Two presidents have called for Guantanamo Bay Prison's closure to
preserve the safety of the United States, and yet today, nine years after the first
load of prisoners arrived there, 173 prisoners remain. Only 5 percent
were captured by U.S. forces on a battlefield. Most of the others were
sold by foreign forces to the U.S. military in exchange for bounties
of up to $5,000. Only five of the nearly 800 men who have ever been
held there have been convicted or pled guilty in a military commission
or a court trial. Only 35 of the 173 current inmates are expected to
be charged with crimes.
Hope for Guantanamo detainees is short-lived. It took three victories
in the U.S. Supreme Court before the first detainees were allowed, in
2008, to challenge the legality of their detentions in federal court.
Yet even a win--a judge's order for the government to free a
detainee--does not guarantee freedom. The Obama administration
continues to hold 12 of the 38 men who have won their writs of habeas
corpus after judges found the government lacked sufficient evidence to
warrant holding them.
Detainees hoped President Obama's election would bring their freedom.
However, scaremongering about the prison's closure and repeated
roadblocks by Congress have prevented the release of any detainees
into the U.S., which has in turn discouraged U.S. allies from
resettling many men who cannot safely be repatriated. Why should they,
they ask, when the U.S. accepts none?
Yemeni men have the least hope of release. Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif, a
Yemeni, was sold for a bounty while in Pakistan seeking affordable
medical treatment of a severe head injury. Last year, a federal judge
granted his habeas petition, yet Latif remains in Guantanamo, along
with some 90 Yemenis, because President Obama halted their release
indefinitely following the Christmas Day 2009 airplane bombing attempt
because the alleged perpetrator had an unproven connection to Yemen.
Equally worrisome is President Obama's plan to institute an official
policy for holding 48 detainees in preventive detention indefinitely
without charge or trial. The stated justification for the policy is
that the evidence against the men was obtained through torture or
coercion and is therefore inadmissible in court. It is inadmissible in
court because it is unreliable. No officials who ordered harsh
treatment have been charged or punished, but the victims of their
policies may stay in prison forever as a result.
Binyam Mohammed, a former detainee who now lives in England, will tell
you from experience that torture victims will say anything to stop the
torture. Another detainee was held at Guantanamo on the basis of
Mohammed's false testimony which he gave under torture. After Mohammed
denounced his own false testimony, a federal judge ordered the
government to free the other detainee, Algerian Farhi Saeed bin
Mohammed. Bin Mohammed remained in Guantanamo afterward at his own
request because he could not safely return to his home country. The
Obama administration forcibly repatriated him to Algeria last
Thursday.
Others who fear persecution if repatriated include Ahmed Belbacha, an
Algerian, and Ravil Mingazov of Russia, whom residents of Amherst and
Leverett, Massachusetts, hope to welcome if Congress lifts a ban
preventing any detainees from coming to the U.S. Belbacha was an
accountant for the Algerian national oil company when he and other
employees received death threats from a militant group now calling
itself Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb; several of Belbacha's
coworkers were killed. Belbacha fled to the U.K., where he cleaned
hotel rooms and studied English. While on vacation in Pakistan in fall
2001, he was sold to U.S. forces for a bounty. Belbacha has been
cleared for transfer to Algeria since 2007, but he cannot safely
return there. The U.K. will not take him because he is not a legal
resident, having missed his U.K. asylum hearing because he was in
Guantanamo.
Mingazov's stint in the Russian Army began when he joined its ballet
troupe at age 19. He was repeatedly harassed after he converted to
Islam while still in an Army that was intolerant to Muslim soldiers.
In 2001, fearing for his family's safety after the KGB searched and
ransacked his house, he left Russia in search of a Muslim country
where they could practice their faith. Soon after arriving in a
house for refugees in Pakistan, he and 16 other residents were rounded
up by Pakistani police and turned over to the Americans.
These and other men like them are not our enemies. The U.S. has a
sophisticated court system to try those suspected of wrongdoing. As
for the others, the U.S. government's ban on their entry to the U.S.
prevents their long-awaited freedom. If they are safe enough for our
allies to accept, they are safe enough to live here.