror suspects. Revive "enhanced
interrogations." Summarily execute al-Qaeda suspects.
The Obama administration hasn't publicly challenged this nonsense.
It has, however, already made a sad concession to this fear-mongering
by suspending the release of all Yemeni men from Guantanamo, even those
who have been cleared through the government's extensive Guantanamo
Review Task Force. This decision, which condemns innocent men to months
or years of more illegal detention, confirms a pattern of the Obama
administration promising change but delivering more of the same.
No
less troublesome are a host of other Obama administration policies: the
continued practice of rendition and operation of secret prisons; the
planned use of use Bush-style military commissions to try some
detainees; the expansion of the Bagram prison in Afghanistan and the
denial of habeas rights to inmates there not captured on the
Afghan battlefield; the repeated, tendentious use of the "state's
secrets" defense to block lawsuits by former detainees seeking redress
for their mistreatment; and the effective grant of immunity to those
who designed, ordered, and executed torture policies under the Bush
administration.
In a worrisome sign of possible things to come, the Bush-appointed Judge Janice Rogers Brown recently asserted in an opinion rejecting the habeas petition of a man held at Guantanamo that
the war against terrorism thrusts us into a new paradigm, "one that
demands [that] new rules be written...War is a challenge to law, and
the law must adjust."
That's exactly the opposite of what must
happen. The law needs our president as an authentic advocate-not just
in words but in deeds-when times are "hard" and war rages. This is the
case right now. To do anything else is to condemn this nation to a free
fall into the "dark side" where Dick Cheney seems so comfortable.
Frida Berrigan
Frida Berrigan, a columnist for WagingNonviolence.org, serves on the board of the War Resisters League and organizes with Witness Against Torture. She is the daughter of Plowshares activists Liz McAllister and the late Philip Berrigan and author of "It Runs in the Family: On Being Raised by Radicals and Growing into Rebellious Motherhood", a memoir of her childhood as their daughter and her adult life as an activist and a mother.
The
first 20 detainees arrived at Guantanamo's Camp X-Ray eight years ago,
on January 11, 2002. Just over seven years later, President Barack
Obama-on his second full day after taking office-issued an order to
shut the prison within a year.
His rhetoric was clear and
decisive. "There is no time to lose," he said, remarking that the
United States can fight terrorism without sacrificing "our values and our ideals." To that end he committed to real change: "I
can say without exception or equivocation that the United States will
not torture. Second, we will close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp
and determine how to deal with those who have been held there."
That
was January 22, 2009. But the Obama administration has failed to close
the facility, where-by many accounts-inmates were harshly interrogated
and even tortured, by its own deadline. Now there's talk that the
prison will remain open at least through 2010. And the proposal to move
detainees to a maximum security prison in Illinois superficially
retires Guantanamo as a symbol, while retaining the legal problems it
embodies. Equally troubling is the administration's expansion of
detention facilities in Afghanistan that are almost impenetrable for
lawyers and humanitarian groups.
The "prolonged detention"
without charge or trial that Obama plans for some inmates strips
detained men of basic legal and human rights, more deeply corrupting
American governance with the reckless assertion of the executive's
near-limitless power.
The barely foiled Christmas Day attack by
a suicide bomber aboard a flight to Detroit exposed ongoing weaknesses
in our multi-billion-dollar security apparatus. But its aftermath has
revealed how our ideals continue to falter, as Obama's policies mirror
those of his predecessor and fail to match his own high-minded
rhetoric.
The response to Flight 253 hasn't only been long lines, body scans at airports, and mea culpas
from security agencies. There are also swift, loud and vicious
proclamations from Republican leaders and conservative media that the
only way to ensure security is to blast at our enemies and the rule of
law with both barrels. Send "underwear bomber" Umar
Farouk Abdulmutallab to Guantanamo and keep the prison open forever.
Suspend plans for civilian trials of terror suspects. Revive "enhanced
interrogations." Summarily execute al-Qaeda suspects.
The Obama administration hasn't publicly challenged this nonsense.
It has, however, already made a sad concession to this fear-mongering
by suspending the release of all Yemeni men from Guantanamo, even those
who have been cleared through the government's extensive Guantanamo
Review Task Force. This decision, which condemns innocent men to months
or years of more illegal detention, confirms a pattern of the Obama
administration promising change but delivering more of the same.
No
less troublesome are a host of other Obama administration policies: the
continued practice of rendition and operation of secret prisons; the
planned use of use Bush-style military commissions to try some
detainees; the expansion of the Bagram prison in Afghanistan and the
denial of habeas rights to inmates there not captured on the
Afghan battlefield; the repeated, tendentious use of the "state's
secrets" defense to block lawsuits by former detainees seeking redress
for their mistreatment; and the effective grant of immunity to those
who designed, ordered, and executed torture policies under the Bush
administration.
In a worrisome sign of possible things to come, the Bush-appointed Judge Janice Rogers Brown recently asserted in an opinion rejecting the habeas petition of a man held at Guantanamo that
the war against terrorism thrusts us into a new paradigm, "one that
demands [that] new rules be written...War is a challenge to law, and
the law must adjust."
That's exactly the opposite of what must
happen. The law needs our president as an authentic advocate-not just
in words but in deeds-when times are "hard" and war rages. This is the
case right now. To do anything else is to condemn this nation to a free
fall into the "dark side" where Dick Cheney seems so comfortable.
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