On Closing Guantanamo: A Sisyphean Struggle

With the signing of yesterday's executive orders to close Guantanamo and end torture, we are finally seeing the beginning of a reversal of some of the nastiest inhuman practices of the Bush administration. Yes, it may take another year to close the notorious detention center and yes, there are some aspects of these orders that could be problematic, such as the suggestion that trials outside of federal courts are possible. But despite some reservations, after seven long years of Bush policies that violated human rights, treaties, law and morality, yesterday marked the end of an era. It was an era that caused untold harm to human beings and to the U.S. reputation in the world. Guantanamo was iconic for everything the Bush administration did wrong in the "war on terror," the first steps of the nascent Obama administration symbolize a true break from the wrongheaded policies of the past.

When the Center for Constitutional Rights, in collaboration with leading lawyers Joe Margulies, Clive Stafford Smith and Tom Wilner, first took on cases on behalf of Guantanamo detainees, we did not expect to win. We began filing them a few months after 9/11. The mood in the country was ugly; hate mail poured in and we did not think the courts were ready to restrict presidential authority. We assumed we would lose, but knew it was necessary to assert a key principle of a government under law: that no person could be imprisoned without the right to go to court and challenge his detention--a right we lawyers call the writ of habeas corpus. It was this right the Bush administration felt could be dispensed with.

It has been a rocky ride since the filing of the first cases. We and other lawyers had victories in the Supreme Court with Rasul v. Bush and Hamdan v Rumsfeld. In each case, the court ruled that Guantanamo detainees had the right to challenge their detentions. We thought each ruling would mean the end of Guantanamo, only to then witness Congress overriding the Court.

Finally, the Court ruled in Boumediene v. Bush that our clients had constitutional rights; rights which could not be overridden. But Guantanamo remained open. Now, albeit slowly, the federal courts are finding, one by one, that the Guantanamo detainees were wrongly held.

When we began these cases we were few; today we are many. Over 600 lawyers from big firms and small firms, working pro bono, are the attorneys for the hundreds at Guantánamo. These many attorneys understood what was at stake at Guantanamo--liberty itself. The response of the lawyers, who include Republicans and Democrats, progressives and conservatives, will be seen as one of the great chapters in the battle for fundamental rights in the United States.

This has been a long struggle, much longer then we and others imagined. We have had some amazing successes. We did not expect to find torture. We were naïve. At Guantanamo the most overt aspects of that program ended because we were able to get attorneys into the prison. Now, two-thirds of the Guantánamo detainees have been released, which could not have been possible without litigation.

Our hopes now are for a swift end to the Guantanamo nightmare, faster than the one year maximum promised in the executive order. Another year is simply too long. We applaud the administration for its plan to close this human rights abomination and we are confident that it will either prosecute or repatriate the remaining 245 Guantanamo detainees while rejecting tactics such as preventative detention. At the same time, to ensure that the U.S. never again goes to the "dark side" we must insist on individual accountability. Only by holding government officials responsible for war crimes, through criminal investigations and prosecutions can we deter future lawbreakers and end the culture of impunity that the Bush administration created. The executive orders Obama has signed can be revisited in the next administration. Our adherence to a world under law should not be determined by who is President. It should be dictated, instead, by an unwavering commitment to protecting human rights and the knowledge that there will be consequences for their violations.

Michael Ratner is president of the Center for Constitutional Rights and author of "The Trial of Donald Rumsfeld: A Prosecution by Book."

Comments

[bronceye]

Now that bush's war OF terror is over, maybe we can have a real, concerted effort to end terrorism(ours and theirs). Remembering bush saying that he wanted to close Gitmo, one can snicker listening to repubes and fox noose saying that it's "too hard" just as bush said about that and a myriad of other things that he didn't really want to do.Remarkable that we leave people in dungeons because it's "too hard" to let them out. America has had very few years when we weren't at war, going to war or ending a war to say it's "too hard" to be humans. There's no money in it, that's all, and the money people may be scrutinised. Corporate war, that's our specialty.

[larry278]

President Obama has established that he is among the world's worst bowlers, but many Americans are devoted to the sisyphean indoor sport of bowling where your bowling ball is quickly returned to you in the gutter after you throw it down the alley. Odds are that bowlers wrote up Pres Obama's policy on closing Gitmo. We are bound to get a mess back as we try to throw out W's nit wit use of Gitmo to fight a war on terror with a war of terror upon those suspected of being terrorists. Gitmo & the CIA's network of secret or black prisons have show that evidence obtained by torture is worthless. How is the USA going to care for its prisoners which it broke by torture at Gitmo & other black sites? Many of these people won't be able to ever live indepenently. We have the obligation to give these broken men humane care till they die. It's the Pottery Barn policy, "You broke it; you bought it.".

[larry278]

I've been informed by an acquaintence who's training to be a world class yenta that Pres Obama has now been office for 100 hours. Fundie right wingnuts aren't admiting that the world hasn't ended yet & the rapture hasn't started--yet.
Radical progressives plan to start a world wide campaign of complaing that Pres Obama hasn't rebuilt the economy yet, brought US forces back home from Iraq & Afghanistan, selected a chruch to attend while he's in the White House & a lot more vital & most important things. Some radical progressives are upset that neither the HUFFINGTON POST nor the DAILY BEAST is/are not starting a campaign to impeach Pres Obama for not making everything in the universe much better yet. Pres Obama has been in office for 100 hours, what has he done? Overwrought minds want to know.

[gtsteel]

After campaigning for 18 months that Gitmo should be closed, Obama is entitled to follow through on his promise. On the other hand, I was really surprised with the "uncertain" way that he announced his executive order- he even had to ask WH Counsel Greg Craig to clarify what was in the order that he was signing. Closing Gitmo is easy. Finding a way to dispose of the prisoners has always been the hard part. Trying some of them in US courts without exposing sources and methods, or revealing informant names, could be impossible.If closing Gitmo buys us some international respect and cooperation, it may come at a high price.

[2008CaliforniaFan]

You make some good points and you mentioned that you were surprised with the 'uncertain' details or the ways to close Gitmo. Obamas response was the needed an investigation. As we find out today (by the WP)that investigation has A L R E A D Y found out that BushCo and his friends do not have any case files on the detainees. Oooops. T H A T makes it difficult to give details.

T H A T ....also shows the incompetence of the last 8 years. Who knew it was this bad.

[suejester]

I just thought of at least two great places to send the "guilty" Guantanamo detainees...Bush's new residence and Cheney's residence..

[RoseMerry]

In the interest of getting pass the moderators, I will be moderate.

NONSENSE.

We have the world's large prison system and one of the world's large legal system. Assign an agent to each prisoner and then get them to a cell in the U.S. Spread them about the country. Take them in federal court according to our laws. Let justice be done.

And do the same to criminals that have had a stranglehold on our nation the last eight hours.

Now, again (you know what I am gotta say, so if you do, stop reading now).

Clean up the toxic waste at Gitmo. THAT may take a year.

Give it back to Cuba. Never AGAIN! REALLY CLOSE GITMO!!! For all time.

[PSM42]

That was a very interesting Freudian slip, based on your suggesting returning the Guantanamo base to the Cubans.

> to criminals that have had a stranglehold on our nation the last eight hours.

Eight HOURS??? Hmm. Fascinating. :-)

[LeonBNJ]

Already the Republicans are trying to find ways to keep out of the USA states or territories any of the Gitmo prisoners, to find ways to protect those that carried out torture and those that ordered it - in effect President Bush. Indeed the stone will keep rolling back to the bottom the hill endlessly until enough people stand up.

[JEP57]

Why do foreign prisoners of war have rights under our constitution? Why are civilian lawyers involved instead of military tribunals?

[zul59]

because they are not deemed as POWs? That was how the previous admin wanted it done, to bypass the Articles of the Geneva Convention.

[chnge2012]

Mr. Ratner would you, Jamie Lee Curtis, Alec Baldwin, Sean Penn, and any other "happy person", please take the Gitmo saints into your home. Please feed them, clothe them, massage them, but please keep them away from the rest of us. With your type of thinking it makes me wonder why poor Charlie Manson still locked up.

[PSM42]

THE 27,000 MUSLIMS DISAPPEARED BY THE US

CLIVE STAFFORD SMITH

Clive Stafford Smith: "US Holding 27,000 in Secret Overseas Prisons; Transporting Prisoners to Iraqi Jails to Avoid Media & Legal Scrutiny," on Democracy Now.

Clive Stafford Smith, British born lawyer for over fifty detainees in Guantanamo Bay. He is the legal director of the UK charity Reprieve and has defended prisoners on death row for over twenty years. He is the author of Eight O’Clock Ferry to the Windward Side: Seeking Justice in Guantanamo Bay.

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/5/19/clive_stafford_smith

[PSM42]

THE 27,000 MUSLIMS DISAPPEARED BY THE US

ROBERT FISK

"There is just one little problem, though, and that's the "missing" prisoners. Not the victims who have been (still are being?) tortured in Guantanamo, but the thousands who have simply disappeared into US custody abroad or – with American help – into the prisons of US allies. Some reports speak of 20,000 missing men, most of them Arabs, all of them Muslims. Where are they? Can they be freed now? Or are they dead? If Obama finds that he is inheriting mass graves from George W Bush, there will be a lot of apologising to do."

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-obama-has-to-pay-for-eight-years-of-bushs-delusions-1001092.html

Fisk, the same incensed honourable man who fearlessly reported the Sabra and Shatila genocide of Ariel Sharon who, after the Israeli inquiry, was fired as Israeli Defense minister.

Would that there be such an inquiry again, in the U.S.

[john17]

"If torture is the only means of obtaining the information necessary to prevent the detonation of a nuclear bomb in Times Square, torture should be used—and will be used—to obtain the information. ... no one who doubts that this is the case should be in a position of responsibility."

-Richard Posner


Additionally, the Department of Defense estimates that SIXTY former Guantanamo detainess have returned to the battlefield.

[zul59]

That REPORT has been put into question. Last I read, that report may not even exist.

[antworks]

Mr. Ratner,
Thanks for your diligence and the other 600 lawyers. But, this citizen doesn't quite see how we can ensure this abomination will never happen again. The culprits go much further than Bush and Cheney or their minions. Sure, Bush gave the orders. But, the Supreme Court, conservative as it is, gave him a green light. A Republican Congress seconded the motion.

[obriend]

As suspected, Obama's week anti-terrorism philosophies are in motion. Looks like he is planning to stockpile Hamas and Al Qaeda with the all-star terrorists from Gitmo. We knew this was coming!

[AirForceBlue]

"Hate mail arrived"..­..........­... could it be the writers looked upon the Gitmo detainees as mass killers, non uniformed non compliants with Geneva Convention and without uniforms or established country? Some writers merely do what they can to help their country. Oh, right, our country & citizens were in danger of losing liberty. Somehow I missed the Crystal Night. But I haven't missed the aspersions from those pretending to equate the simpler times of muzzle loaded cries, "Give me liberty or give me death," with today's effete objectivity.

[Social Construct]

Please, could you elaborate on your comment above? I know that there is a limit on wordage, however, the comment went right over my head and I am left lacking in understanding the meaning. My apologies for my limited ability to extract your intent from your comment; I am sincere in asking for clarification. Thank you.

[AirForceBlue]

Delighted, as space will permit. I am defending those who read what they determine to be attacks against the country they love by the opposite political spectrum and show their anger with unfortunate phrases. Look at it another way: You'll find proponents (readers) of the HuffPo philosophy that regularly attack any writer defending the Bush Administration with similar phrases. They are sincere in their hatred of Bush and his policies and respond accordingly. I, personally, mock the invented charges meant to persuade us we are losing our liberty due to the actions of a president defending this nation against a very pernicious, mad, idealogical group lacking any trace lof civilized behavoir. My reference to Crystal Night (Krystal Nacht in Germany) was merely showing there has not been a similarly overt incident by Bush to deny any liberty -- except, of course, to those in Gitmo who'd cut any westener's throat at every opportunity (by the way, Clinton started the "rendition" program). My "muzzle loaded cries" equates the bold times of our country's beginnings with reality, as opposed by today's political inventions intended to merely destroy a president. Indeed, I speak from a biased military viewpoint, engrained from exposure to world reality. Something our current president now has wide-opened-eyes about and cleverly seeks "looking forward" in order to dismiss further nonsense about Bush Administrations crimes.

[zoog21]

Out of all the disagreements we conservatives can have with liberals, none is, in my opinion, more dangerous than this. In alot of other areas of governance, from the economy, to the right tactic to continue the War on Terror (Iraq v. Afghanistan) you could make the argument that we both want the country to succeed and prosper but just that we differ on the way to get there. With Gitmo, I see no such distinction. The facts are these: the prisoners held there were picked up on the battlefield and are enemy combatants and this much is proven by the fact that many who were released from there have gone back (some after first rate health care was administered by U.S. military doctors no less) to fight and plan terror. If we were to prosecute them in court, then we obtain convictions only at the expense of divulging top secret evidence and without the benefit of any statements as none of these prisoner would have been read Miranda rights on the field of battle. So what is left after Gitmo closes? The only answer is to release them and let them go back to what they have vowed to do before their detention there. And that lone undeniable conclusion is undisputedly a danger beyond all dangers to this country. So how can any person sworn to uphold the Constitution (with its promises of providing for the "Common Defence") allow this to happen?

[RoloTomassi]

Your information is severely flawed; some of the detainees were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, and were rounded up by the equivalent of battlefield bounty hunters and sold to US "representatives" who had no means of verifying the claims made against these people.

As deregulated, unsupervised markets have proven, greed knows no bounds, and to summarily declare that these people should be detained indefinitely is absurd and criminal.

OTOH, if any detainees do actually fall into hysterical fear-driven characterization that you use in your post, then other options will have to come into play; the biggest obstacle for fear-mongering GOPers now is a problem you haven't had for the last eight years--you actually have to know what you are talking about, and then be able to prove it.

You don't want Middle Eastern terrorists coming to this country to attack us? The grow a brain and support politicians that will push policies that keep the US OUT of Middle Eastern government's affairs.

No, that's not a quick fix, but this wasn't a sudden problem either; it took DECADES of US mishandling foreign affairs in the Middle East to bring about the current situation, and it will take decades of sincere effort and fair policies to undo the damage.

[zoog21]

Keep on being naive there pal. Plain and simple, these people want to kill us and we should be able to do everything in our power to protect ourselves.

And, your reasoning is flawed...when was the last time that cozying up to these fundamentalists in the Middle East gotten us anywhere. Maybe there was a time when the U.S. committed military power to stop a genocide of Muslims in some country in Europe?? Hmmmm?? And look how we were re-paid for our efforts in the former Yugoslavia­...continu­ed terror attacks and jihad against us. Don't be gullible, these fundmenalists have so distorted their religion that they have hated the West and any non-Muslims LONG before any of U.S. involvement in the Middle East. And nice thinly anti-Isreal sentiment there too pal.

[CHRIS337]

Pat Buchanan says we should stay out "Middle Eastern government's affairs."
Is he the one I should vote for, O giant brained one?

[Aiden]

You really don't get it...these people want to destroy the west because of our way of life, because we exist and don't believe in their religion, they consider us infidels. Didn't you notice the burning of President Obama's image in Tehran? They don't care whether he negotiates with them and it doesn't matter who is president or which party is in charge.