The U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, long has been a stain on our reputation for democracy. HUNGER STRIKES by 100 of the detainees are drawing international attention to their plight. They fear, rightly, they have dropped off the world’s radar and will be left to rot on the isolated tip of Cuba, a U.S. naval base — long abandoned — since 1903. CONGRESS needs to make a commitment to close the prison. The restrictions on transferring prisoners to the United States need to be lifted. Detainees who pose no threat need to be allowed to repatriate to their countries. And those who are suspected of criminal activity need to have their day in a federal criminal court.
The 166 prisoners there have been denied their due process of law. True, the numbers are significantly down from 800 when then-President George W. Bush opened the prison to house alleged terrorists starting after Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
When President Barack Obama first took office in 2009 he pledged Gitmo’s closing forthwith. Obama has reduced the number from 240 in his four-plus years. Of the remaining, only a handful have been charged with any crime or legal violation.
His initial proposal to move the detainees to a U.S. maximum security prison was rejected by Congress, even though one in Thomson, Ill., sat empty. For some reason the foreigners — all deemed low threats — seemed more dangerous than U.S. ax murderers.
Further complications, set by Obama himself, include detainees could not be released if their home countries had questionable security measures, such as Yemen, which is a hotbed of Islamist fundamentalism. Yemen is home to 56 of the detainees. That stipulation arose out of the attempted underwear bombing of the Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas in 2009. The perpetrator was Yemenese.
In its only concession to Obama, Congress granted a case-by-case review for the detainees. Instead, Obama has pulled back entirely from the issue, leaving the detainees in an intolerable limbo.
Twenty-one of the strikers are being force-fed with a tube inserted through their nostrils.
Conditions in the prison are dire. An estimated $200 million in immediate construction has been deemed necessary to repair deteriorating facilities.
For 10 years detainees have lived in makeshift barracks in intolerable conditions with indefinite detentions.
If not, the United States stands guilty of human rights violations.
— Susan Lynn
