Guantanamo Bay Ten Years Later
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-01-11/guantanamo-bay-ten-years-later
The Bush administration opened the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba on January 11,2002. GITMO became infamous for prisoner abuse and torture. Shortly after his inauguration in 2009, President Obama issued an executive order to close the prison within the year, but the deadline came and went. Congress has prohibited moving prisoners to the U.S. for detention or trial, put new restrictions on transfers to other countries, and mandated military detention. Nearly 800 individuals have been held there; 171 remain. Guest host Tom Gjelten leads a discussion about the future of Guantanamo Bay.
Guests
David Cole
professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center and author of "The Torture Memos: Rationalizing the Unthinkable". Previous books include "Less Safe, Less Free," and "Terrorism and the Constitution."
Marc Thiessen
a Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a columnist for the Washington Post and author of "Courting Disaster." He served as a speechwriter for President George W. Bush (2004–2009) and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (2001-2004).
John Bellinger
a partner at the law firm of Arnold & Porter and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He served as the legal adviser for the National Security Council and the Department of State under Condoleezza Rice during the Bush Administration.
Rep. Adam Smith
(D-WA), ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee
Program Highlights
Ten years ago, the first 20 terrorist suspects were sent to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. President Obama vowed to close the detention facility, but Congress put up road blocks, the courts upheld indefinite detention and the future of the prison and its remaining inmates remain in limbo. Our
guests explore future possibilities for both Guantanamo and the prisoners who are currently being held there.
In Shutting Guantanamo, Little Is Up To The President
"The Congressional restrictions on transfer out of Guantanamo and the Congressional restrictions on building facilities in the U.S. to accommodate them make it impossible to close Guantanamo, and I think that's a horrible policy," Congressman Adam Smith said. Smith's biggest concerns about the facility are the facts that there is no effective way to transfer or release prisoners there if it later comes to light that an individual was wrongly imprisoned. The best way to bring terrorists to
justice is through article three courts and due process, Smith said. "We should use it and we should not shy away from it," he said.
Guantanamo "Now Hurting Us More Than It Is Helping Us"
John Bellinger thinks that 10 years ago, it made more sense to have a facility like Guantanamo. Our troops in Afghanistan were capturing thousands of Taliban and al-Qaeda members, with nowhere to put them. Now, Bellinger said, it has become a very costly facility to operate.
"Guantanamo is now hurting us more than it is helping us," Bellinger said.
Strong Criticisms of Guantanamo's Management
According to David Cole, it is not Guantanamo itself, but how the Bush administration chose to manage the facility and the process, that present the most serious enduring problems. The laws of war require a hearing when
there's doubt about who a prisoner may be, humane treatment, and release when the war is over, Cole said. But because, in his opinion, the Bush administration chose not to grant detainees hearings and assume they were the "worst of the worst" criminals, we have the enduring problem of what to do with the current prisoners there.
When Would It Be Possible to Close Guantanamo?
Marc Thiessen said that Guantanamo would close tomorrow if al-Qaeda issued a statement of surrender. But since nobody expects that to happen, by that standard, Guantanamo could stay open indefinitely. There is also a disagreement between Cole and Thiessen about whether torture actually happened at Guantanamo. Thiessen said nobody was ever tortured there, but Cole said that the Bush administration's lead prosecutor at Guantanamo, Susan Crawford, is on the record as saying that one prisoner - Mohammad al-Qahtani - was tortured at Guantanamo, and that's why she dismissed his prosecution.
You can read the full transcript here
Comments
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as goes Gitmo so goes the nation...
at least enemies(criminals?) 'housed' and fed and given healthcare...
or have US reverted(saved souls/ saved monies) there as well?
I just heard your guest host refer to the Democratic Party as the "democrat party."
I take this as right wing code, by some one who denigrates the Democratic Party.
So, I just runed you off.
Diane, I don't know if this comment will get to Tom Gjelton today, but I want him and you to know my displeasure at Tom having referred to the Democratic Party (the correct name) as the Democrat party, a term used primarily by Republicans in a derogative way.
'no one was tortured'
This is just a LIE !
We have a criminal run government!
give the thugpublican(ex-thug myself- US olde standards DO NOT tolerate torture re-godless- er- regardless) speaker a break- honest mistake... probably expecting intelligent coherent explicit concise thoughtful converse from professionally trained public speakers to speed talk 'the point'.
in hopes of FAST lingo will actually penetrate what r5emains of a nation morals...
seriously... torture discussions?- so 'inquisitive' still...
Just like no drugs, rape, or torture in US 'regular' penal systems...
siily huMANe?
thought torture, secret detention, assassination by gossip...
settled last century... hate reruns
I belong to the Democratic party, not the Democrat party! I too am insulted by your guest host's ignorance (or inconsideration).
It still all boils down to the events of 9/11, which we appear unwilling to discuss. Actors and Artists for 911 Truth are coming out with a documentary in May about the events of 9/11. Should be very interesting. Likewise, another incident leading up to 9/11 is the Oklahoma City bombing. Another topic we don't discuss beyond official guidelines. A recent documentary supporting the Oklahoma City Bombing Committee findings is "A Noble Lie." Could be the "wrong" people are in jail and people more closely associated with various U.S. administrations should be. Meanwhile, the mainstream media appear content talking around the subject while a confused nation remains complacent, suffering from various degrees of denial and avoidance.
Due process?
Ha!
Our criminal government did away with that Right in the Patriot Act, and even furthered it with the passing of the recent NDAA bill!
I hear alot going on about the safety of Americas, and how the prisoners don't have the same rights as they are not covered by our constitution. But how about if the speakers take a moment to consider the human rights of the prisoners themselves? There are prisoners who are human, who are husbands, sons, mothers, grandparents, have been proven innocent. And we, the recent laws, are saying you are not allowed to go home and you may never see your family again.
....of course, the Main stream News of NPR will Never face this reality!
I have listen to quite a number Congressmen state that we have facilities completely capable of holding Guantanamo detainees. I believe that is a red herring. Of course we have those facilities including the facility in western Illinois proposed by the President. The issue is not being able to prevent escape. The issue is security of the personnel that live near the facility from Islamic radicals that live in the United States or those that might travel here. If that facility were used it might well put at risk people living in the quad cities area. That facility is within a days drive from Deerborn with its significant southwest asian position.
I believe everyone in JTF-GTMO since the JTF was formed on 4 November 2002 by combining JTF-160 [ detention] and JTF-170 [ Intel] has tried their best to do the right thing to secure the country. That includes certainly the Geoff Miller the first of a number of fine Commanders of the Joint operation.
Thx for a great program.
Dennis Frisbee, Miami, Florida
What's to stop other countries from holding US citizens indefinately without a trial if the US is doing it? Take for example the kid who just got a death sentence in Iran for spying. Iran say he is a threat to national security and deserves to die. What's the difference?
Khalid sheik Muhammed was waterboarded hundreds of times. Putting aside the issue of any credibility of information obtained in that manner, is any guest on your show saying that doesn't constitute torture?
Even an Army Judge admits torture!!!
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jan2009/tort-j15.shtml
Thiessen is a liar and neocon mouthpiece who will always deny the US used torture in defense of George W. Bush the worst President in American history. He's continuous fear mongering is actually very boring.
I mis-spoke when I used the term "Democrat Party". I didn't intend to say that. It just came out wrong, and I meant nothing by it - certainly not to side with Republicans who use the term for their own purposes.
Guantonomo remains a stark reminder of the incredible damage wrought on our country not by 9/11, but by our incredible misguided response to it.
Thanks for the great show today, DR & company.
LUDICROUS!!
ANY attempt to claim an analogy between the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II and the terrorists held at Guantanamo is definitively ludicrous.
The Japanese-Americans were interred en masse with no further consideration of any individual's loyalties. This mindless one-size fits all program is reprehensible by any logic, but it is understandable. The sneak attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 clearly revealed Japan to be the aggressor nation, and the national outrage that resulted was and is understandable.
The terrorists that attacked America on 9/11/2001 are not identified as agents of any single nation nor a cabal of nations, they are individuals each acting on the hatreds nurtured by a very small group of individuals. The terrorists’ claim they were doing it for Allah drug the flag of Islam through the latrine of their demagoguery. Very few believers of Islam, the most radicalized among them, believe sincerity in that claim. The terrorists acted on their own sick obsessions to control people.
However, it did start the deception that by acting to defend itself America was at war with Islam. That too is ludicrous. To believe it one has to believe there is no other motive possible which would lead to America defending itself. The fact is that America would, and will, act to defend itself against any attack for any reason.
The terrorists held in Guantanamo are each and every one there as the result of decision specific to each and every individual detainee. Even when a group of terrorists were detained as a group each individual in the group has been assessed on merits of his personal circumstances.
One of the guests on the Diane Rehm show this morning stated holding detainees at Guantanamo is comparable to the internment of the Japanese-Americans. Sadly, no one called that zealot to task. It is irrational statements such as that which contribute to much of the dissension among Americans.
Ask the Iranian fishermen.
How dare one participant on the show say there was no torture at Guantanamo!
Web search "Torture at Guantanamo" and find the Center on Constitutional Right's report on torture at Guantanamo detailed in a PDF provided by the CCR.
For heaven's sake! Willful ignorance will be our undoing.
tuned