Goings on at Gitmo

June 22, 2007

Yesterday afternoon, the AP reported that Bush administration officials were poised to meet to discuss the future of detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay. By all indications, there was reason for optimism — the AP said that “for the first time, it appears a consensus is developing” for finally closing the facility.

Shortly after the AP story hit the wires, the White House backpedaled, insisting that there was no meeting, no consensus, and no imminent decision. What happened? The WaPo shed some light on the subject.

Senior Bush administration officials are engaged in active discussions about closing the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but deep divisions remain regarding the fate of the approximately 375 foreign detainees currently held there should the prison close, according to numerous officials familiar with the ongoing dialogue.

President Bush has stated publicly his desire to shut down the facility, which has drawn significant criticism and damaged the United States’ reputation internationally. But debates over the legal implications and logistical hurdles to closing Guantanamo have highlighted the difficulties of such a move. Despite rising interest among the highest levels of the administration to resolve this issue before the end of Bush’s presidency, viable alternatives have proved elusive, officials said yesterday. […]

The Associated Press reported yesterday that a meeting of several top Bush administration officials about Guantanamo’s future was scheduled for today, but the White House denied such a meeting was taking place. Two administration officials said last night that a meeting about several topics is scheduled for today but that the Guantanamo issue was removed from the agenda after news of the meeting broke.

I guess a “consensus” remains elusive. Gates and Rice (and, for what it’s worth, Powell) want Guantanamo closed and the detainees transferred to the U.S. justice system. Cheney and Gonzales don’t. Bush ostensibly wants Guantanamo closed, but doesn’t know much about what happens afterwards. Like Bradford Plumer, I think Cheney’s winning the fight.

As for the unusual timing — there was a consensus at 6 pm, which was gone by 8 pm — another possible explanation emerged this morning.

Spencer Ackerman explains.

Not only is Guantanamo Bay going to continue on as the U.S.’s offshore indefinite-detention facility in the war on terrorism, but it’s expanding — at least by one.

As Paul flagged in the Must Read, President Bush’s war cabinet was scheduled to debate shuttering Guantanamo Bay this morning at the White House, but once word of the meeting leaked to the Associated Press, administration hardliners scratched Guantanamo from the agenda. And as if to underscore the surprising resilience of the island prison, this morning, the Defense Department announced that Haroon al-Afghani, an Afghan who has “admitted to serving as a courier for al-Qaeda Senior Leadership (AQSL),” will be Guantanamo’s newest addition:

There is significant information available that Haroon al-Afghani is a senior commander of Hezb-e-Islami/Gulbuddin (HIG), a declared hostile terrorist group associated with AQ in Afghanistan and commanded multiple HIG terrorist cells that conducted improvised explosive device (IED) attacks in Nangarhar Province. He is assessed to have had regular contact with senior AQ and HIG leadership.

Since Bush expressed his support for shutting down Gitmo detentions, the administration has largely stopped shipping detainees to the facility. And then the day before the White House gets ready to announce shutting Gitmo down, a new suspect is on the way.

Interesting timing.

The administration’s problem with “shutting Gitmo down” is that once they do it, they won’t be able to maintain deniability on what millions of us already suspect: some number of the people there were guilty of nothing more than bad timing.

For being in the wrong place at the wrong time, they were detained, flown thousands of miles from home, beaten, and tortured. Once in the regular justice system, presumably with access to the outside world and counsel, their stories will be told–and they’re going to file lawsuits. The administration both will be embarrassed and, very likely, liable. And we’ll sustain another black mark on our ever-worsening global reputation.

If a Democrat or McCain wins in 2008, Gitmo will close for sure. It might close regardless of who wins. But I wouldn’t be surprised if, in their all-consuming desire to avoid further exposure for yet another horrific mistake that offends our core American values, the Cheney administration pushes the moment of disclosure beyond January 2009, and in doing so they perpetuate the mistake.

  • What do you do with 375 inmates, 370 of whom aren’t enemy combatants or terrorists?

    Well, if you aren’t a Republican, the answer is easy….

  • It’s a total con game – no different than when they dangle the “maybe we’ll be able to bring troops home in a couple of months;” it’s designed to make you believe that these are things they really want to do, but gosh, darn it, and gee whiz, they’re sorry it didn’t work out like they thought it would.

  • The problem for Bush is that maybe he does want to close Gitmo, but only if there is no chance of any negative fallout or consequences for him or any of his cronies.

    And his only real post-closure options are to bring them to the U.S. mainland or to secret undisclosed prisons elsewhere, and we all know how well that worked out the last time.

    So the poor bastards just sit there in Gitmo without a hope in hell of any relief for a while yet.

  • The meeting was cancelled because the Bu$h administration got scared silly.

    They got scared silly because AP did its job for once, and spilled the beans.

    But, I’m going to hazard a guess that the beans spilled by AP were just a small portion of the whole kettle. Announcing the closure of the Gitmo Gulag would mean that the entire world would be watching to see exactly where all the detainees go—and you just can’t make 375 people disappear into a black-ops prison—or into the depths of the central Atlantic—when the whole world is watching.

    And—they “have” to disappear. Bu$h knows this; Cheney knows this; everyone in the Bu$h administration knows this, because those detainees are going to either (1) sing to the stars about the illegal abuses that have occurred at Gitmo, and/or (2) demonstrate to the world the physical, emotional, and psychological scars of their “internment.”

    They have to disappear, because each and every one of them represents a living, breathing article of evidence as regards the commission of war crimes against George W. Bu$h, his administration, and his military commanders. Bu$h cannot pardon himself from these crimes, and he cannot pardon his subordinates from the coming Justice of the International Court.

    Yes—there will be “those” who play the prove-it card, so I’ll pre-empt them for once. Let the stalwart Bu$h-right-or-wrong supporters and defenders—his “Base,” if you will—provide evidence to the contrary. Let them explain why there is little, if any media coverage out of Gitmo. Let them explain why a JAG officer is arrested for smuggling the names of prisoners out to an international human-rights agency. Let them explain the news blackouts and super-stringent security measures that were implemented immediately after the Abu Graib story broke. Let them explain why the vast majority of the prison—and its population—is “off-limits” to the International Red Cross.

    But—they cannot. They know all too well that their “masters” are guilty of war crimes, and they also know—again, all too well by now—they they are guilty by association; guilty via financial and political support; guilty by the very acts of subterfuge with which they strive ever more harshly to convince a doubting nation that the huge pile of excrement known as Bu$h’s War on Terror is, in and of itself, an act of global terror not known since World War 2.

    Abu Graib was diluted by a rubber-stamp, GOP-dominated Congress that paid mere lip service to the outrage. If the truth of Gitmo comes out while Bu$h does not control the Congress, then there is little in the way of protection for him—short of, that is, building an emergency shelter on Mars….

  • The other side of the problem is that if Gitmo is still open when a Democratic administration takes over, the Whole Truth Comes Out. They throw open the gates and let in reporters and lawyers; heads proceed to roll.

    If Bush can somehow close the camp before the Democrats take over, not only can he hide the bodies, clean up the blood and burn all evidence (figuratively and/or literally), but Gitmo becomes old news. The media (and maybe even the public) will say, “Bush did the right thing and closed the camp, so why dig up the past?”

    As Steve said, making the inmates disappear will be difficult. However, leaving them where they are will be even worse.

  • If Gitmo is closed and the detainees are moved to the US, they will eventually get hearings and trials. Getting confessions that were coerced through torture accepted at trial will require some serious changes in our existing laws. We are not there yet. Maybe another Supreme Court Justice picked by Presidunce Not-So-Bright could get us there. Scary thought! Bad enough with Scalia and Alito already.

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