MIAMI — Ten years ago today, U.S. troops marched 20 men in chains off a military cargo plane at Guantanamo Bay to launch America’s war-on-terrorism experiment in offshore detention and justice.
Now, the prison camps enter their second decade with death penalty tribunals on the horizon and President Barack Obama still struggling to find a formula for closure.
The deadline set by Obama to close Guantanamo came and went two years ago. No detainee has left in a year because of restrictions on transfers, and indefinite military detention is now enshrined in U.S. law.
The 10th anniversary will be the subject of demonstrations in London and Washington. Prisoners at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba plan to mark the day with sit-ins, banners and a refusal of meals, said Ramzi Kassem, a law professor at the City University of New York who represents seven inmates.
Critics are angry over Obama’s Dec. 31 signing of the National Defense Authorization Act, which includes a provision allowing indefinite military detention without trial.
“Now, we have Guantanamo forever signed into law,” said Andrea Prasow, senior counterterrorism counsel for Human Rights Watch.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday that “the commitment that the president has to closing Guantanamo Bay is as firm today as it was during the (2008) campaign. I think this is a process that faces obstacles that we’re all aware of and we will continue to work through them.”
“It’s the president’s stated objective to never send anyone to Guantanamo again,” Army Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale said Tuesday.
Guantanamo holds 171 prisoners, and it’s an odd mix. Thirty- six await trial on war- crimes charges. There are 46 in indefinite detention as men the U.S. considers dangerous but who cannot be charged for lack of evidence or other reasons.
The U.S. wants to release 32 but hasn’t, largely because of congressional restrictions, and 57 men from Yemen aren’t being charged, but the government won’t let them go because their country is unstable.
As for the future, Congress has several pieces of legislation to increase the enterprise that has hundreds of empty cells. But the White House is resisting such efforts.
Also, “if there are peace talks (in Afghanistan) and if the war is considered over, what will the courts say about continued detention?” says Andrew Prasow, a former Guantanamo defender and a senior counterterror counsel for Human Rights Watch.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
