Death
Only Way Out of Gitmo
By Victor Thorn
In
January, the State Department closed down its own Guantanamo Bay prison closure
office and reassigned Daniel Fried, the only envoy responsible for resettling
detainees. If anything, it looks like the White House is intent on expanding
Gitmo into a larger facility.
In a
March 26 column, former Project Censored award winner
Stephen Lendman complained about the current administration’s plans to
expand—not close—Gitmo.
“[Obama]
broke every major promise made,” wrote Lendman. “Appalling human rights
violations continue on his watch. Torture remains policy. It persists
throughout Washington’s gulag. Obama bears full responsibility.”
To get a
firsthand account, on March 28 AFP spoke with Assistant Federal Defender Carlos
Warner, a man who has visited Gitmo on at least 30 occasions, twice within the
past month. He has also represented several of the inmates.
As a way
of clarifying his disappointment, Warner began: “I’m a liberal that supports
Obama. I had faith in him. But there’s no evidence that Obama will ever close
Gitmo. I need to call the facts as I see them. Guantanamo isn’t a priority for
the White House.”
Warner
continued: “In their press briefings, Obama spokesmen say they remain committed
to closing Gitmo, but it’s nothing but rhetoric. Or, they make policy decisions
to blame the GOP so that liberals will be calmed. But there’s no will at all.
Obama’s actions completely belie his words.”
Stressing
the seriousness of this situation, Warner explained: “Obama made a promise,
then utterly failed to follow through. Because of that, men in Gitmo are
starving themselves to death. When someone dies at Gitmo, I won’t blame Lindsey
Graham or John McCain. I’ll blame Obama.”
When
asked to provide a snapshot of Gitmo today, Warner spoke from direct
experience.
“Despite
possessing very modern prison facilities, the mood is one of utter
hopelessness,” he said. “Most of these men were declared innocent and
freed for release, but the only way they’ll leave Gitmo is through their
deaths. Obama hasn’t done any work to repatriate them. As a constitutional attorney,
it’s incomprehensible that Obama still embraces the idea of indefinite
detention, especially when it’s outlawed under the Geneva Conventions.”
In a July
23, 2012 article, political journalist and civil rights
expert Glenn Greenwald addressed how, like with so many other aspects of U.S.
foreign policy, Obama is little more than a continuation of neocons George W.
Bush and Dick Cheney. “In January 2010 the Obama administration announced it
would continue to imprison several dozen Guantanamo detainees without any
charges or trials of any kind, including even a military commission, on the
grounds that they were ‘too difficult to prosecute but too dangerous to
release.’ That was all Obama’s doing, completely independent of anything
Congress did.”
Greenwald
further revealed that Democratic congressmen voted to block funding for Gitmo’s
closure because no one in the current administration has offered a workable
plan for reassigning detainees. In essence, Greenwald concluded that Obama is acting as Bush-Cheney
II. “The administration plans to continue its predecessor’s policy of
indefinite detention without charge or trial.”
Taken a
step further, Obama has directly halted the transfer of 57 Yemeni prisoners
that have been designated for release. Nancy Talanian of “No More Guantanamos”
provided the reasoning behind this decision during a March 28 AFP interview.
“The
Yemenis are being kept at Gitmo because the 2009 Christmas Day Bomber was
indoctrinated in Yemen,” said Ms. Talanian. “So, to save face with the
Republicans, Obama put up a moratorium to keep them in Gitmo.”
To get a
better idea of Obama’s tactics, AFP contacted Bill Schuerer, director of the
anti-war group Peace
Majority. Schuerer began: “I’m from Obama’s home base of Illinois,
so I never had high hopes that he’d close Gitmo. It’s all political wishful
thinking. I still remember when Obama said he wasn’t against all wars, just
dumb wars. He wants to push the U.S. toward what he considers ‘just wars.’”
On a more
positive note, Schuerer offered a suggestion. “All of the most high-profile
anti-war and human rights groups like CODE PINK should charter a boat and
organize a flotilla like they did in Gaza. That would heighten awareness and
get some domestic coverage from the mainstream media. Hopefully, your article
will lead to this idea
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