Wednesday, November 11, 2015
No
Excuse, Says Human Rights Lawyer, Obama Can Still Close Guantánamo
President undermined his own plan to shutter
the notorious facility by agreeing to the "defense" bill
"Obama has failed to follow through with
his campaign promises and commitments to close Guantánamo by taking concrete
steps while in power to articulate and execute a vision," said Omar
Shakir, a Bertha fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights. (Photo: Mladen
Antonov/AFP/Getty)
After President Barack Obama agreed on Tuesday to sign a $607 billion
"defense" bill that undermines his own plan to shutter the U.S.
military prison at Guantánamo Bay, media outlets sounded the death knell for hopes that the facility
will close before his term ends in 2017.
But Omar Shakir, a Bertha fellow at the
Center for Constitutional Rights, told Common Dreams that the
president, in fact, still retains the ability to close the prison—and must act
now to fulfill his repeated pledges.
"Obama has been able and continues to be
able to transfer the men cleared for release by every security and intelligence
agency," Shakir said over the phone from Guantánamo where he is meeting
with clients. "It is in his power to accelerate the pace of periodic
review boards. He has the ability through the Department of Justice to ensure
that those who face trial do so in fair proceedings in federal court."
"Obama has failed to follow through with
his campaign promises and commitments to close Guantánamo by taking concrete
steps while in power to articulate and execute a vision," Shakir
continued. "In the vacuum we have seen opportunistic politicians from both
sides of the aisle using Guantánamo as a tool for their own purposes at the
expense of the critical principles of due process and freedom, holding men
without charge in indefinite detention without end."
The National Defense Authorization Act, which
was overwhelmingly passed by the Senate on Tuesday, includes a ban on
transferring men held in Guantánamo to U.S. prisons—a cornerstone of Obama's
plan to shutter the facility. Some, however, have argued that the congressional ban on
transfers to the U.S. is constitutionally invalid.
Of the 112 men who remain, 53 have been
cleared for release—83 percent of them Yemeni. Meanwhile, 49 are awaiting
clearance and currently going through the periodic review process. Ten are in
the military commissions system, with 7 on trial and three convicted.
The U.S. has long claimed that the location
of the Guantánamo prison in Cuba allows them to detain "War On
Terror" prisoners without granting them due process or legal protections,
including those against torture.
But Shakir emphasized that Obama's plan to
transfer some of the men to U.S. soil would not fully address "the tragedy
at the heart of Guantánamo."
In part, this is because it would still
involve moving the men to the U.S. without formal charges being brought against
them—in continuation of their indefinite detenion. What's more, they would
still likely face a military commission—if and when they faced trial.
"On the point of transfer to the U.S.,
the U.S. wants to hold people in the U.S. without charge, indefinitely detain
them, without any sort of due process," he said. "They would be
placed in a black hole where they are not subject to any sort of legal process.
These are people who have been held without charge for years on end. The plan
would relocate people for another U.S. president."
"There is significant
concern among many in Guantánamo about their ordeals continuing for years on
end," Shakir continued. "Many have lived there for 14 years, not only
not knowing why they're there, but also not knowing when they may exit. One can
only imagine the torment and mental anguish caused by being told you have been
cleared for release, but having no idea when you will be released, and knowing
the control of your fate is not in your hands, but in the hands of political
forces."
Indeed, the men detained at the prison have
long protested their confinement using the tools at their disposal, including
hunger strikes. While a long-standing U.S. media blackout makes
it difficult to know just how many people are engaging in peaceful protest,
Shakir said it is "well known" that long-term hunger strikes
continue.
One of Shakir's clients, a Yemeni man Ghaleb
Nasser Al-Bihani, has reportedly faced retaliation for
participating in hunger strikes to protest his detention without charge or
trial for 14 years—a third of his life.
"All I think about is the day my freedom
will be given back to me, for it will be the day of my re-birth,"
Al-Bihani said in December 2013. "I want to
become a father and hold my baby in my arms, and provide for my family and to
my child."
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Donations can be sent
to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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