Guantanamo Bay Prison to Close Soon
Obama Vows Release or Transfer of Detainees from GItmo
Dec 21, 2008
Days after his election as the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama reaffirmed his campaign promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison. With approximately 250 inmates housed in the facility, there is no telling how long it will take to completely shut it down. The Bush Administration has expressed doubt about the ease with which such a process would take place.
The Obama team's plan to close the Guantanamo Bay prison is still in the drafting stage, but there are credible rumors that it will involve the release of at least some of the detainees to their home countries.
Getting Out of Gitmo
The Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, located in Cuba, began taking in prisoners in January 2002, a few short months following the September 11 terrorist attacks. The facility houses those accused of being "enemy combatants," a term which has historically referred to armed, military combatants of a state with which the labeling country is at war.
Following the September 11 attacks, President George W. Bush made the unprecedented move of exercising his executive power of labeling non-military civilians as combatants. The strategy allowed President Bush to single out members of terrorist or extremist religious organizations such as al Qaeda and the Taliban and detain them as enemy combatants.
As a result, such detainees are housed at Guantanamo Bay prison without the benefits allowed to prisoners-of-war under the Geneva Conventions. The detention of alleged enemy combatants at Gitmo has come under consistent fire from human rights organizations around the world. One such group, Human Rights Watch, has actively lobbied for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison, citing compelling evidence of mistreatment and sanctioned physical and mental abuses of inmates similar to those uncovered at Abu Ghraib.
Held Without Trial
Detention without trial is rarely granted support by human rights organizations. Even in rare cases where it is deemed temporarily necessary during wartime, prolonged detention is of particular concern to human rights watchdogs. If President-elect Barack Obama holds true to his vow to shut down the facility, prisoners who have been held for years without a day in court will soon be extradited to various countries or relocated to U.S. prisons before facing trial.
Guantanamo Bay, nicknamed Gitmo, will represent a complicated closure project for the new Obama Adminstration. Even for those fortunate detainees who will be slated for release when the facility closes, there are few options for deportation. Not many countries have expressed willingness to take in the stigmatized detainees. As President, Barack Obama, with the key support of incoming Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other Cabinet members, will be faced with the heavy challenge of finding countries willing to take those released.
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