Tuesday
Feb242009
War on Terror Watch: Everyone OK at Guantanamo Now. Leave Us Alone.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 6:47
Related Post: The “Other” Guantanamo - Report of the Center for Constitutional Rights
Related Post: Text of Pentagon Review of Conditions at Guantanamo Bay
Headlines will be devoted to the US Department of Defense's review of the Guantanamo Bay facility today: "Guantanamo detainees treated humanely, Pentagon report says". There will be highlighting of pleasant recommendations such as "more human-to-human contact, recreation opportunities with several detainees together, intellectual stimulation, and group prayer".
Insofar as an accused agency can investigate itself --- sort of the equivalent of Bernard Madoff telling the worlds that his accounts balance up quite nicely now --- this is welcome to hear. It will bolster the public show of President Obama, who requested the report last month, of putting Guantanamo above board even if it cannot be closed in the near-future.
But, how shall we put this? Horse Gone. Stable Door Bolted. Nothing in this report will meet the requirement of an investigation not of Guantanamo Now but Guantanamo Then. Until and unless there is an enquiry into the abuses that took place between 2002 and 2009, until and unless there is an admission by the US Government that it carries responsibility for those abuses, until and unless there is an assurance that this will not happen again, Camp X-Ray/Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay will be a reminder that America's leaders were prepared to jettison law and morality and the values they put forward.
And who is to say that the same process cannot and will not play out in another case? Perhaps four, eight years from now the Pentagon can give us the same assurances over a Camp Bagram in Afghanistan, even as today more detainees are being put into a facility which has also had its share of abuses and tortures but which --- for the moment --- remains out of the public spotlight.
Related Post: Text of Pentagon Review of Conditions at Guantanamo Bay
Headlines will be devoted to the US Department of Defense's review of the Guantanamo Bay facility today: "Guantanamo detainees treated humanely, Pentagon report says". There will be highlighting of pleasant recommendations such as "more human-to-human contact, recreation opportunities with several detainees together, intellectual stimulation, and group prayer".Insofar as an accused agency can investigate itself --- sort of the equivalent of Bernard Madoff telling the worlds that his accounts balance up quite nicely now --- this is welcome to hear. It will bolster the public show of President Obama, who requested the report last month, of putting Guantanamo above board even if it cannot be closed in the near-future.
But, how shall we put this? Horse Gone. Stable Door Bolted. Nothing in this report will meet the requirement of an investigation not of Guantanamo Now but Guantanamo Then. Until and unless there is an enquiry into the abuses that took place between 2002 and 2009, until and unless there is an admission by the US Government that it carries responsibility for those abuses, until and unless there is an assurance that this will not happen again, Camp X-Ray/Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay will be a reminder that America's leaders were prepared to jettison law and morality and the values they put forward.
And who is to say that the same process cannot and will not play out in another case? Perhaps four, eight years from now the Pentagon can give us the same assurances over a Camp Bagram in Afghanistan, even as today more detainees are being put into a facility which has also had its share of abuses and tortures but which --- for the moment --- remains out of the public spotlight.