The Closing Of Guantanamo

By Matthew McLoughlin

Since I last posted the empire has inaugurated its new leader, Barrack Hussein Obama. One of Obama's first acts was the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison, along with other secret CIA prisons throughout the world. Although it only took a number of days to set up these illegal prisons and to take away peoples most basic rights (like be charged for the crime they are being detained for) it is said that it will be a year until the Guantanamo Bay prison officially closes. Two major questions have failed to be asked by the mainstream media, the first being: Why the wait? As Vincent Warren of the Center for Constitutional Rights said "It only took days to put these men in Guantánamo; it shouldn’t take a year to get them out.”

The other question is: "What happens to these prisoners now"? The answer being that many will be shipped off to countries other then their homeland. Many of the inmates now risk persecution upon returning home. By closing Guantanamo is the US ending its policy of taking prisoners without placing charges on them or are we just moving these human rights violations off of US property? For those that will be released free men what will be done for them? The US has done nothing to compensate those whose lives they've destroyed inside the prison, like Sudanese cameraman Sami al-Hajj. al-Hajj was released from Guantanamo in May after spending six years in the prison, without receiving any charges or being given the opportunity to go before a court. Upon release he was put on a plane and shipped to Sudan were he was immediately taken to a hospital for treatment. Will the remaining prisoners in Guantanamo receive similar treatment? Although a good first step, simply closing these prisons is by no means enough action.

There is also the question of military prisons set up inside of Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama has yet to announce any plans of closing said prisons. Will we see a return to the pre-Bush torture policy? Where prisoners are simply taken to other countries were these acts will be committed? And what about the Guantanamo base itself? Will the land remain under US control?

Obama has also ordered that all agencies abide by the army field manuel when handling interrogations. Since many of the acts of torture were being done in secrecy, I don't see how this order will prevent future policy breeches. It is also unclear if this policy will be adhered to at all, on the evening of January twenty first White House counsel Gregory Craig told lawmakers that Obama may still allow interrogation methods other then the nineteen approved for military use. As we saw with the Bush administration what is and is not torture is defined by policy makers.


Here is a report on the release of Sami Al-Hajj from Democracy Now!: