Obama: Close Gitmo On Day One -- You Can Do It. We've Got Your Back.

It's already a time-worn cliché when we say that the election of Barack Obama is historic. I still like saying it. Let me share some of my personal reflections on why this election seems historic and hopeful for a sometimes jaded Executive Director.

Like many of you on Tuesday night, I was celebrating the end of the Bush era and the beginning of a historic one. My partner and I went to four festive and fun election parties that night. And then while lying in bed that night, excitedly talking about the world, we reflected on what that night's election meant for us.

My partner remarked that he was born in 1954, and that the year he was born, African-American little boys like him were still legally put in "separate but equal" schools. Then Brown vs. Board of Education changed all that. And today, an African-American ascends to the highest office of the greatest nation. I remarked that when I was a little boy in the Bronx public housing projects, I never thought I could be president of ANYTHING when I grew up. I only believed I could go to college when I was a high school sophomore after receiving a letter telling me I was offered early admission at a community college. That was the first day I realized I would not have to be a waiter like my father who came from Puerto Rico and worked at the Warwick Hotel for 39 years. I told my partner that my Mom still proudly tells me that I was always smart, ambitious, and focused on school. But I never aspired for anything more than a job like my dad's because I never thought it was possible. My dad was the only great role model I knew and I wanted to be just like him.

On Tuesday, all the African-American, Latino, poor of all races, and disenfranchised of all countries got the best of role models. Everyone knows who the U.S. president is, and now literally billions of little boys and girls who may have otherwise set their sights too low will invariably set them higher. If nothing more happens (and our collective job is to make sure a lot more happens), change will indeed happen by having a President Barack Obama inspire new generations of little boys and girls to write, "I want to be President when I grow up." No one will dare ridicule them because of the color of their skin, their ethnicity, their sexual orientation, or convince them that the odds are insurmountable. Tuesday inspired many, but the best of those we inspired we won't know for generations to come.

For our generation, however, we have to help realize the greatness that President Obama represents. It's not all on him. He needs us. He has two raging wars, a failing economy where good folks are losing their homes and can't drive their cars because they don't have the cash to go the pump, and where they avoid going to the doctor because they can't afford the bills that will come in the mail. Those are not ACLU priorities, but they are American priorities that President Obama confronts. Solutions to these problems won't be easy, as he will have to contend with well-moneyed lobbyists from pharmaceuticals, oil companies and military contractors opposing him at every turn. Solutions to those issues will require partisan horse trading with Republicans and Democrats alike — and I worry that he will have to water down what he wants and ultimately give up the Progressive Caucus to get the Blue Dogs and Conservative/Moderate Wing of Republican party, as well as the "Independent" likes of Joe Lieberman (smile).

But our issues and our top agenda are easy by comparison. He doesn't have to contend with lobbyists in client-bought Ferragamos. Our issues won't require partisan horse-trading, congressional action, faux hearings and bipartisan committees that deliberate but never deliver.

Our top issue — closing down Gitmo and shutting down the military commissions — can be done as soon as he lifts his left hand, picks up the new presidential pen and signs an executive order closing Gitmo and ending the military commissions once and for all. Call me naive, but I honestly believe he wants to do it. He promised us that on the campaign trail, and I believe it was more than an empty promise. I believe he knows what he needs to do to restore the America we believe in, to get us on back on track, to give us back our America, an America we never stopped believing in but have sorely missed for the past eight years.

With a stroke of his pen on Day One, a good, courageous president can do that — as long as he listens to himself and to our pleas. As long as he doesn't listen to the centrist and DLC types who tell him, "It's too complicated." "It's tougher than it looks." "Take your time." "We need message discipline — you don't want to do what Clinton did with gays in the military. The nation wasn't ready."

But what these so-called experts might forget is that America IS ready. The world is ready. And we need a courageous, optimistic president ready to say back to them, "I don't want America to live with the stain of President Bush's Guantánamo prison camp and his flawed commissions for one day longer. I'm closing them today. You tell me how we are going to accomplish that and begin cleaning up the mess we inherited."

They're not likely to give him a solution — just their view of the realpolitik. They may play for time, and "get back to him" as he turns his attention elsewhere. But the solution to the stain on America's pride is in fact really easy: criminally charge all the Guantánamo detainees for whom the government has good evidence. Those we can't charge, you have to release. For those being tried in kangaroo military commissions, transfer them to federal criminal courts or to courts governed by the U.S. Code of Military Justice. Those are the best systems of justice in the world where the Constitution still stands for something. Let's use them.

President Obama needs us. Even for the most extraordinary of men like him, his head must be spinning from the "expert" advice he's getting on a range of issues. Other pressing issues will take time, compromise and horse-trading. Our top issue — closing Gitmo and shutting down the military commissions — just requires us to remind him that that's what we want; that we have his back when the critics come after him for doing so. We can tell him that we understand that the best of presidents who want to do the right thing are better able to do so when the public, fans and supporters respectfully demand action. Like Dr. King forcing the hand of JFK. Both their legacies benefited from that pressure. And the nation remembers them fondly, even if there were tensions between them. We understand that. I have to believe President Obama understands that.

So let's get to work to help Mr. Obama be the best president ever. A courageous commander-in-chief, who tells West Wing advisors sipping lattes in Italian calfskin loafers what they have to do, rather than ask the George Bush question, "What should we do?"

In today's New York Times, we're running a full-page ad urging President-Elect Obama to close Guantánamo Bay and shut down the military commissions on his first day in the White House. Take a look at the ad.

Today, we're also launching the first in a powerful series of short videos produced by filmmaker Robert Greenwald, the award-winning director and producer of documentaries including "Outfoxed" and "Unconstitutional: The War on Our Civil Liberties." Check out the first video now. You can find Robert's video on closegitmo.com.

We're hosting an open Town Hall Meeting on Thursday, November 13, when concerned citizens from all across the nation will gather via teleconference to brainstorm how we help Barack Obama take the steps we all want towards freedom on Day One. We can help him do the right thing, we can give him cover and we can respond to his advisors that it not as hard to close Gitmo and shut down Bush's military commissions as we're being told. We can't wait. The world can't wait. Our America can't wait. We want it back and need him to get us back on track.

You are invited to this strategy session to help the president do the right thing that's in his gut. Go to www.aclu.org/townhall for more information and to sign up.

For eight years, patriotic Americans have led the battle against the most un-American policies in recent history. The Bush administration created a prison camp at Guantánamo — a place where they claimed the law didn't apply. They have detained hundreds of men without charge or trial, prosecuted others in unconstitutional military commissions and authorized torture.

Now, you can help us and our new president seize a dramatic opportunity for progress. You can help this historic president make history on Day One — not a day too soon. Before the weeds and vines of politics-as-usual creep over our hope and smother its light, let's come together and demand a new beginning and a new day — on the first day. We can and will close Gitmo, and we can shut down the un-American military commissions. It takes a president, but he needs his people. Not his advisors.

Help us reach him. Help President-elect Obama. Help America.

Get involved: Watch our first "Close Gitmo" video, check out our New York Times ad and sign up for our Town Hall Meeting.

If not for us, do it for those legions of little boys and girls who now have a role model they believe in. Let's not lose their hope in him, in us, and let's not let their incipient hope in themselves dissipate. Hope is too hard won. And too easily lost.

Comments

[sticksnstones]

The country I was born into does not, for any reason, torture.

The country I was born into does not operate interrogation camps on foreign soil.

The country I was born into does not deny the right of habeas corpus.

SHUT THIS SUCKER DOWN

[Dysthymia]

One of the reasons that I voted for Barack Obama was that I believed he would do the right thing and close down Guantanomo. That place is a national disgrace.

[RickCadena]

Muchas gracias, Anthony. I agree with you 100% on this issue. At the same time, this addresses the modern day issues revolving around Guantanamo, its real name, not Gitmo.

However, I think that the United States should take a much larger step in atoning for past mistakes, abuses, grievances, etc. Step One as you say is to close down all of the installations where these prisoners have been held. To build on top of that move or decision, I propose the following:

Step 2: Close all military (naval) installations at Guantanamo.

Step 3: Repeal the Platt Amendment of 1902

Step 4: Relinquish all territorial claims to Guantanamo and return it to Cuba and its people

The Platt Amendment of 1902 was the instrument used by the United States to unilaterally grant itself the right to intervene in Cuba's internal affairs. US intervention in Cuba was rampant from 1902 all the way up to 1959. Real Cuban sovereignty in those years was a "sueño guajiro" (chasing ghostriders in the sky). This also opened the door for a parade of US supported dictators, namely, Alberto Zayas, Gerardo Machado, Dr. Ramon Grau San Martin, Carlos Prio Socorras, and eventually Fulgencio Batista. The Platt Amendment of 1902 unwittingly gave us Fidel Castro Ruz.

Once the mess made by the Bush administration at this detention camp is cleaned up, Guantanamo has to be returned to Cuba!!! PERIOD!!!

NO ANDS!!! NO IFS!!! NO BUTS!!! ... NO NONSENSE!!!

Muchas Gracias,
Richard Cadena
Gringo expat in Mexico City

[rmm4402]

Yeah............. the Platt Amendment. Now there was a big campaign issue.

While we're at it, let's just have the Russians come in for a turnover visit - we can show them around the place and it will make for smooth transition. Just give us a couple of weeks to clean the place out and they can move right in. We'll even leave the projector set up at the outdoor movie theater.

You want to move the detainees out - fine.......... but to giving back the base...

Maybe when they learn how to hold a free election...... but until then.......

No way Jose'.....

.

[sticksnstones]

"Maybe when they learn how to hold a free election...." you mean like ours in 2000(Florida) or 2004(Ohio) ??

" Free citizens will not give up freedom for very many reasons, but it is human nature to be willing to trade freedom for security. " Naomi Wolf from The End of America

[Pippen]

I'm a liberal and I served with distinction four years in the US Navy and I would not support retreating in Guantanamo. Closing the security aparatus that houses detainees is a pointless cost since there are no other facilities as fully secure and convenient as Gitmo. GITMO is an accronym for the base and I seriously doubt anyone including Obama is anti-security enough to close a forward post against Cuba because the Bush administration treated potential terrorists poorly.

Closing the security portion of GITMO as a political gesture to foreign nations who frown on American position on terrorist detainees is a bit weak and it will prove to be a problem long term for Democrats. I say, lets pick and choose who gets a trial and who gets treated like a terrorist and we keep it open and fully operational. I say hold routine tours and classes for those who feel too ignorant about what goes on at GITMO. We don't waterboard at GITMO thats rendetion and usually goes to Egypt or Poland.

[Readbetweentheelevens]

It will close in name only. Obama will need a place and a Court just like he has proposed. He'll close it to fullfill his promise and he'll keep it open by changing its appearance to fulfull his duties. If you have his back, I wonder if you want the Gitmo prisoners in your county? It's all sunshine and roses until the rubber hits the road.

[JohnCz]

I agree closing Gitmo will improve world opinion that we are serious about dealing with this in a just way. But I'm not very sympathic with those who are guilty of plotting acts of terror against U.S. interests. I strongly support hearing all of these cases in Military Courts (only) as I believe that to be the appropriate jurisdication. My reasoning, I just don't want to chance for terrorist groups to learn details sensitive to our national security. I also don't think these cases should be litigated to death in civil courts. If a person is found not guilty, they should be handed over to authorities in their homelands. I'll go a step further regarding individuals set free, if the Military court deems that the evidence used to hold detainees to be far below the normal threshold to detainee someone then the individual should be compensated for the time they spent. However, those found guilty should be administered a final punishment.

[LeonBNJ]

What can be done is to begin the process to shut down Gitmo for it will take several months to figure out what to do with the detainees there within our laws and international agreements we are parties too. But to announce that start to close that vile facility will be a clear and critical break from the Bush Admistration that Obama needs to make to start the healing of our relations in the rest of the world.

[AhYup]

Yeah, this is not about us having his back. This is about what to do with the people that are there. We have a holy mess. It can't be straightened out in one day.

We put the adults back in charge. Lets give them time to clean the mess up in a careful and adult manner.

[vigilantwarrior]

"...and authorized torture."

Ah, there it is. Most of these prisoners are not merely innocent, they have been TORTURED in violation of the Geneva Conventions and US Constitutional Law. How will you fairly try them now?

Do you also have President Obama's back if he decides to try Bush/Cheney high officials for war crimes?

http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2008/10/16/confess/

[avicenna]

Thank you. Close that symbol of abuse of human rights and give these people over to an international court to decide their fate. If they haven't already lost their sanity and hope of touching anything or anyone with a sense of familiartiy, they have lost too many years of their lives bound in chains and being subjected to abuse that the US federal gov't recently just prevented the release of photos showing. It will be a small but significant step towards reclaiming some morality.

[Rog49Thomas]

The closure of Gitmo is not the central issue.

The central issue is the treatment of prisoners.

Closing Gitmo and not changing behavior is nothing but a publicity stunt.

[canarypapers]

You must not have looked at the ad, linked to in the above post, at http://www.closegitmo.com/nyt_ad.pdf

Here, you'll see that the goal is not only to shut down Guantanamo, but to ALSO adhere to the Geneva Conventions and to reject the Military Commissions Act (the latter being nothing but a clever Bush-Chene­y-Addingto­n-Yoo legal maneuver designed to justify and legalize the administration's side-stepping of the Constitution, habeas corpus and the Geneva Conventions).

[nomzamo]

It seems to me that the respectful and trusting thing to do is see what Obama does first. Don't you think this fragile coalition that supports him might buckle if Obama appears to be caving in to the "Liberal" agenda? Also, it's a straight line to being accused of being soft on security if a majority believe those prisoners might be guilty as charged (which we know is a lie). I think he knows what he has to do and we should only make it uneasy for him if he fails to do what he promised. But I love your idea and wished we had taken to the streets 5 years ago.

[legalclubs]

Balance...that's what is lacking from your article Mr. Romero. OK, so we close down Gitmo and bring all of them to the United States and hold hearings and trials to determine their innocent or guilt. Under our system we have to prove guilt "beyond a reasonable doubt", so even if it is likely, but not beyond and reasonable doubt, that we are holding a particular terrorist who would like nothing more than to kill every American (and would try if we let him free) the guy would be found innocent. Then what?? Many of the countries where these guys are from specifically don't want these guys back and have barred their entry (remember every nation doesn't play by our rules). So if nobody will take these "innocent" indivividuals do we just let them go into American society??? Or do we continue to hold them, which would only change the location of Gitmo, not the status of holding someone without a trial. There are many questions and no easy answers despite Mr. Romero's asserations.

[Aaror]

Unfortunately, the free enemies we create by having Gitmo are more dangerous than the folks we have locked up, even before you account for the way an innocent man locked up in Gitmo might view the US after the experience. As for sending them home, well, each of those people is a citizen of some state, and we are allowed to deport them home. Then it is their home state's decision what to do with them, even if they are trapped in the airport like Tom Hanks.

[legalclubs]

Ah...but that's not quite correct. What is the person claims that if they are returned home they will be executed (which is realistic in the case of Saudi citizens) and they seek asylum? Now our choice is deliver someone that our court's found to be "not guilty" (which the general population incorrectly interprests as innocent) to their death, continue to hold them in a Gitmo-Style prison (so the only change being location) or set them free in America.

NO Aaror -- if we drop off an accused terrorist in many of these countries they will not live the life a movie comedy. In the end the real choice is keep Gitmo or (purely to appease the left) effectively move the facility elsewhere, but still outside the U.S., so Obama can claim he closed Gitmo while maintaining the exact policy of the Bush Administration.

[kevdanger]

Close GITMO on day one. Agreed.
peace
kev

[checkwon]

Great, Anthony. You're doing a tremendous job with the ACLU. I've got PEO's back, and yours.