Barack Obama has taken one “Change” that I approve of; I can only “Hope” for many more. This past week he ordered the shutdown of Guantanamo Bay within a year OK, it could be done a little faster, but Constitutional and humanitarian beggars can’t be choosers. He also passed another executive order to “ensure lawful detentions” do not occur with the use of torture. He also ordered a review of detention policies.
Here is an excerpt from the Guantanamo order:
“Over the past 7 years, approximately 800 individuals whom the Department of Defense has ever determined to be, or treated as, enemy combatants have been detained at Guantanamo. The Federal Government has moved more than 500 such detainees from Guantanamo, either by returning them to their home country or by releasing or transferring them to a third country. The Department of Defense has determined that a number of the individuals currently detained at Guantanamo are eligible forsuch transfer or release.
“Some individuals currently detained at Guantanamo have been there for more than 6 years, and most have been detained for at least 4years. In view of the significant concerns raised by these detentions, both within the United States and internationally, prompt and appropriate disposition of the individuals currently detained at Guantanamo and closure of the facilities in which they are detained would further the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice. Merely closing the facilities without promptly determining the appropriate disposition of the individuals detained would not adequately serve those interests. To the extent practicable, the prompt and appropriate disposition of the individuals detained at Guantanamo should precede the closure of the detention facilities at Guantanamo.
“The individuals currently detained at Guantanamo have the constitutional privilege of the writ of habeas corpus. Most of those individuals have filed petitions for a writ of habeas corpus in Federal court challenging the lawfulness of their detention.
“It is in the interests of the United States that the executive branch undertake a prompt and thorough review of the factual and legal bases for the continued detention of all individuals currently held at Guantanamo, and of whether their continued detention is in the national security and foreign policy interests of the UnitedStates and in the interests of justice. The unusual circumstances associated with detentions at Guantanamo require a comprehensive interagency review.”
I applaud the spirit and most of the letters in all three executive orders, especially the bolded sentence that just closing down Guantanamo is not enough. I will even go one step further if there is no evidence of a crime of terrorism, murder (not self-defense), etc., let them go. If there is evidence, place them on trial. Otherwise, there is no other option. Any insurgents could be declared Prisoners of War (POW), but that would require Congress to pass a silly measure, known as a Declaration of War against somebody or nation.
Through all of this, remember all Obama is doing is showing some simple human decency. While this should be applauded in today’s environment, remember what our government did to Jose Padilla, a US citizen.
This is a good sign that our new President will have a moral compass, perhaps it was a very good thing Obama decided to repeat the Presidential Oath.
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Looks like a positive step to me. Not too confident after he bombed pakistan the other day, but we’ll see.
If I might just add some more information. Sometime a year or so ago I wrote an article about Gitmo and those who are being held there. At that time there were 571 detainees. A review of their status, why they were there, and any evidence against them, was commissioned by the Senate to be reviewed and reported back.
I watched the Senate hearing live and then wrote my article. A professor Denbeaux of Seton Hall was in charge of the research (the data was United States Army data ).
At that Senate hearing the report stated the 93% of the people in Gitmo were not Al-Queda, not Taliban, weren’t caught on the battlefield, and there was no evidence that they had ever done anything against the United States. They were there because they had been rounded up by the Northern Alliance and Pakistani Tribes and sold to the Army for the bounty promised for “battelfield warriors” , in fact one group, the Irgurs in Pakistan, didn’t even know there was a war going on. There are still 17 Irgurs at Gitmo.
Many were physically tortured. Not all the detainees who were logged into Gitmo but are not still there have any record of what happened to them.
Gitmo is a shame on America and very few of the people ( more than 2000 ) who have gone thru there are guilty of anything. And we still hold over 200. By the way for those of you who don’t know, there were two compounds at Gitmo, one for the adults and one for the children being held as enemy combatants.
The youngest documented was 14. But there are reports of some as young as 10 being held.
Road to Guantanamo – if you haven’t seen this film, you really need to! Like Cliff said, there’s people there that are little more than farmers, laborers, tourists – and they and people they know are going to turn against this country if they haven’t already. This has got to stop!
http://www.roadtoguantanamomovie.com/
Crystal. Thank you. I have seen that movie. And there’s another “Journey to the Darkside” about torture that everyone needs to see.
I wonder how many people in the United States know that there are over a hundred cases of documented torture that has happened since 9/11 that has been carried out by our soldiers and assisted by Mercenaries? The movie Journey to the Darkside chronicles several. Everyone should google Manadel al Jamaidi for a real documentation of torture to death at Abu Gharib.
Don’t watch “Journey” if you have a weak stomach or if you cry easily. That we have done these things is unforgiveable.
I wonder how many people in the United States know that quite a few of the Mercenaries are not American citizens?
Sorry I made a mistake in the above comment. Please let me correct it here:
I said there are over a hundred cases of torture documented …..
What I meant to say is There are over a hundred documented cases of torture to the death…and there have been thousands of people physically tortured. The undocumented number of detainees tortured to death is unknown, possibly some of the hundreds of missing detainees whose records no longer can show where they are might have been the victims of undocumented torture to death.
Just a quick FYI – the film Cliff mentioned is actually Taxi to the Darkside.
While we’re at it, there’s also Rendition, which is fictional, but horrifyingly true too.
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