Sunday
Jan112009
Closing Guantanamo: Obama Hedges His Promise
Sunday, January 11, 2009 at 17:18
Colleagues and I have had a running debate over the likelihood that Barack Obama would shut Camp X-Ray soon after his inauguration as President. Lately, I had swung towards their optimism, in the midst of affirmations by Obama and advisors that he would announce the closure of the detention centre as one of his first acts.
Now, with regret, I have to say my cynical view wasn't completely wrong.
Obama told American televison on Sunday, "I don't want to be ambiguous about this - we are going to close Guantanamo." However, he prefaced this with the caution, "It is more difficult than a lot of people realise." So it will be "a challenge" to shut the prison in the first 100 days of his Administration.
To be fair to the President-elect, he has been boxed in on this issue (as on so many others) by the Bushmen. He can't just release the detainees to their home countries, since in many cases they are not wanted or would face imprisonment and even torture. The American public isn't going to accept supposed bad guys, after almost seven years in detention, running free in the US, and the legal basis for putting the detainees in US jails is uncertain.
So that leaves the alternative of sending the freed men to "third countries" in Europe and Australia. One after another, however --- with the exception of Portugal --- America's friends have said that they are not keen to take on the US responsibility.
Conclusion? The Guantanamo stain on America's reputation won't be removed easily by the new President.
Now, with regret, I have to say my cynical view wasn't completely wrong.
Obama told American televison on Sunday, "I don't want to be ambiguous about this - we are going to close Guantanamo." However, he prefaced this with the caution, "It is more difficult than a lot of people realise." So it will be "a challenge" to shut the prison in the first 100 days of his Administration.
To be fair to the President-elect, he has been boxed in on this issue (as on so many others) by the Bushmen. He can't just release the detainees to their home countries, since in many cases they are not wanted or would face imprisonment and even torture. The American public isn't going to accept supposed bad guys, after almost seven years in detention, running free in the US, and the legal basis for putting the detainees in US jails is uncertain.
So that leaves the alternative of sending the freed men to "third countries" in Europe and Australia. One after another, however --- with the exception of Portugal --- America's friends have said that they are not keen to take on the US responsibility.
Conclusion? The Guantanamo stain on America's reputation won't be removed easily by the new President.
tagged Barack Obama, Camp X-Ray, Guantanamo Bay, Torture in US Politics, War On Terror
Barack Obama, Camp X-Ray, Guantanamo Bay, Torture in US Politics, War On Terror
Reader Comments (2)
Most distressing if Obama doesn't end this travesty. So transfering the detainees to the US court system isn't really an option? Putting them on trial in open court would be a nice way of exposing the idiocies of the neocons, would it not?
I've heard, though, that the weather is nice in Portugal. Plus there's all that ocean front property...
Apparently, he's going to issue an order closing the camp as early as his first day on the job.