Prosecutors, defense counsel, a military judge, several journalists and a handful of non-governmental organization observers like myself convened at Guantanamo Bay this week for what was to be the first hearing for a Guantanamo defendant under the Obama administration's "new and improved" military commissions.
What will Obama do with Guantanamo's single largest group of detainees? One hundred Yemenis wait to go home--but those who've already returned to Yemen didn't find a warm welcome.
On his second full day in office, President Barack Obama signed an executive order calling for the military detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to be closed within a year. The question is, how? Will the Obama administration insist that all detainees be either prosecuted or released, as Human Rights Watch and other groups have recommended? Or will it effectively move Guantánamo onshore by closing the facility in Cuba but continuing to detain certain individuals without trying or even charging them?
A smart counterterrorism policy would focus on incapacitating those who provide value-added to the al-Qaeda network - the leaders, financiers, and technological experts who cannot be easily replaced, and who can be prosecuted for conspiracy to commit terrorism, if not more.
PRESIDENT-ELECT Barack Obama has said he'll close the US detention center at Guantanamo Bay. The question is how. If the government has evidence that Guantanamo detainees have committed crimes, it should put them on trial in the federal courts, just like other suspected criminals. Those the government chooses not to prosecute should be safely repatriated or released.
With just four weeks till Obama's inauguration, the Bush administration's military commissions are supposed to be history. So why does the government act like they'll continue past January 20?
Closing Guantánamo will not be easy. As David Cole points out, some of the detainees held there cannot be sent back to their home countries, and others are too dangerous to release. But while he insists that outsourcing the problem is not an option, he seems all too willing to bring the problem home.
When alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his four co-defendants entered the Guantánamo Bay courtroom Monday, they came armed with a plan to martyr themselves at the hands of a tainted legal system. By the afternoon, the plan was in disarray.
Prosecutors, defense counsel, a military judge, several journalists and a handful of non-governmental organization observers like myself convened at Guantanamo Bay this week for what was to be the first hearing for a Guantanamo defendant under the Obama administration's "new and improved" military commissions.
What will Obama do with Guantanamo's single largest group of detainees? One hundred Yemenis wait to go home--but those who've already returned to Yemen didn't find a warm welcome.
On his second full day in office, President Barack Obama signed an executive order calling for the military detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to be closed within a year. The question is, how? Will the Obama administration insist that all detainees be either prosecuted or released, as Human Rights Watch and other groups have recommended? Or will it effectively move Guantánamo onshore by closing the facility in Cuba but continuing to detain certain individuals without trying or even charging them?
A smart counterterrorism policy would focus on incapacitating those who provide value-added to the al-Qaeda network - the leaders, financiers, and technological experts who cannot be easily replaced, and who can be prosecuted for conspiracy to commit terrorism, if not more.
Confusion, anger and relief swirl inside the Gitmo courthouse before the the tainted proceedings are halted at Obama's request.
PRESIDENT-ELECT Barack Obama has said he'll close the US detention center at Guantanamo Bay. The question is how. If the government has evidence that Guantanamo detainees have committed crimes, it should put them on trial in the federal courts, just like other suspected criminals. Those the government chooses not to prosecute should be safely repatriated or released.
With just four weeks till Obama's inauguration, the Bush administration's military commissions are supposed to be history. So why does the government act like they'll continue past January 20?
Closing Guantánamo will not be easy. As David Cole points out, some of the detainees held there cannot be sent back to their home countries, and others are too dangerous to release. But while he insists that outsourcing the problem is not an option, he seems all too willing to bring the problem home.
When alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his four co-defendants entered the Guantánamo Bay courtroom Monday, they came armed with a plan to martyr themselves at the hands of a tainted legal system. By the afternoon, the plan was in disarray.
There was a ghost in the Guantanamo courtroom last month. The accused, Mohammed Kamin, was missing.