Obama Moves Towards Closing Guantanamo

President Obama appears to be making good on his campaign promise to close Guantanamo Bay detention center, signing two orders yesterday that, first, halted legal proceedings and, second, declared Guantanamo would close within the year. Problem solved?

Guantanamo Bay in Cuba is used as a legal gray area where the U.S. can hold prisoners who they’ve deemed especially dangerous in a location that’s not subject to U.S. law or jurisdiction. In the past they’ve used it to contain such “dangerous” people as a group of HIV-positive Haitian refugees but, with the inception of Bush’s “War on Terror,” the area has been predominantly used to hold “illegal combatants,” i.e. anyone the U.S. deems a terrorist or a terrorist-related threat. Obama thinks this is all very naughty (not a direct quote), but what exactly is he planning to do about it?

So far he’s halted the legal proceedings, which were conducted by military tribunal and did not comply with Geneva Conventions. The cases are now on pause indefinitely and will probably be thrown out. Of course, many of the prisoners now held at Guantanamo actually have committed crimes, so there will need to be trials, but where, and under what legal code? Not to mention, where where these people be housed? Republican House leader John Boehner has clearly failed his kindergarten class on sharing, and says he doesn’t want them in the U.S.

If there is a better solution [than keeping the prisoners at Guantanamo], we’re open to hearing it. But most communities around America don’t want dangerous terrorists imported into their neighborhoods, and I can’t blame them.

But what if they promise to make cookies for the whole block? No seriously, no one is suggesting that we free hordes of terrorists in your Connecticut suburbs, but the underlying worry is really over which jurisdiction the prisoners will become subject to. The Bush administration came up with the classification of “illegal combatant” to describe the Guantanamo prisoners so that they would not fall under the protection of the Geneva Conventions for POW’s. Human rights activists decried the creation of this gray zone, arguing the obvious case that this was severely sketchy and left the prisoners with virtually no rights or way to appeal.

Obama has promised to solve the problem by simply closing Guantanamo but that still leaves gaping unresolved issues. Firstly, HuffPo brings up the cogent point that simply closing it with an executive order isn’t enough to prevent future presidents from reopening the detention center, so what Obama is doing is more of a temporary solution. (They suggest Obama support legislation to federally prohibit the use of Gitmo as a detention center.) And after Guantanamo is closed, whether it be temporary or permanent, what’s the correct way to try those prisoners who are classified as terrorists and not nationally-recognized soldiers? (On that note, how the hell do you define “nation,” cough Israel and Palestine cough). Will America’s safety be compromised by having no recourse to the unethical but swifter forms of interrogation and incarceration?

Obama made us all misty-eyed and hopeful during the inauguration with his assertion that, “we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals,” but it remains to be seen how he plans on making that a reality.

Obama takes step toward shutting Guantanamo prison [LA Times]

Obama seeks halt in Guantanamo cases [Boston Globe]

Obama’s Guantánamo Mistake: He’s Not Closing Gitmo the Right Way [HuffPo]