Guantanamo Bay: Why is detention centre open 20 yrs after 9/11 despite global criticism?

Guantanamo Bay prison, which opened after the 9/11 terror attacks in the United States on 11 January 2002, has now emerged as a representation of human rights abuses in the US. Even though several US presidents including Barack Obama and Joe Biden have expressed willingness to shut down the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp, it still remains open, two decades after the US witnessed the most shocking attacks led by al-Qaeda and declared “war on terror”. The infamous camp is located in Cuba, however, according to critics, the establishment allows detainees to be held indefinitely outside of normal laws or judicial oversight. 

The prison, which was the product of the US' ‘war on terror,’ will be now expanded under US President Joe Biden administration with a new $4 million court due to being built this year, reported the New York Times. It is pertinent to mention here that in the past two decades, more than 700 men have passed through the detention facility after it was created in the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks. Presently, the facility holds 39 men, according to the US government’s interagency Periodic Review Board’s disclosures made back in October.

Why was Gautanamo opened after 9/11 attacks?

Former US President George W Bush, whose administration suffered the unprecedented challenge against terror outfits, had issued a military order on the “Detention, Treatment and Trial of Certain Non-Citizens, in the War Against Terrorism”. This order, issued on 13 November 2001, allowed the US authorities to hold foreign nationals in custody without charge indefinitely and even prevents them from undertaking any legal process to challenge their detention.

In December 2001, a memorandum from the US Justice Department to the Pentagon explaining that prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay will not be eligible for habeas corpus rights that give protection against arbitrary detention because they are not on US soil. The first 20 detainees of the facility arrived on 11 January 2002 who were reportedly held outdoors in wire mesh cages. Later, the Bush administration also ruled that the prisoners in Guantanamo do not qualify as prisoners of war and are not eligible for protection under Geneva Convention.

According to reports, then US Vice President Dick Cheney on 27 January 2002 described the prisoners at Guantanamo as “the worst of a very bad lot” and added, “They are very dangerous. They are devoted to killing millions of Americans.”

However, over the years, several human rights groups have flagged the abuses, which according to them, take place within the facility. With the Biden administration almost completing a year at White House, Al Jazeera stated that the rights advocates now see an opportunity for him to fulfil his 2020 political pledge to shut down the prison especially now that the US has entirely evacuated from Afghanistan. The war-ravaged nation, which the US entered after the 9/11 attacks, is now ruled by the Taliban and some of them are even former Guantanamo prisoners.

Why is it not closed?

It is pertinent to note that at the end of the Bush presidency, there was a broad public consensus in the US about shutting down Guantanamo. Even Obama had reiterated his call to close the facility but failed to keep up his pledge. However, Obama’s successor, Donald Trump opposed the releases from Guantanamo and said that he would “load it up with bad dudes”. While Biden renewed the Obama administration’s efforts to close the prison, only one prisoner has been transferred until now under his presidency. Now, at least 39 people are still being held at Guantanamo. Out of the total detainees, ten are still facing military commission proceedings. Others are being held indefinitely and one will be released this year in February, as per reports.

Why is Guantanamo criticised for human rights abuses?

The original camp, known as Camp X-ray, was assembled in less than 96 hours. Even though the prison was first used in 2002, the US has maintained a naval base in Cuba since 1903. It is also pertinent to note that the Bush administration had rounded up at least 800 terror suspects following the 9/11 terror attacks which claimed over 3,000 lives in the United States. The prison was opened to keep the terror suspects away from prying eyes and outside of the US. However, inmates and human rights groups have reported mistreatment, abuse and torture at the hands of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the prison guards, according to The National News.

Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project, was quoted by The National News as saying, “The Guantanamo Bay military prison is a catastrophic legal, moral and ethical failure…It is a global symbol of American injustice, torture, and abuse of power. It’s a national disgrace that our government has for 20 years indefinitely detained Muslim men at Guantanamo, and persists with unconstitutional and secretive military trials.”

"President [Joe] Biden needs to finally put an end to this extralegal and abhorrent prison and system”, Shamsi reportedly added.

Image: AP