1/22/09

Today, President Obama is signing a number of Executive Orders that will end the Bush administration’s practices of torture and enhanced interrogation techniques, close secret CIA prisons around the world, and close down the prison at Guantanamo over the next year.  According to published reports, the orders immediately suspend all military commissions and establish a formal review process to determine whether the detainees should be prosecuted in U.S. courts, transferred out of Guantanamo, or released back to their native or other countries.  They also ensure that all US government agencies and contractors adhere to lawful interrogation techniques based on those in the Army Field Manual.

This is a critical first step to making America safer while upholding our values.  The Bush administration’s detention and interrogation system has ignored more than 200 years of history and imposed a false choice between our Constitution and our security. Dozens of experts and senior military leaders agree: torture fails to elicit useful information; civilian courts have convicted terrorists; and secret prisons destroy America’s image as a beacon of freedom.  The Bush administration system has violated basic American values, created a legal limbo for hundreds of detainees, hurt our ability to gather intelligence, created a propaganda victory for terrorists, and undermined our standing around the world.  We need a clear break with these failed policies, and we need to clear away harmful myths about them.

WON’T CLOSING GUANTANAMO ENABLE TERRORISTS TO RETURN TO THE BATTLEFIELD?

Closing Guantanamo provides an opportunity to bring its detainees to justice and eliminate a major terrorist recruiting tool.  It is imperative that the detainees are brought to justice and receive a proper trial, which can be administered through the U.S. justice system. Furthermore, the existence of the Guantanamo facility has done immense harm to our security, becoming a major terrorist recruiting tool.  As Navy General Counsel Alberto Mora, who investigated allegations of torture and tried to stop the practices recently explained, “Serving U.S. flag-rank officers… maintain that the first and second identifiable causes of U.S. combat deaths in Iraq – as judged by their effectiveness in recruiting insurgent fighters into combat – are, respectively the symbols of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.”  [Vanity Fair, 12/16/08]

BUT THE PENTAGON RECENTLY CLAIMED THAT 61 FREED DETAINEES HAVE RETURNED TO THE BATTLEFIELD?

We should always take great care to ensure that released detainees do not pose serious security risks, but because the Pentagon has relied on dubious statistics in the past, we should be skeptical of this total.  A report by Seton Hall University Law School found that previous statements by the Pentagon far exaggerated the number of detainees who have actually returned to the fight and included, for example, detainees who wrote op-eds about Guantanamo or participated in a documentary.  The Pentagon’s 61 figure includes only 18 confirmed cases and no details on any of the 18. [VOA, 1/14/09. Ken Gude, Think Progress, 1/15/09]

WHY IS IT GOING TO TAKE A YEAR TO CLOSE GUANTANAMO?

The goal is to get it right: protect Americans, bring terrorists to justice, and work within our constitution.  The Bush administration has left President Obama with a legal mess that will take time to untangle.  There are a number of real challenges and obstacles to closing Guantanamo.  For instance, how does the United States prosecute terror suspects who have been left languishing for years and may have been tortured? What do we do with those detainees who clearly do not pose a threat but cannot be sent back to their native countries? And how can the U.S. move forward with a legal, constitutional and moral manner of processing terror detainees in the future?  These are complicated questions with no simple answers.  Because the long-term ramifications are so important, time needs to be taken to ensure that the correct decisions are made. The year timeframe gives the Obama administration time to review all the cases and make appropriate decisions.  It will allow legal, military and political officials to create and fully implement the new legal framework, ensuring that the problems of the past that made Guantanamo a mistake are not repeated.
 
HASN’T THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION LEFT SUCH A MESS THAT THE U.S. WILL NOT BE ABLE TO PROSECUTE TERRORIST SUSPECTS?  

There is an established legal framework that is perfectly capable of bringing terrorists to justice, keep us secure, and adhere to America’s constitutional traditions.  U.S. courts have an exemplary record in handling terrorism prosecutions, including the post-9/11 trials of Zacarias Moussaoui and Jose Padilla, and U.S. jails hold dozens of convicted terrorists. No terrorism prosecution is ever easy, and some of the Bush administration’s actions have made them more difficult. But U.S. courts can handle these kinds of prosecutions and have convicted dozens of terrorists in the years it has taken the Bush administration to obtain three convictions at Guantanamo.  As General Colin Powell has previously stated, “I would simply move them to the United States and put them into our federal legal system.” [LA Times, 1/12/09. CNN 1/8/98.  Colin Powell, 6/10/07]

DON’T WE NEED TO GIVE THE CIA ALL THE TOOLS NECESSARY TO INTERROGATE TERRORISTS?  HASN’T TORTURE HELPED PREVENT TERRORIST ATTACKS IN THE PAST?

According to former CIA interrogators and intelligence officials, torture has produced little actionable intelligence.  The Bush administration claimed that torturing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) saved American lives.  But retired CIA agents disagree:  “But according to a former senior C.I.A. official, who read all the interrogation reports on KSM. ‘90 percent of it was total fucking bullshit.’ A former Pentagon analyst adds: ‘KSM produced no actionable intelligence.’” Former interrogator Matthew Alexander concluded that torture became a recruitment vehicle for al-Qaeda in Iraq, precipitating attacks against U.S. troops:  “The number of U.S. soldiers who have died because of our torture policy will never be definitively known, but it is fair to say that it is close to the number of lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001.”  Moreover, experts agree that the Army Field Manual provides the necessary tools to interrogate suspects, while providing interrogators with one clear standard that can be applied across the US government and comply with the Geneva Conventions. [Vanity Fair, 12/16/08. CBC, 10/27/08. Eric Holder, 1/15/09.  Washington Times, 12/18/08. Washington Post, 1/14/09.  ABC News, 12/16/08.  Pew Global Research, 6/13/06. Washington Post, 11/30/08]

AREN’T THE TECHNIQUES APPROVED BY THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION JUST ENHANCED INTERROGATION TECHNIQUES AND NOT TORTURE?  

There is widespread agreement that the Bush administration’s practices of “enhanced interrogation” violate the Geneva Conventions and amount to torture.  Judge Susan Crawford, the top official responsible for determining whether to try suspects held in Guantanamo Bay concluded that the U.S. had interrogated a suspect using “sustained isolation, sleep deprivation, nudity and prolonged exposure to cold”, techniques which “met the legal definition of torture” and left the suspect in “life-threatening condition.”  In another instance, the former lead prosecutor of terrorist suspect Mohammed Jawad signed a petition for that suspect’s release because of his suspicion that the suspect had been physically and psychologically abused.  Eric Holder, the Obama administration’s attorney-general designate confirmed that waterboarding constituted torture, saying that the U.S. had even prosecuted individuals for using it in the past and that it had been used during the Spanish Inquisition and by the Khmer Rouge.  [Washington Post, 1/14/09. Washington Post, 1/14/09. NY Times, 1/17/09]

What We’re Reading

Taliban forces fill areas without NATO troops in the south of Afghanistan.  President Obama met with national security officials, giving them the mission of responsibly ending the war in Iraq.

Pakistan arrested an al Qaeda-linked suspect in the 2005 London bombings.

Intelligence agencies’ databases will soon be linked by a Google-like search system.

China sentenced two to death in the tainted milk scandal.

New reports of civilian suffering emerge from Gaza.  Hamas and Fatah end reconciliation talks.

Campaigning continues for Iraq’s upcoming provincial election.  The LA Times looks at the dismal legacy of the Iraqi governor overseeing Mosul.

The New Yorker profiles Suzanne Nossel, who coined the term “smart power,” and founded NSN’s foreign policy blog, DemocracyArsenal.org.

Housing statistics fell 33% at the end of 2008, to the lowest level since recording began in 1959.  Jobless claims rose to a high not seen since 1982.

Commentary of the Day

George McGovern calls for a five-year moratorium on war, and urges President Obama not to commit more troops to Afghanistan.

Karl Rove writes that President Bush was right on the important issues – most prominently the war in Iraq.

Marc A. Thiessen, President Bush’s former speechwriter, argues that President Bush kept us safe since 9/11 by employing tools such as enhanced interrogation techniques and wiretapping overseas outside of FISA oversight.