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Sat. Nov. 14, 2009
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Politics in depth > The Americas > Politics & Economy
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Analysis
Guantanamo Prisoners: Where to Go?
The Final Destination Dilemma
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Obama signs his first presidential exacutive to shutdown Guantanamo detention facilities. (Reuters) |
"Last point, Guantanamo. That’s easy. Close down Guantanamo," declared Obama during his presidential campaign in California on Nov. 14, 2007. However, after nearly two years, it seems that things are harder than he had thought.
After Obama's clear victory over John McCain, he signed executive orders directing the closure of Guantanamo's detention facilities within one year and the immediate case-by-case review of detainees.
Other orders signed that day included one prohibiting the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from secretly holding detainees in other countries and another aligning interrogations standards to those outlined by the US Army. Obama signed those executive orders in his first day in office in the White House.
According to Amnesty International, Guantanamo Bay detention camp had been deemed as a human rights scandal. The executive orders had been challenged by the Senate and Defense officials over the legal treatment of detainees as prisoners who cannot enjoy the rights of prisoners of war.
The opposing voices claim that the Geneva Convention's protection cannot be extended to the current detainees who had been classified as terrorists and do not belong to an army, or organized legitimate military organization.
Real Security Considerations?
| There might be a problem in exposing CIA operations of rendition overseas. |
Granting the remaining 221 prisoners the right to have a fair trial had been a matter of national security, as the trials cannot be held in normal federal courts due to the secrecy element regarding evidence presentation, requests of military personnel to testify and inability to make the hearings public, or recorded for media purposes.
In addition to that, there might be a problem in exposing CIA operations of rendition occurred before sending detainees finally to Guantanamo.
The situation had escalated when 13 of the detainees at Guantanamo Base who belong to the large Muslim Uighur region in Western China had been cleared for release in the United States by court and they now do not know where to go.
Those 13 men had been no threat to United States and in addition did not to have any terrorist intentions, or connections. However, the federal court had appealed to overrule this decision as it violates the immigration laws of US.
The Department of Justice had declared that the Uighurs are now free to leave Guantanamo Bay to go to any country that is willing to accept them, and in the meantime, they are housed in facilities separate from those for enemy combatants under the least restrictive conditions practicable.
The Department of Justice stated, "There is a fundamental difference between the release of a detained alien to permit him to return home, or to another country and ordering that the alien would be brought to and released in the United States with no regard to immigration laws."
Fear of Cruel Treatment at Home
| The released Uyghur prisoners might be subject to torture or execution in China. |
The prisoners’ lawyers had appealed to the US government not to send the prisoners back to China as they might be executed, or tortured. The Chinese government would treat them as domestic terrorists and would probably ask them to be returned back to China for trial.
The Chinese Muslim Uyghur prisoners are allegedly linked to a separatist group that calls for the separation of Xinjiang region which is known as Chinese Turkistan.
In 2006, The USA released five Uighur prisoners into Albania that had been willing to accept them, but under pressure from China, Albania is no longer accepting any more released Uighur prisoners.
The same political message had been communicated to other countries which renders the prisoners with no place to go except going back to China to be trialed and possibly executed, or spending a lifelong sentence in jail, or staying in Guantanamo Bay waiting for a country to grant them asylum.
It seems that not only the Uighurs have this uncertainty about their future. The remaining 221 prisoners are still waiting to see if they will be prosecuted in the United States, or stay there if no other country agreed to take them.
| The Senate puts restrictions upon the transfer of Guantanamo's prisoners. |
Obama's Dilemma
Obama’s administration has succeeded in winning another battle in its efforts to close down the Guantanamo camp when the Senate finally agreed upon transferring the detainees to be trialed on US soil and granting them the right to prove to federal judges that they had been unlawfully held without charge.
The remaining challenges are the restrictions that the Senate added to the transfer of detainees plan. The Senate requires the administration to develop a plan before any further transfers.
Also, Obama administration has to offer guarantees that any transferred prisoner does not represent any terrorist threat. This is extremely hard to grant.
In addition to that, the Senate requires 15 days' notice before the transfer. Despite the agreement of the Senate, the House of Representatives is still skeptical about that as the debate is not over yet.
There are voices that question the consequences of releasing the detainees in USA, or any other country while others support the complete shutdown of the facility as it had been used as a recruiting tool in the hands of al-Qaeda.
Obama’s administration would rejoice this victory after receiving the political hit of turning down their proposal of allocating $80 million budget out of $91 billion war budget for shutting the Guantanamo Bay camp in addition to settling the issues related to the release of cleared detainees.
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Abd El Hamid Sherief is a freelance researcher and journalist. He is currently studying politics at the American University in Washington DC.
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