Psyche, Science, and Society

Greenberg: Can Guantanamo be closed?

April 27th, 2007

Karen Greenberg at TomDispatch writes of the horrible dilemma faced by those who supposedly want to close Guantanamo, but just can’t think of a way to do it: Can Guantanamo Be Closed?

U.S. officials have consistently held that they are guarding vital national security interests by keeping the never-to-be-charged detainees in custody. However, the sad truth is that, when it comes to most of these prisoners, what’s really been at stake is the administration’s need to save face by concealing its utter ineptitude. Privately, even Bush administration officials will acknowledge that the detainees were captured and sent to Gitmo capriciously. Rather than housing the “worst of the worst” (as the administration has regularly bragged), Gitmo penned up the easiest to grab, especially in Afghanistan. Often these were simply the individuals that local bounty hunters could provide or who were found on or near the battlefield. Many were put on planes to Guantanamo based on nothing but an American unwillingness to assert with confidence that they would never be a threat to the United States. Instead of masterminds, what the Bush administration netted were cooks, chauffeurs, wanderers, the mentally deranged, and — sometimes — children.

Of course, closing Guantanamo will n ever be sufficient. Also needed are trials for those who organized and conducted this assault on human decency and the rule of law. If the purpose of law is to send a message that society will not tolerate certain behaviors, then certainly this monstrous crime of arbitrary imprisonment and organized torture must be punished. What else will deter future criminals? If the law cannot censure Bush, Cheney, Gonzales, Rumsfeld, Miller, et al., then what good is it?

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Entry Filed under: Guantanamo, Law, Rights and Liberties, Torture