Why hasn’t Obama closed Guantánamo?

Its continued existence reflects a cynical political calculation—and a failure to rethink America's war on "terror"

by Anthony D. Romero / October 19, 2011 / Leave a comment

Canadian detainee Omar Khadr was sent to Guantánamo in 2002, aged 15, but was put on trial only in 2010. He was sentenced to eight years

Having travelled to Guantánamo Bay and witnessed the injustices perpetrated there, I wholeheartedly welcomed President Barack Obama’s promise to close the prison, made two days after he took office in 2009. But nearly three years later, that goal appears even further from his reach. Approximately 170 detainees remain at the facility, and in recent months their transfer out of Guantánamo has reached a virtual standstill.

Why? Many commentators have cited internal wrangling over priorities, strategic missteps and an unanticipated congressional blowback—characterising, more or less, an avoidable political tragedy. Yet if one steps back to examine the full picture of how Guantánamo came into being and why prisoners remain there, a common theme emerges. The continued existence of the prison is grounded in the intractable view that the United States is engaged in a global war without end. The US government is so wedded to this perception of “everywhere-and-endless war” that it is now on the verge of making permanent the very policies that led to Guantánamo’s creation.

This should alarm not only US citizens and civil liberties groups, but people around the world. A number of governments, including Britain’s, aided the United States in the wrongful detentions at Guantánamo, rendition to torture, cruel interrogations, and other abuses. For the sake of their own citizens’ security, foreign governments must weigh in now to ensure that past abuses are not repeated. International opinion matters to President Obama—and his administration needs to hear that the world not only wants Guantánamo closed, but also opposes any future regime of permanent, global war-based detention.

To understand why closing Guantánamo Bay has proven so difficult, one must consider the history of the prison. In 2001, in response to the 9/11 attacks, President George W Bush proclaimed that the United States was at war, not just in Afghanistan, but everywhere, and not just with al Qaeda but with innumerable other groups as well. In framing this as a “global war on terror,” the Bush administration claimed the authority to use extensive powers not available in peacetime—including the right to indefinitely imprison those deemed an enemy, wherever they might be. As we now know, this resulted in hundreds of men, many with no discernible ties to hostilities against the United States, being…

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Are we seeing the death of political optimism?

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Comments

Michael Homonylo
October 31, 2011 at 16:57
Politics is the art of the possible. Perhaps it is not possible to "close guantanamo" ... maybe the best he can do is eliminate the torture / abuse of prisoners there first, then work on freeing the prisoners with due process of law. he cannot, nor would we want him to see himself, or take an action that puts the Presidency above the law. However flawed we may see those laws, at this point in history. [via Facebook]
Ramesh Raghuvanshi
November 3, 2011 at 12:06
Simple reason Obama bend before bureaucrat and CIA majority of white Americans not to closed Guantanamo Obama want to win. next election to him it is most important votes than human right.Though Obama may progressive but if his voters are conservative he must obey to his voters than few so called criminals.Justice can go in hell but win the election is true heaven.
Contessa Kopashki
November 3, 2011 at 12:33
Guantánamo prison and status above the law did not come about overnight. It is the result of political ideology and many years of policy making facilitated by advisers, lobbyists and warmongers. G.Bay is a monstrous experiment that serves to test the boundaries of previously accepted social, political and legal conventions. It has become a guage of political orientation that defines you as a pathetic liberal or a diehard patriot. Closure of the prison would be nothing more than symbolic because the structures and networks that prop up and profit from it's existance would remain intact. Before too long a new cluster of paranoias would be foisted on another nebulous social grouping and G.Bay mark II would be created. The prisoners, be they guilty or innocent, are trapped in a terrible battle between the traditional desire for a free society and the quest for national security at any cost. There are no winners in this game, America lost the moral high ground a long time ago and the ever elusive objective of eliminating terrorism has not, and can not be achieved. The ongoing existance of G.Bay is an indelible scar of shame on the Western world and those that assisted in the capture, transfer and interrogation of suspects. It would be comforting to consider the possibility that Obama has been diligently dismantling the foundations of Guantanamo brick by brick, neutralising the nodes in the networks. The lost lives of its inmates are the high risk stake America has played in an attempt to secure peace and freedom for millions based on trust and co-operation with other nations. There might come a day when the funders that arm political agitators will need to find new occupation because, in an ideal world, there would be no primeval countries brimming with weapon wielding barbarians declaring war on Western values, whatever those might be.
Don Phillipson
January 20, 2012 at 15:58
Michael Homonylo commented October 31, 2011: "Politics is the art of the possible. Perhaps it is not possible to “close Guantanamo”" This omits the question whether it is permissible for a constitutional government to act unconstitutionally. The US Supreme Court says not: which (because of the complexity of the decisionn process in Washington) has failed to end unconstitutional acts at Guantanamo by the US government. Anthony Romero is right that this is an immediate danger as well as a legal scandal.