DEL.ICIO.USGuantanamo’s closing is crucial
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
When President Barack Obama delivers his highly anticipated speech in Cairo on Thursday, he’ll communicate several messages, including his respect for Islam and his desire for Middle East peace. Let’s hope he also reiterates his commitment to closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
It has come to represent an America that ignores its own values, shreds the Constitution and denies basic civil rights to suspects; its existence has alienated allies and given comfort to our enemies. It’s important for Muslims to know the president means to keep his pledge.
And it’s important that the message be delivered in Cairo. The authoritarian regime of Hosni Mubarak has a hideous record on human rights, and the vicious tactics used by Mubarak and his predecessors are largely responsible for pushing some Egyptians into the arms of al-Qaida.
As just one example, Ayman al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian-born surgeon and now a top lieutenant to Osama bin Laden, spent years in an Egyptian prison, allegedly enduring torture, for his anti-government activities. While Obama is unlikely to confront his audience with those unpleasant facts, it’s important for his listeners to know America will no longer be using similar tactics.
Republicans have spent the past several months using Guantanamo as a wedge to frighten voters still easily spooked by memories of Sept. 11. They’ve managed to persuade most Americans that the facility is necessary to national security, according to a recent poll.
Democrats in Congress are easily spooked, too, especially by accusations that they are soft on national security. So Democrats joined with Republicans to strip from a war-spending bill $80 million that would have been used to start closure and the resolution of issues related to the remaining 240 detainees.
John Chandler, a partner at the Atlanta-based law firm King & Spalding, says he is “extremely disappointed” with the lack of progress in moving detainees out. Chandler and his attorney wife, Beth Tanis, have spent several years representing, for free, six Yemenis who, Chandler says, are not guilty of any terrorist activities. Indeed, the federal government has presented little to no evidence against most of the 90-odd Yeminis in custody.
Chandler says the Yemini detainees are particularly aggrieved by the release of Salim Hamdan, who was Osama bin Laden’s driver in Afghanistan. After Hamdan was convicted, he served his time and was sent back.
“He is a free man,” Chandler noted. “[Other Yemenis say], ‘Wait a minute. I haven’t done anything, and Hamdan, whom they convicted, is a free man.’ “
Chandler says there are three groups of detainees: a small group of hardened terrorists who should be tried; a group of detainees, like the Chinese Uighurs, who would face government hostility in their home countries; and a large group of mostly Yemeni detainees who should be repatriated. Chandler pointed out that a federal judge ordered the Uighurs released into the continental U.S. last year, “but then the politicians got involved,” stoking fears about potential terrorist connections.
“The U.S. is going to have to take some of the men from Guantanamo if we expect other countries to do the same. You know, Newt Gingrich said, ‘There’s nothing left at Guantanamo but dangerous criminals.’ That’s just false,” Chandler said.
As for those who are convicted of terrorist acts, they can be confined at “super-max” facilities; there has never been an escape from a “super-max” prison. One such facility in Florence, Colo., already houses three notorious terrorists: Zacarius Moussaoui, a Sept. 11 conspirator; Ramzi Yousef, who planned the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center; and Richard Reid, the shoe-bomber. Their incarceration on continental soil has not incited new jihadist threats.
While armchair hawks such as Gingrich talk tough about Guantanamo, Gen. David Petraeus is among the national security experts who believes it should be shut down. So Obama ought to reiterate his commitment to closing the facility soon — not just for his Middle Eastern audience but for American ears, as well.
Cynthia Tucker, an Opinion columnist, writes Wednesday and Sunday. Reach her at cynthia@ajc.com.
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