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No Thanks, Obama and McCain. Continuing Indefinite Detention Isn't Closing Guantanamo
Aug 13, 2015
A bad idea doesn't somehow become a good idea just because five years have gone by. However, the Obama White House and Sen. John McCain seem ready to recycle a proposal that was overwhelmingly rejected in 2010.
President Obama has renewed his commitment to closing Guantanamo before he leaves office, and McCain (R-Ariz.) said he might be able to support closure. However, there has always been a right way and a wrong way to close Guantanamo. The restrictions the Senate has passed, along with the latest proposal floated by the White House to move some detainees to the United States for indefinite detention without charge or trial, is the wrong way.
Guantanamo has never been just about the prison. Instead, Guantanamo has been about our government violating the rule of law and ducking American values. From torture and abuse during the Bush administration to indefinite detention and defective military commissions extending through the Bush and Obama administrations, Guantanamo has been a place where our government behaves like a human rights pariah instead of a human rights beacon.
The solution can never be to simply pack up both the detainees and bad policies at Guantanamo and ship them to some new prison here in the United States. No. The only meaningful solution is to close Guantanamo by ending indefinite detention without charge or trial, transferring the detainees who have been cleared for transfer, and trying detainees for whom there is evidence of wrongdoing in our federal criminal courts in the U.S., which regularly try terrorism suspects, including high-profile ones.
But instead of doing the hard work of closing Guantanamo the right way, the Obama White House is reportedly dusting off the same plan that Congress overwhelmingly rejected in 2010. The "plan" would involve transferring overseas all cleared detainees (an excellent idea, but one that needs to be completed now, not when this "plan" goes into effect), but then setting up prisons in the U.S. to continue the indefinite detention of men who have been imprisoned for more than a decade without ever being charged with any crime. Other detainees would be put on trial -- but some of them would be tried before the same unfair military commissions used at Guantanamo. The result would be moving Guantanamo, not closing it.
McCain has a hand in it, too. As chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, he sponsored the Senate's National Defense Authorization Act, which would allow indefinite detention and military commissions to be brought to the U.S. as part of closing Guantanamo—but only if both houses of Congress approve the president's plan. Of course, requiring both houses of Congress to approve almost anything from the president is a political non-starter. But this provision is still being sold as a step towards closing Guantanamo.
A particularly bizarre bit of news about the White House plan this week came in a Washington Post report that said that the White House was considering setting up a nearly empty prison in Thomson, Illinois, as a site for indefinite detention of Guantanamo detainees. This same plan, with the same prison in Illinois, was rejected by a House vote of 353-69 in 2010. Then-Attorney General Eric Holder later swore that the Thomson prison would never be used for that purpose.
The ACLU said back in 2009 that shipping indefinite detention north was the wrong way to close Guantanamo, and it still is the wrong way to close Guantanamo. Bad ideas don't get better by just sitting on the shelf. It's time to close Guantanamo the right way by charging in federal court any detainee who can be charged and ending indefinite detention for everyone else. Suppose a prosecutor can't put together a case against someone imprisoned for 13 years. In that case, there is no reason that a person should continue to sit in prison, whether in Guantanamo or someplace else.
Let's close it the right way.
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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 |
Chris Anders
Chris Anders is Senior Legislative Counsel in the Washington Legislative Office of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
aclubarack obamaeric holderguantanamoguantanamo bayhuman rightsindefinite detentionjohn mccainmilitary commissionsnational defense authorization act
A bad idea doesn't somehow become a good idea just because five years have gone by. However, the Obama White House and Sen. John McCain seem ready to recycle a proposal that was overwhelmingly rejected in 2010.
President Obama has renewed his commitment to closing Guantanamo before he leaves office, and McCain (R-Ariz.) said he might be able to support closure. However, there has always been a right way and a wrong way to close Guantanamo. The restrictions the Senate has passed, along with the latest proposal floated by the White House to move some detainees to the United States for indefinite detention without charge or trial, is the wrong way.
Guantanamo has never been just about the prison. Instead, Guantanamo has been about our government violating the rule of law and ducking American values. From torture and abuse during the Bush administration to indefinite detention and defective military commissions extending through the Bush and Obama administrations, Guantanamo has been a place where our government behaves like a human rights pariah instead of a human rights beacon.
The solution can never be to simply pack up both the detainees and bad policies at Guantanamo and ship them to some new prison here in the United States. No. The only meaningful solution is to close Guantanamo by ending indefinite detention without charge or trial, transferring the detainees who have been cleared for transfer, and trying detainees for whom there is evidence of wrongdoing in our federal criminal courts in the U.S., which regularly try terrorism suspects, including high-profile ones.
But instead of doing the hard work of closing Guantanamo the right way, the Obama White House is reportedly dusting off the same plan that Congress overwhelmingly rejected in 2010. The "plan" would involve transferring overseas all cleared detainees (an excellent idea, but one that needs to be completed now, not when this "plan" goes into effect), but then setting up prisons in the U.S. to continue the indefinite detention of men who have been imprisoned for more than a decade without ever being charged with any crime. Other detainees would be put on trial -- but some of them would be tried before the same unfair military commissions used at Guantanamo. The result would be moving Guantanamo, not closing it.
McCain has a hand in it, too. As chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, he sponsored the Senate's National Defense Authorization Act, which would allow indefinite detention and military commissions to be brought to the U.S. as part of closing Guantanamo—but only if both houses of Congress approve the president's plan. Of course, requiring both houses of Congress to approve almost anything from the president is a political non-starter. But this provision is still being sold as a step towards closing Guantanamo.
A particularly bizarre bit of news about the White House plan this week came in a Washington Post report that said that the White House was considering setting up a nearly empty prison in Thomson, Illinois, as a site for indefinite detention of Guantanamo detainees. This same plan, with the same prison in Illinois, was rejected by a House vote of 353-69 in 2010. Then-Attorney General Eric Holder later swore that the Thomson prison would never be used for that purpose.
The ACLU said back in 2009 that shipping indefinite detention north was the wrong way to close Guantanamo, and it still is the wrong way to close Guantanamo. Bad ideas don't get better by just sitting on the shelf. It's time to close Guantanamo the right way by charging in federal court any detainee who can be charged and ending indefinite detention for everyone else. Suppose a prosecutor can't put together a case against someone imprisoned for 13 years. In that case, there is no reason that a person should continue to sit in prison, whether in Guantanamo or someplace else.
Let's close it the right way.
Chris Anders
Chris Anders is Senior Legislative Counsel in the Washington Legislative Office of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
A bad idea doesn't somehow become a good idea just because five years have gone by. However, the Obama White House and Sen. John McCain seem ready to recycle a proposal that was overwhelmingly rejected in 2010.
President Obama has renewed his commitment to closing Guantanamo before he leaves office, and McCain (R-Ariz.) said he might be able to support closure. However, there has always been a right way and a wrong way to close Guantanamo. The restrictions the Senate has passed, along with the latest proposal floated by the White House to move some detainees to the United States for indefinite detention without charge or trial, is the wrong way.
Guantanamo has never been just about the prison. Instead, Guantanamo has been about our government violating the rule of law and ducking American values. From torture and abuse during the Bush administration to indefinite detention and defective military commissions extending through the Bush and Obama administrations, Guantanamo has been a place where our government behaves like a human rights pariah instead of a human rights beacon.
The solution can never be to simply pack up both the detainees and bad policies at Guantanamo and ship them to some new prison here in the United States. No. The only meaningful solution is to close Guantanamo by ending indefinite detention without charge or trial, transferring the detainees who have been cleared for transfer, and trying detainees for whom there is evidence of wrongdoing in our federal criminal courts in the U.S., which regularly try terrorism suspects, including high-profile ones.
But instead of doing the hard work of closing Guantanamo the right way, the Obama White House is reportedly dusting off the same plan that Congress overwhelmingly rejected in 2010. The "plan" would involve transferring overseas all cleared detainees (an excellent idea, but one that needs to be completed now, not when this "plan" goes into effect), but then setting up prisons in the U.S. to continue the indefinite detention of men who have been imprisoned for more than a decade without ever being charged with any crime. Other detainees would be put on trial -- but some of them would be tried before the same unfair military commissions used at Guantanamo. The result would be moving Guantanamo, not closing it.
McCain has a hand in it, too. As chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, he sponsored the Senate's National Defense Authorization Act, which would allow indefinite detention and military commissions to be brought to the U.S. as part of closing Guantanamo—but only if both houses of Congress approve the president's plan. Of course, requiring both houses of Congress to approve almost anything from the president is a political non-starter. But this provision is still being sold as a step towards closing Guantanamo.
A particularly bizarre bit of news about the White House plan this week came in a Washington Post report that said that the White House was considering setting up a nearly empty prison in Thomson, Illinois, as a site for indefinite detention of Guantanamo detainees. This same plan, with the same prison in Illinois, was rejected by a House vote of 353-69 in 2010. Then-Attorney General Eric Holder later swore that the Thomson prison would never be used for that purpose.
The ACLU said back in 2009 that shipping indefinite detention north was the wrong way to close Guantanamo, and it still is the wrong way to close Guantanamo. Bad ideas don't get better by just sitting on the shelf. It's time to close Guantanamo the right way by charging in federal court any detainee who can be charged and ending indefinite detention for everyone else. Suppose a prosecutor can't put together a case against someone imprisoned for 13 years. In that case, there is no reason that a person should continue to sit in prison, whether in Guantanamo or someplace else.
Let's close it the right way.
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