Is This Who We Are?: Gitmo is Americas Enduring Shame
Even if Biden is able to overcome pressure from the military, from the CIA,
and from Congress to shut Guantánamo down, justice will still be absent, not
only because of the numerous lives that are forever shattered but because
America still refuses to learn from its mistakes.
by Ramzy Baroud
March 08th, 2021
By Ramzy Baroud
Washington Thats certainly our goal and our intention. This was the
non-committal answer given by White House Press Secretary, Jen Psaki, when,
on February 12, she was asked by a reporter whether the new Joe Biden
administration intends to shut down the notorious Guantánamo Bay Prison by
the end of the presidents first term in office.
Psakis answer may have seemed reassuring, that the untold suffering
experienced by hundreds of men in this American gulag many of whom were
surely innocent would be finally coming to an end. However, considering
the history of Guantánamo and the trail of broken promises by the Barack
Obama Administration, the new administrations pledge is hardly encouraging.
Compare the new language with that of Obamas impassioned diatribes about
humanity, justice and American values, which he utilized whenever he spoke
of Guantánamo. Gitmo has become a symbol around the world for an America
that flouts the rule of law, Obama said at a speech at the National Defense
University in May 2013.
Enamored with his every word, Obamas audience clapped with enthusiasm. When
he delivered that particular speech, Obama was then serving his second term
in office. He already had ample opportunity to shut down the prison which
operated with no international monitoring and entirely outside the realms of
international and US laws.
Obama is likely to be remembered for his words, not his actions. Not only
did he fail to shut down the prison which was erected by his predecessor,
George W. Bush, in 2002, but the Guantánamo industry continued to thrive
during his terms. For example, in his speech, Obama made reference to the
high cost of a hundred and fifty million dollars each year to imprison 166
people. According to the New Yorker, reporting in 2016, Guantánamos budget
had morphed to $445 million last year, when Obama was still in office.
Yet, as the budget grew by leaps and bounds, the number of Guantánamo
prisoners dwindled. Currently, there are only 40 prisoners still residing in
that massive edifice of metal, concrete and barbed wire located at the
eastern tip of Cuba, built atop a piece of land leased by the US in 1903.
It is easy to conclude that the US government keeps the prison open only to
avoid international accountability and, arguably, to extract information by
torture, an act that is inconsistent with American laws. But this cannot be
it. On the one hand, the entire wars against Afghanistan and Iraq were
illegal under international law. Such a fact hardly stopped the US and its
allies from savagely invading, humiliating, and torturing entire populations
with no regard whatsoever to legal or moral arguments.
On the other hand, Guantánamo is merely one of many American-run prisons and
detention centers throughout the world that operate with no manual of rules
and according to the most ruthless tactics. The tragedy of Abu Ghraib, a US
military detention center in Baghdad, only became famous when direct
evidence of the degrading, and incredibly violent conduct that was taking
place within its walls was produced and publicized.
Guantanamo
A detainee is carried on a stretcher before being interrogated at
Guantanamos Camp X-Ray. Lynne Sladky | AP
In fact, many American officials and members of Congress at the time used
the Abu Ghraib scandal in 2004 as an opportunity to whitewash and rebrand
American crimes elsewhere and to present the misconduct in this Iraqi prison
as if an isolated incident involving a few bad apples.
The few bad apples argument, made by G. W. Bush was, more or less, the
same logic utilized by Obama when he championed the closure of Guantánamo.
Indeed, both Presidents insisted that neither Abu Ghraib nor Guantánamo
should be made out to represent what America is really all about.
Is this who we are? Obama animatedly and passionately asked, as he made a
case in favor of the closure of Guantánamo, speaking as if a human rights
advocate, not a Commander-in-Chief who had direct authority to shut down the
entire facility. The truth is that the Abu Ghraib tortures were not a few
bad apples and Guantánamo is, indeed, a microcosm of exactly what the US
is, or has become.
From Bagram, Afghanistan, to Abu Ghraib, Iraq, to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to
the many floating prisons news of which was leaked by US media in 2014
the US government continues to make a mockery of international and
humanitarian laws. Many American officials, who genuinely advocate the
closure of Guantánamo, refuse to acknowledge that the prison is a symbol of
their countrys intransigence and refuse to accept that, like any other
country in the world, it is accountable to international law.
This lack of accountability has exceeded the US governments insistence to
act alone, as in to launch wars without international mandates. One US
administration after another has also made it clear that, under no
circumstances, would they allow accused war criminals to be investigated,
let alone stand trial, before the International Criminal Court (ICC). The
message here is that even Americas bad apples can potentially walk free,
regardless of the heinousness of their crimes.
Just months after the Trump administration imposed sanctions on ICC judges
to punish them for the potential investigations of US crimes in Afghanistan,
it freed the convicted criminals who carried out horrific crimes in Iraq. On
December 22, Trump pardoned four American mercenaries who belonged to the
private military firm, Blackwater. These convicted murderers were involved
in the killing of 14 civilians, including two children, in Baghdad in 2007.
What became known as the Nisour Square massacre was another example of
whitewashing, as government officials and mainstream media, though
expressing outrage at the unlawful killing, insisted that the massacre was
an isolated episode. The fact that hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, mostly
civilians, were killed as a result of the American invasion seems irrelevant
in the countrys skewed logic in its never-ending war on terror.
Whether Biden fulfills his promise of shutting down Guantánamo or not,
little will change if the US remains committed to its condescending attitude
towards international law and to its undeserved view of itself as a country
that exists above the universal rights of everyone else.
That said, Guantánamo, on its own, is a crime against humanity and there can
never be any justification to rationalize why hundreds of people are held
indefinitely, without trial, without due process, without international
observers and without ever seeing their families and loved ones. The
explanation often offered by the pro-Guantánamo pundits is that the prison
inmates are dangerous men. If that was, indeed, the case, why were these
supposed criminals not allowed to see their day in court?
According to a report by Amnesty International published in May 2020, of the
779 men who were taken to that facility, only seven have been convicted.
Worse, five of them were convicted as a result of pre-trial agreements
under which they pleaded guilty, in return for the possibility of release
from the base. According to the rights group, such a trial by military
commission did not meet fair trial standards.
In other words, Guantánamo is and has always been a fraudulent operation
with no real inclination to holding criminals and terrorists accountable and
to preventing further crimes. Instead, Guantánamo is an industry, and a
lucrative one. In many ways, it is similar to the American prison military
complex, ironically dubbed the criminal justice system. Referring to the
unjust justice system, Human Rights Watch derided the US for having the
largest reported prison population in the world.
The (US) criminal justice system from policing and prosecution, through
to punishment is plagued with injustices like racial disparities,
excessively harsh sentencing and drug and immigration policies that
improperly emphasize criminalization, HRW stated on its website.
The above, too, can be considered an answer to Obamas rhetorical question,
Is this who we are?. Yes, Mr. Obama, in fact, this is precisely who you
are.
While offering the worlds most miserable detention conditions to hundreds
of potentially innocent men, Guantánamo also offers career opportunities,
high military perks and honors, and a seemingly endless budget for a small
army to guard only a few shackled, gaunt-looking men in a far-away land.
So, even if Biden is able to overcome pressure from the military, from the
CIA, and from Congress to shut Guantánamo down, justice will still be
absent, not only because of the numerous lives that are forever shattered
but because America still refuses to learn from its mistakes.