In the following January 15 Editorial, the Washington Post called flor closing the U. S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.[1]
“President Joe Biden is set to leave office Monday as the third president to try — and fail — to close the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. This ugly symbol of one of the most regrettable policies in recent American history will persist into another administration, and very likely beyond.”
“President George W. Bush opened Guantánamo at the height of the “war on terror” and quickly filled it with 780 men. After belatedly realizing that its existence had become a terrorist recruiting tool and a blight on America’s global standing as a beacon of justice, Bush wanted to close it but settled for reducing the population to 242 inmates. Barack Obama campaigned on a promise to close the prison, but once elected he was stymied by Congress, managing only to reduce its population to 40. President Donald Trump, in his first term, pledged to keep the prison running and fill it with “some bad dudes,” but added no prisoners.”
“Biden deserves credit for bringing Guantánamo’s inmate population down to 15. This month, in the largest-ever transfer of detainees, 11 Yemeni men were sent to Oman. This followed the movement in December of two detainees to Malaysia and one to Kenya.”
“The remaining prisoners are from Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. There is also one Palestinian and one stateless Rohingya Muslim who was captured by Pakistani troops near the Afghanistan border in 2001.”
“The inmate population might have been reduced further in August, had Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin not stepped in at the last moment to nix a plea deal with three men accused of plotting the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi had agreed to plead guilty before a military commission hearing their cases in exchange for the government taking the death penalty off the table. The men would have served life in prison instead. Austin’s decision to revoke the plea deal was inexplicable — he would have, or should have, known about it long before it became public — and can only be marked down to the political calendar; the presidential election was three months away, and the families of the 9/11 victims might have been outraged by a deal that spared the lives of some of the terror plot’s masterminds. Austin’s decision was overturned by a military judge, and the deal is now stalled.”
“Biden also could have moved more quickly early in his term if he had made emptying Guantánamo a higher priority — as might have been expected from a president who said “democracy promotion” was a core tenet of his foreign policy. Keeping inmates detained for decades in a parallel legal structure, without charges, after many were subjected to torture and denied basic due process (the presumption of innocence and speedy trials, for instance) contradicts core principles of American justice. For 23 years, Guantánamo’s dark stain has hampered America’s ability to honestly condemn other countries for using arbitrary detention and torture, and for denying basic human rights for the accused.”
“Opening Guantánamo was a mistake from the start, and presidents since Bush can be blamed for not correcting it. But Congress has thrown up obstacles. Biden and Obama were both hamstrung by foolish legislation that tightly restricted detainee transfers to other countries and altogether prohibited sending them to prisons on U.S. soil because of specious concerns about security. Federal prisons already hold convicted terrorists, including shoe bomber Richard Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui, sometimes called the 20th hijacker.”
“Leaving only 15 detainees in Guantánamo Bay at an estimated cost of about $500 million a year — $33 million per prisoner — exposes the absurdity of keeping the prison open at all.”
“Abuse of detainees during wars or periods of mass trauma is tragically common. Think of the forced relocation and imprisonment of people of Japanese ancestry during World War II. But it is left to future leaders to acknowledge and correct such wrongs. President-elect Trump, who signed an executive order in 2018 to keep Guantánamo open, has expressed no interest in closing it. But in 2019 he did acknowledge that the cost of maintaining the prison was “crazy.” If he is now serious about wanting to improve government efficiency, he should work toward transferring the remaining inmates to secure federal prisons.”
Conclusion. Give thanks to the Washington Post for this Editorial.
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[1] Editorial, After 23 shameful years, close Guantanamo, Wash. Post (Jan. 15, 2025).