Tag Archives: Guantanamo Bay

Transition officials announced Monday that President Obama will follow through on his campaign promise to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, via an executive order to be issued next Wednesday.  Unfortunately, simply closing the base still leaves a number of questions to be answered.

There are 250 detainees still being held at Guantanamo.  What is to be done with them?  Some groups – such as the ACLU – are demanding that every one either be released or charged.  But that might be an overly black-and-white view of the situation.

David Cole:

But that solution fails to recognize the United States’ legitimate interest in holding individuals fighting against it in armed conflict…there are…as many as 100 detainees, who may not be prosecutable for a specific offense, but who are too dangerous to release — e.g., admitted Al Qaeda or Taliban fighters who have said that they would return to the battle in Afghanistan if released. What should be done about them?

Cole goes on to point out that it would be completely acceptable under international law to continue to hold them for the duration of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, much as we held Italian and German POWs during WWII.  And unlike the Bush Administration, Obama will presumably follow the rules protecting the rights of POWs while in detention, from which the Bush Administration inexplicably asserted they were exempt.

Finally, even after we decide who to keep in detention, that begs another question.  Where exactly will we detain them?  A facility here in the US?  Abroad?  It has been suggested that holding them here could create the potential for attacks (possibly to aid in escape attempts) on the new facility, which weren’t really a threat at Guantanamo, since it’s on an island in the middle of a military base.   While I think this possibility is far-fetched, security is certainly a legitimate aspect in the discussion.