The chorus is growing louder for shutting the U.S. prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Gitmo holds more than 500 men captured in Afghanistan and Iraq, and last week an important United Nations agency urged President Bush to close the facility and stop the indefinite detentions there.
The debacle at Guantanamo is a prime example of the kinds of predicaments the White House has managed to create by ignoring American precedents and international conventions in setting detention policies in response to the Sept. 11 attacks.
Still, in what may a hopeful sign, President Bush recently signaled that he, too, would like to close Guantanamo but is awaiting a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on whether the inmates can be tried by military tribunals.
Since 2002, the U.S. incarcerated 800 captives suspected of terrorist links to al-Qaeda at Gitmo. About 180 have been freed and 80 turned over to the custody of other countries, including Britain, Australia, Kuwait, Pakistan, Russia and Saudi Arabia.
Certainly some prisoners are bona fide terrorists and will be dangerous for decades to come. But others aren’t, and they should be let go. Indeed, they should have been winnowed out long ago.
The U.N. Committee Against Torture’s report that indefinite detention of terror suspects violates the international ban on torture further tarnishes this country’s reputation, already badly damaged by the Abu Ghraib torture images. The U.N. committee alleged that prisoners have been tortured in calling for closing Guatanamo Bay.
Like Abu Ghraib, Gitmo has such a negative connotation that it’s imperative that it be closed as soon as possible. This is one of those cases where even your best friends will tell you. Staunch ally British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in March that Guantanamo should close. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, even while moving to thaw U.S.-German relations, went on TV the night before visiting President Bush to call for closing Gitmo. Bush seems to have softened his views since then.
The State Department reacted to the U.N. report by claiming there were inaccuracies and challenging assertions that Guantanamo violated the 1984 U.N. Convention Against Torture and that detainees lack access to courts.
Once the high court rules on the question of whether the detainees can be tried before military commissions, the administration should expeditiously try detainees suspected of crimes and release any cleared of wrongdoing. It also should find a place other than Guantanamo for the really bad actors, and then treat them in accordance with international standards.
