Obama to close Gitmo

[Ender]

link

Barack Obama will move swiftly to close Guantanamo Bay as soon as he takes office, his aides revealed today, a clear and early sign of how aggressively he wants to break with President Bush the moment he is sworn in.

Mr Obama is planning to ship dozens of terror suspects from the prison to face criminal trial in the US as part of a plan to shut the jail down. It is a controversial move but one that demonstrates how abruptly he plans to change Washington in terms of policy, personnel and tone the moment he enters the Oval Office.

Mr Obama has said he wants to hit the ground running, and already details of his ambitious agenda - as he seeks to turn his back on the Bush-era - are becoming clear. He has vowed to start immediately removing combat troops from Iraq, although in recent weeks he has become more opaque about the speed of withdrawal.

Rahm Emmanuel, Mr Obama's choice for White House chief of staff, said on Sunday that the president-elect will also waste no time in pushing ahead with a new, middle-class tax cut, and a tax increase for the wealthiest Americans - a sharp break with Mr Bush.

Mr Emmanuel added that Mr Obama would act quickly to expand health insurance coverage and reverse course on Mr Bush's energy policy, although such an agenda is hugely expensive and could be imperilled by the worsening economy and a rapidly increasing budget deficit.

One of Mr Obama's first acts could be to use the power of executive authority - which enables presidents to take action without an Act of Congress - to block the expansion of oil drilling in the Utah wilderness that Mr Bush authorised by executive order. He is also looking to use the same power to quickly lift the limits on stem cell research imposed by Mr Bush.

Yet it is the closure of Guantanamo Bay that Mr Obama believes would provide one of the starkest and most high-impact demonstrations of how he intends to seek immediate change.

He is looking at creating a new "terrorism court" on the US mainland to try up to 80 terror suspects, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-confessed September 11 mastermind. Mr Obama said last week that he would close the prison "as quickly as we can do prudently".

Yet the move will face stiff opposition from many Republicans on Capitol Hill and a substantial number of Americans, who strongly oppose bringing terror suspects to US soil with traditional rules of evidence that give those being prosecuted the presumption of innocence.

Mr Bush refused to countenance trials on the American mainland and was finally forced by the US Supreme Court this year to allow detainees the right to have the legality of their detention adjudicated in a federal court in Washington.

Closing the jail on the US Naval base in Cuba could also create myriad other problems. Of the 255 detainees still being held there, experts believe well over 100 will probably never be charged, because there is little or no evidence linking them to terrorism.

Yet a significant number of their home countries are refusing to take them back, leaving Mr Obama with the politically difficult problem of what to do with them once they have been released. Housing them in the US, or giving them asylum, could prove to be highly controversial.

The legal team advising Mr Obama on Guantanamo believe that prosecuting the "high-value" terror suspects such Mohammed - a group of only about 30 - will require the creation of a special new court designed especially to handle highly sensitive intelligence material, a cross between a military tribunal and a federal court.

Prosecuting such high-value detainees in open federal court presents a host of problems. Evidence obtained by military interrogation would likely be thrown out. Defendants would have the right to confront witnesses, leaving undercover CIA offices or undercover informers to take the stand.

Laurence Tribe, a Harvard law professor who has been advising Mr Obama on the issue, said closing the prison was a top priority. He conceded that moving the prisoners onto US soil will be controversial, but added: "We can't put people in a dungeon forever without processing whether they deserve to be there."

Mr Obama also faces doubts from many Democrats who distrust a court that gives detainees anything less than the full constitutional and legal rights afforded normal defendants. "There would be a concern about establishing a completely new system," said Adam Schiff, a Democratic member of the House Judiciary Committee who is aware of the discussions inside the Obama camp.

Although a new hybrid court could prove to be unpopular, Mr Obama's advisers say he has few other options if he wants to close Guantanamo. Mr Tribe said he expects him to move quickly. "In reality...the idea that we have people in legal black holes is an extremely serious black mark," he said.

Nice move here, can't wait to hear the GOP shrieking about the use of expanded executive powers (though in the long run it would be best if he removed those as well). I'll reserve judgment on this hybrid court until I hear more details about it.

[Knife]

Whew. Thread topic threw me, sure ship the fuck heads over and put them on trial. I'm down with that, just didn't want Gitmo to be shut down.

[Tsyroc]

Whew. Thread topic threw me, sure ship the fuck heads over and put them on trial. I'm down with that, just didn't want Gitmo to be shut down.

That was my first impression from the title too.

I was thinking that they only needed to close the detention center. The rest of the base should be kept there so the East Coast Navy still has a shitty place to go for work up qualifications.

It should be kept if the original uses for it are still valid. Obviously putting a questionable detention center there was done because it was an American base in a convenient location where no one would listen to the local government complain since one of the main reasons the base is there is to Cuba.

[Gil Hamilton]

Yeah, I wasn't sure if they meant the whole naval base or the prison. Closing down the prison and actually trying the people or letting them go seems like a damn good idea.

[Ekiqa]

Of the 200-odd that the US kidnapped, has no evidence that they were terrorists, and no one else wants, they should get full asylum and a pension from the US government. The ones who actually did something, like the 9/11 mastermind, try them properly.

Those like Omar Khadr, who was a child acting in self defence when attacked by US Spec Forces, and shot in the back, should not be counted as terrorists.

[Patrick Degan]

Nice move here, can't wait to hear the GOP shrieking about the use of expanded executive powers (though in the long run it would be best if he removed those as well). I'll reserve judgment on this hybrid court until I hear more details about it.

If that party has any smarts left to it at all (and this is no given for obvious reasons), they would do best to just simply keep their mouths shut about the whole thing and hope Gitmo fades from memory as quickly as possible. And if they do start making a stink, Obama and his proxies are just the sort to cram it back down their throats.

[born in shadow]

My friend's dad was raising a stink about this while I was over at their house, though he was being somewhat vague about the details.

It was stuff like:

"Oh man, Obama's a bad man! He's going to let all of his terrorist friends out of Gitmo! What a communist!"

I was a little too shocked for words on how dense he is. I'm not sure what saddens me more, that he said it, or that his daughter treats his opinions as law

I think actually trying the people in Gitmo is a step in the right direction. After all, if someone rounded up a bunch of our civilians, even if some had performed criminal activities against another country, and held them indefinitely, I'd expect us to be in an uproar about their treatment.

-Aaron, wishing people would understand human rights belong to everyone

[hongi]

I may be a little thick (okay, probably more than a little...), but what will bringing them to the mainland do? Does Constitutional rights apply to them? And what sort of trial system is President Obama going to put them through? Probably not the criminal system, perhaps a rebooted military tribunal system.

[Knife]

I may be a little thick (okay, probably more than a little...), but what will bringing them to the mainland do? Does Constitutional rights apply to them? And what sort of trial system is President Obama going to put them through? Probably not the criminal system, perhaps a rebooted military tribunal system.

Nothing, being off shore was a diversion so that supposedly a military tribunal would happen. That didn't even happen so...here we are.

[CmdrWilkens]

I may be a little thick (okay, probably more than a little...), but what will bringing them to the mainland do? Does Constitutional rights apply to them? And what sort of trial system is President Obama going to put them through? Probably not the criminal system, perhaps a rebooted military tribunal system.

The jurisdiction question in Guantanamo was a bit iffy since its entirely military property it would suggest that the court with proper jurisdiction would route things through the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces and thence to the Supreme Court. Now if they are stateside there is a reasonable chance for a non-military court to have jurisdiction due to location. Again its all fuzzy from the start (which is what Cheney wanted) but matters of jurisdiction do count in a trial, at least one that will actually deprive some individuals of life or liberty by writ of law.

[RedImperator]

Here's something hilarious to consider: we know some fraction of the Gitmo prisoners actually are dangerous terrorists, and if we'd interrogated them properly and then tried them in a real court, there's no question they'd all be rotting in Leavenworth right now. Unfortunately, since they were probably all tortured, it could well be impossible to try them because too much evidence has been tainted.

Isn't that awesome? It's like the Bush Administration was trying to fuck everything up as hard as it possibly could.

[Guardsman Bass]

What are you going to do with those that get off? The US has dumped a lot of them back into their home countries, but that may not be possible with the Yemenis:

SANAA, Yemen — President-elect Barack Obama's pledge to close the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, faces a major obstacle: Yemen.

The Bush administration has transferred hundreds of Guantanamo prisoners to the custody of their home countries, but it's been unable to win assurances from Yemen — whose approximately 100 prisoners are the largest group still jailed at Guantanamo — that the men, if they're returned, won't pose a threat to the United States.

By striking similar deals with nations such as Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, Bush administration officials have dramatically reduced Guantanamo's population over the past three years. Yemen, however, which has failed to stop homegrown militants from staging major attacks on American targets in the past decade, says it can't continue to hold prisoners without charges.

Yemeni officials say they're ready to try many of the men and imprison those who are convicted, but they complain that U.S. officials refuse to share evidence with them.

"Based on the information we have, some of the Guantanamo prisoners have nothing to do with terrorism," said the Yemeni foreign minister, Abu Bakr al Kirbi. "We cannot imprison them without a court sentence. We cannot do something that is against our laws. We are accountable to our own public."

Attorneys for the prisoners said that the stalemate underscored how the Bush administration had painted itself into a corner with its efforts to transfer detainees from Guantanamo, which has become such a stain on the U.S. human-rights record that both Obama and his presidential rival, John McCain, campaigned vigorously to close it.

After jailing hundreds of men for years without charges, the attorneys said, the Bush administration began to empty the prison in 2005 by convincing other countries to adapt or suspend their own due process to continue holding many of the men indefinitely. To a great extent, the tactic worked: Guantanamo's population is down from more than 770 to about 250 today.

Yemen, however, a rugged, deeply poor nation at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, has proved a more nettlesome partner. Experts said that President Ali Abdullah Saleh was fearful of agreeing to anything that would anger Yemen's powerful tribal leaders, on whose support much of his authority depends.

"Yemen is one of the biggest obstacles to closing the prison," said Cori Crider, a staff lawyer at Reprieve, a London-based legal organization that represents more than 30 Guantanamo prisoners.

Obama's advisers describe closing Guantanamo as a top priority, but experts say that resolving the remaining cases poses a host of complex legal, diplomatic and national security challenges. Obama's transition team said this week that no decisions on the remaining prisoners, including how and where they might be tried, would be made until his national security and legal teams have been assembled.

Bush administration officials have been scrambling to empty Guantanamo of all but the highest-risk prisoners since June, when a landmark Supreme Court decision granted the detainees the right to challenge their imprisonment in federal courts. Attorneys for dozens of Yemenis think that these "habeas corpus" hearings could set many of their clients free because U.S. officials have collected little evidence connecting them to serious crimes.

Lawyers say that the Bush administration — which maintains that all the prisoners pose some level of risk — would prefer to hand the men over to Yemen before they come up for hearings. One question for the Obama administration is whether to review all the prisoners' cases before deciding on transfers or prosecutions.

"As habeas cases move forward, more and more people are going to be transferred," Crider said. "Unfortunately, the Yemenis are still stuck."

A U.S. delegation last visited Yemen for talks on the prisoners in June, and although the Yemenis reported little progress, a Bush administration official who has knowledge of the discussions said that the two sides were working on an arrangement to ensure that the detainees don't pose threats after their transfers.

"The situation is that there are still huge concerns here about Yemen's capacity to absorb these people," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions. "There are continuing efforts to work with the Yemenis to resolve the issue."

"Things just move slowly in Yemen," he added.

Militants disguised as Yemeni soldiers exploded two car bombs Sept. 17 outside the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa, the capital, killing 19 people, an American among them. The attack revived memories of 2000, when an al Qaida suicide bomb tore through the destroyer USS Cole off Yemen's southern coast and killed 17 American sailors.

The embassy bombing poured "a glass of cold water over the negotiations," said Jill Williamson, a Washington lawyer for two of the Yemenis.

David Remes, who represents 15 Yemenis, said: "The security situation in Yemen is so unstable now. . . . I cannot imagine the U.S., under the current circumstances, returning these men."

Officials in Yemen portray themselves as fighting an epic struggle against Islamic militants, most famously Osama bin Laden, whose family hails from the eastern Hadramout region. In recent years, however, prominent terrorism suspects — including several linked to the Cole attack — have staged stunning prison escapes or have quietly been set free in exchange for pledges that they won't attack Yemeni interests.

"The Americans are very concerned about Yemen's ability to secure the Guantanamo prisoners," said Mohammed Kahtan, a leader in the opposition Islah party. "And frankly, I share the Americans' concern. There are no guarantees."

Yemeni officials say they lack the resources to secure a rugged nation that's roughly the size of California, and they balk at U.S. demands for assurances that the prisoners won't engage in terrorist activity.

"Even the United States can't make such promises," said Amin al Huthaify, a spokesman for the Political Security Organization, Yemen's main government intelligence agency. "Terrorism is an international phenomenon."

Two of the Yemenis at Guantanamo are "high-value" suspects who've been charged in connection with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and could face the death penalty if a military tribunal convicts them. Also among the Yemenis are the only two detainees whom Guantanamo's special court has convicted of war crimes: Salim Hamdan, who's nearing the end of a 66-month sentence for working as bin Laden's driver in Afghanistan, and Ali Hamza al Bahlul, who was found guilty this month of producing a two-hour al Qaida recruitment video that spliced bin Laden speeches with footage of the Cole bombing.

While it's unlikely that U.S. officials would transfer the high-value detainees, they've indicated support for a rehabilitation program for lower-risk prisoners. In 2002, Yemen pioneered a program of psychological counseling for terrorism suspects, and although it has many skeptics, it helped to inspire an extensive program in neighboring Saudi Arabia, which has taken in dozens of former Guantanamo inmates.

Yemeni officials say their prisons are overcrowded, and they want the United States to finance a rehabilitation center to house and monitor the detainees.

If the impasse continues, some worry that the United States will try to offload the Yemenis to other countries, such as Egypt or Jordan, where prisoners are at grave risk of abuse, according to human rights groups.

"If they send them to a third country, like another Arab country, they could disappear, and it will be very difficult for us to work to help them," said Khalid al Anisi, the executive director of Hood, a Yemeni human-rights group that's lobbied on behalf of the prisoners. "That is the worst scenario."

Many experts think that the Bush administration has trapped itself by describing the Yemenis and other Guantanamo inmates as security threats. In the case of 17 Muslim Uighur prisoners from China — whom a federal judge in October ordered released but who fear being tortured if they return to China — U.S. officials have been unable to find a country that's willing to accept them. Another, smaller group of Uighurs has ended up marooned in Albania.

Attorneys say that resolving the Yemenis' fate could require Obama to seek a new understanding with Yemen on how they should be treated.

"It's not enough to say we want to close Guantanamo," Crider said. "There's going to have to be a change in policy at the U.S. end in the way they try to resettle these people."