The Layalina Review
VOL. V NO. 3, January 16-January 29, 2009 The legal maneuver appears designed to provide the Obama administration with time to refashion the prosecution system and potentially treat detainees as criminal defendants in federal court or have them face charges of war crimes in military courts-martial. The news site adds that it is also possible that the administration could reform and relocate the military commissions before resuming trials. Obama's swift move on the second day of his presidency is the latest sign of his determination to unleash fundamental political reform and represents a change in how the United States handles Al-Qaeda suspects, according to Agence France Presse (AFP). Military officials were for the most part disappointed as they hoped to make an example of this "legal netherworld," notes the Washington Post. However, others from civil rights movements saw it as an opportunity to restore credibility in the legal system. "This is a good step in the right direction, although we still think that the unconditional withdrawal of all charges and shutting down this tainted system is warranted," said Jamil Dakwar, director of the human rights program at the American Civil Liberties Union. Global opinion turned dramatically against US use of the facility. Organizations such as Amnesty International called it a "gulag," and both President Obama and his former opponent Sen. John McCain said that they wanted the facility closed. Former vice president Richard B. Cheney said late last year that Guantanamo should be kept open until "the end of the war on terror" - a time, he noted, that "nobody can specify." President Obama has acknowledged in recent interviews that shutting the facility is likely to be prolonged and complex. Obama's order to close the Guantanamo Bay prison was welcomed across the world. Nevertheless, rights groups and legal experts wonder what to do with the 245 detainees still held there, points out AFP. An official also said that the administration could not imagine sending 17 Muslim Uighur inmates at Guantanamo back to China, adding that no detainee would be sent back to a nation where they could face persecution. More than 800 men and teenagers have passed through Guantanamo since it was opened on January 11, 2002, and around 245 remain there, reports AFP. Some outgoing Bush administration officials rejected accusations that tactics used at Guantanamo amounted to torture and argued that the camp and US interrogation tactics such as "waterboarding" yielded useful intelligence. However, recent reports that former Guantanamo detainee and Saudi national Ali Al-Shiri is believed to be a key leader of Al-Qaeda in Yemen complicates the debates about closing Guantanamo, comments CNN. The Defense Department recently estimated that more than 60 terrorists released from Guantanamo may have returned to the battlefield. According to the magazine Sada al-Malahem, published by Al-Qaeda in Yemen, Al-Shiri attended a media session with Yemeni Al-Qaeda commander Abu Baseer, reports CNN. The magazine noted that Al-Shiri was released from Guantanamo more than 10 months ago. In addition to the issue of freed detainees engaging in terrorism, the housing of detainees in prisons inside the United States concerns many. Rep. Bill Young of Florida said he has "quite a bit of anxiety" about the possibility of transferring detainees to US facilities. "So, the easy part, in all due respect, is to say we're going to close Guantanamo," Senator John McCain said before adding, "because you're going to run into a NIMBY [not in my backyard] problem here in the United States of America." "We have identified a number of possible prisons here in the United States" that could take the detainees, said Defense Secretary Robert Gates. However, he concludes that enthusiasm for prisoner transfer is very limited.
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Related Stories Recent Issues Vol. V No.3: 01/02-01/15, 2009 Vol. V No.2: 01/02-01/15, 2009 Vol. V No.1: 12/19-01/01, 2009
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