Authoritarian Irresponsibility

Upon his election as president, Barack Obama vowed to close the illegal detention center at Guantanamo Bay. While very commendable, this idea has brought with it several other problems. First of all, the closing of Guantanamo does not mean an end to illegal detention and torture policies by the United States. There are still many other secret prisons around the world, including the Bagram Air Force base in Afghanistan to which the Obama Administration (yes, the bringer of hope and change itself) continues to indefinitely detain suspected terrorists against whom it has little or no evidence at all. These secret prisons, or black holes as they are known, serve also as sites to which Obama can send those detainees currently being held at Guantanamo. Rather than being freed as is implied by Obama’s vow to close the prison, these individuals will simply be moved to another location further away from the public eye. Many of these prisons are even worse than the notorious Guantanamo Bay. Policies of torture and poor conditions have resulted in the deaths of many detainees held at these secret prisons. Detainee deaths due to mistreatment is such a major problem that the Department of Defense has repressed prisoner death reports of detainees in Afghanistan since 2004. These policies of indefinite detainment and secrecy surrounding the deaths of detainees persists under the Obama administration despite its vow to be the most open and transparent administration in history.

The second issue that arises is what to do with the detainees who are to be released. After maintaining for years that those held in Guantanamo Bay had some connection to Al Qaeda or other terrorist organization, officials are finally admitting that many of these individuals have been held with absolutely no evidence against them and no connection to any sort of illegal activities. However, the fact that they served numerous years as a suspected terrorist in a prison run by the great defender of peace of democracy has left these individuals with a permanent stigma. The prisoners’ countries of origin oftentimes refuse to allow these detainees back within their borders and the Obama Administration is increasingly having difficulty finding places to send the detainees that had been unjustly detained. Recently, two Yemenis prisoners were accepted by Spain. However, these individuals will not be treated as politically refugees, but as immigrants and will be kept under surveillance and denied freedom of movement. This treatment is repulsive. It is the duty of the United States to ensure that these individuals are able to live free lives. After destroying families, careers and community ties, the Obama Administration must compensate for the suffering these detainees endured. If other countries are unable to guarantee the freedom of these individuals, the United States is obligated to accept these individuals into its own society. Policy makers cannot expect the international community to take responsibility for the crimes they themselves committed. These are individuals who are innocent of any terrorist activities, yet were kidnapped off the street and held for years and denied habeas corpus. The illegal detainment policy of the United States ruined the lives of these individuals and now policy makers must not shirk their duty to compensate these former detainees for the pain and destruction that was brought upon them.

The plan to close Guantanamo is much more difficult than it initially appears, particularly when the United States refuses to truly accept responsibility for the lives it has ruined. The persistence of illegal renditions and indefinite detainment coupled with the issue of freeing detainees (Not to mention the problems and lack of impartiality associated with creating a separate system of justice to try suspected terrorists, a suggestion of the Obama administration.) is evidence of both the difficulty in ending the illegal detention policy and the insincerity of the Obama administration to do so.