2/23/09

Attorney General Eric Holder’s visit today to Guantanamo Bay as the leader for the task force on handling detainees is a step toward turning the page on the failed detention and interrogation policies of the Bush administration – and a reminder of just how massive and complex the task will be.  Recent developments have highlighted the prospect that detention at Guantanamo has radicalized “low-threat” detainees such as Abdallah Saleh al-Ajmi.  The extent to which evidence the detainees is disorganized, conflicting and tainted has become clearer.  This as a new Pentagon report argues that Guantanamo meets the standards of the Geneva Conventions – a point disputed by human rights groups.  Court filings remind us that the even larger challenge of applying the laws of war to thousands of detainees at Bagram Prison in Afghanistan, and sorting through the facts of their cases, has not even begun.  The Bush Administration’s apparent indifference to due process and even basic recordkeeping will make this process much more difficult.  It’s time to return to policies that both keep us safe and embody the best of American values.  The Obama administration’s review of the detainee situation and its commitment to close Guantanamo within a year is a major step towards this goal.  But it will take time to clean up the complicated mess that the Bush administration left behind.

Holder and Craig’s trips to Guantanamo demonstrate commitment to change the Bush administration’s failed policies on torture and detainees. “Attorney General Eric Holder has taken off on a trip to the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as the Obama administration weighs what is needed to shut the facility down,” reported the Associated Press. “[A] large part of Holder's visit there on Monday will involve discussions with officials about detention and interrogation practices.”  Holder commented on the “need to have our feet on the ground to really see what is going on down at the facility, to see how people are being detained, to talk to people down there about the interrogation techniques that are being used, I think that will be an important first step as we try to resolve the issues that the president has put before me.”  Last week, White House Counsel Greg Craig visited Guantanamo.  “He and a team of attorneys from the Departments of Justice and Defense were visiting the site ahead of Holder, as they work toward recommendations from a task force on the handling of detainees.”  [AP, 2/23/09. Bloomberg, 2/23/09. Washington Post, 2/18/09]

Bush administration’s failed detainee policies at Guantanamo actually serve to radicalize some prisoners and make them more dangerous – and the problem of how to handle them more difficult.  The story of Abdallah Saleh al-Ajmi, who blew himself up in a suicide attack against an Iraqi army base in Mosul last year, illuminates the challenges facing the Obama administration.  According to the Washington Post “What makes Ajmi's journey from inmate to bomber so disturbing to top government officials is the fact that he never was deemed to be among the worst of the worst.”  His time at Guantanamo seems to have radicalized him.  When he first arrived at Guantanamo his attorney explains that “he was this poor, dumb kid -- I really don't think he was a bad kid -- who was thrown into a hellhole of a prison and who went mad.”  By the end of his time in Guantanamo he was threatening his captors, and had become obsessed with violence and revenge.  According to the Washington Post, some in the US government are of the view “that cases such as Ajmi's are the inevitable result of locking up 779 foreigners in an austere military prison, without access to courts or consular representation, and subjecting them to interrogation techniques that detainees say amount to torture. Some of them are bound to seek revenge, these officials believe.”  Yet the Bush administration never took proper steps to monitor those it released, and now the “government lacks the resources to track everyone who has been through the prison.”  In the case of al-Ajmi, despite worrying indications, the Bush administration never “relayed any concern” in his court file, which was passed to the Kuwaiti government following his release.  [Washington Post, 2/23/09. NY Times, 2/23/09. Washington Post, 2/16/09]

The larger detainee process is profoundly dysfunctional and will require years to untangle. Sadly, the cases of al-Ajmi, as well as Binyam Mohamed, who is being released to British custody today after allegations of torture, were reflective of a larger, dysfunctional process for treating terrorism suspects.  The Washington Post reported: “[a]s officials try to decide who can be released and who can be charged, they face a series of murky questions: what to do when the evidence is contradictory or tainted by allegations of torture; whether to press charges in military or federal court; what to do if prisoners are deemed dangerous but there is little or no evidence against them that would stand up in court; and where to send prisoners who might be killed or tortured if they are returned home. Answering those questions, said current and former officials, is a massive undertaking that has been hampered by a lack of cooperation among agencies and by records that are physically scattered and lacking key details.” Meanwhile, disagreement continues among Obama appointees, holdover Pentagon officials, and human rights groups about current conditions at Guantanamo.  The LA Times writes that a report produced for Obama by the Pentagon’s Vice Chief of Naval Operations “concluded that the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay meets the standards for humane treatment of detainees established in the Geneva Convention accords.”  [Washington Post, 2/23/09. NY Times, 2/23/09. Washington Post, 2/16/09.  LA Times, 2/21/09]

Prison camp at Bagram offers additional challenges. The Bush administration left an even larger challenge with its detention of thousands of individuals at Bagram Airbase, Afghanistan, and other sites.  As they were detained outside US soil, and in many, though not all cases, during actual battles, they are extremely unlikely to gain the access to US courts that the Guantanamo detainees have secured – a reading of law reflected by the Obama Justice Department’s decision last week to continue the Bush Administration’s opposition to their cases reaching US courts.   In ABC News’ analysis, “[a]lmost all the prisoners are Afghans or Pakistanis who are suspected of being terrorists. Most have been detained by US soldiers during battles in Afghanistan. Unlike the Guantanamo inmates, those held at Bagram have almost no rights. Although there have recently been some hearings before a military judge, none of the prisoners have access to lawyers. The prisoners differ in another important aspect from those in Guantanamo: In legal terms they were arrested in a war zone, thus making martial law applicable. The Bush administration consistently argued that the Bagram prisoners could thus be held indefinitely -- or at least until the war in Afghanistan was over. Obama now has to decide if he wants to continue to follow the policy set by the hardliners in the military and the intelligence services.”  The Obama Administration must also determine how and whether it wants the laws of war applied to Bagram and other sites; how to implement the Red Cross access it pledged in its January 22 executive orders; and how to investigate the facts behind individual detentions. The New York Times notes that Obama “must also determine whether to go forward with the construction of a $60 million prison complex at Bagram that, while offering better conditions for the detainees, would also signal a longer-term commitment to the American detention mission.” [ABC, 1/28/09. NY Times, 1/27/09]

What We’re Reading

South Korea reports that North Korea has a new ballistic missile capable of hitting Australia and Guam.

Iraq charged a sitting Sunni lawmaker with masterminding a series of murders, kidnappings, and bombings including an attack on Parliament.

Iraqi war widows’ needs exceed available help and many are forced to turn to begging, prostitution, the insurgency, and “temporary marriages.”  Meanwhile, at home, many U.S. soldiers are still waiting for promised stop-loss bonuses.

Benyamin Netanyahu and Tzipi Livni met Sunday but did not reach an agreement on a coalition government.

Iran plans computer tests for its first nuclear power plant.

A U.S. unit is secretly training commandos in Pakistan.

China plans to force Tibet to celebrate its  New Year holiday, despite Tibetan calls for boycotts in remembrance of those killed in last year’s protests.

EU leaders called for the IMF’s resources to be doubled in reaction to the financial crisis.

Tamil rebels in Sri Lanka, pinned down by government forces, offer a conditional truce.

China fears unrest as unemployment rises.

Islamists killed 11 African Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu, Somalia.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s candor during her trip abroad draws mixed praise and criticism.

Iraq’s National Museum re-opens six years after devastating looting in the wake of the U.S. invasion.

Despite controversy, India celebrates Slumdog Millionaire’s victory at the Academy Awards.

Commentary of the Day

Will Hide writes about the friendliness of ordinary people in Iran; Roger Cohen discusses Iran’s Jews.  Ali Reza Eshraghi argues that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may be the Obama administration’s best bet in Iran.

Former presidents of Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia declare that the war on drugs is a failure.