U.S. weighs speedier closing of jail in Cuba
U.S. weighs speedier closing of jail in Cuba
By David Stout
Copyright by The International Herald Tribune
Published: June 22, 2007
WASHINGTON: President George W. Bush's top advisers are considering a recommendation to speed up the process of closing the American detention unit for suspected terrorists at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, according to administration officials familiar with the deliberations.
The recommendation comes from several deputies of cabinet members and reflects a growing belief that the continued use of the detention facility is tainting the image of the United States and hampering its campaign against terrorism, the officials said.
Bush has said that he wanted to shut down the camp at Guantánamo, which holds about 400 prisoners, including more than a dozen suspected Al Qaeda leaders, but that it was not possible to do so in the near future.
The cabinet deputies are recommending that the process be accelerated, and at a meeting scheduled for Friday they were expected to urge a White House announcement within weeks, according to the officials dealing with the issue.
The meeting was canceled as a result of a report Thursday by The Associated Press about it, said officials who knew about the session.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and their top deputies were among those scheduled to attend.
[On Friday, The Associated Press reported that the United States was helping to build a prison in Afghanistan to take some prisoners now held at Guantánamo. But the White House said Friday that it was not meant as an alternative to the facility in Cuba, The AP added.]
Dana Perino, a White House spokeswoman, said Friday that there was no deadline for closing down the facility. "Everybody is working toward the goal to meet what the president has asked them to do, which is to do it as soon as possible," she said.
The abrupt cancellation of the meeting prompted a statement Thursday evening by Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council.
"The president has long expressed a desire to close the Guantánamo Bay detention facility and to do so in a responsible way," Johndroe said. "A number of steps need to take place before that can happen such as setting up military commissions and the repatriation to their home countries of detainees who have been cleared for release. These and other steps have not been completed. No decisions on the future of Guantánamo Bay are imminent and there will not be a White House meeting tomorrow."
Guantánamo was chosen for the prison camp in the first place because, while it is an American military installation, it is not on American soil and thus not as subject to American law as are prisons within the United States.
Transferring the prisoners from Guantánamo would raise a host of legal, diplomatic and human rights questions, depending on whether they were sent to their home countries, other countries or to military prisons in the United States.
But the continued confinement of the prisoners, some from countries that are allies of the United States, has sparked intense criticism of the United States.
The Guantánamo detainees do not fit into easy categories. They are not prisoners of war in the traditional sense, in that they were not uniformed soldiers of countries at war with the United States. And only some of them have been charged with crimes.
Most of the prisoners are classified as "enemy combatants." Among them is Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who the U.S. government says was the mastermind of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Administration hard-liners have opposed housing the prisoners in the United States, at least in part because they would presumably have legal rights and thus be able to challenge the conditions of their confinement and interrogations.
Since the Guantánamo detention unit was opened in 2002, Bush has said that the suspects there do not deserve all the legal rights enjoyed by American citizens, and that to grant them would hamper the search for intelligence that could help capture other terrorists and perhaps prevent a repeat of the Sept. 11 attacks.
But the administration has suffered repeated setbacks in American courts, which have held that the prisoners should at least be able to challenge the basis for their incarceration.
Congress has responded with legislation to limit the detainees' ability to go to court.
Lawyers for some prisoners have criticized the military tribunals established at Guantánamo, asserting that they are designed not to provide fair trials but to reinforce the impression that the Americans rounded up the right people.
The momentum for closing the camp has come in part from Gates, who has argued repeatedly that it has acquired such a shabby image abroad that legal proceedings involving the suspects would not be respected around the world.
Gates and Rice agree on the issue, in sharp contrast to Gates's predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, who opposed shutting down the camp.
One sign of Gates's influence was his success in killing plans to build a $100 million courthouse complex at Guantánamo on the grounds that its construction would signal American intention to keep prisoners there for a long time. A much more modest, less costly facility was approved.
The move toward closing Guantánamo may also have picked up speed because Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who opposes shutting down the camp, has lost influence within the administration because of the continuing calls for his resignation over the firings of several United States prosecutors and other turmoil within the Justice Department.
Vice President Dick Cheney also opposes closing the camp and has been silent for some time about the issue.
Perino, the White House spokeswoman, noted Friday that the United States planned to release about 80 of the detainees soon.
"America does not have any intention of being the world's jailer," she said.
Helene Cooper, Thom Shanker and David E. Sanger contributed reporting for this article.
By David Stout
Copyright by The International Herald Tribune
Published: June 22, 2007
WASHINGTON: President George W. Bush's top advisers are considering a recommendation to speed up the process of closing the American detention unit for suspected terrorists at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, according to administration officials familiar with the deliberations.
The recommendation comes from several deputies of cabinet members and reflects a growing belief that the continued use of the detention facility is tainting the image of the United States and hampering its campaign against terrorism, the officials said.
Bush has said that he wanted to shut down the camp at Guantánamo, which holds about 400 prisoners, including more than a dozen suspected Al Qaeda leaders, but that it was not possible to do so in the near future.
The cabinet deputies are recommending that the process be accelerated, and at a meeting scheduled for Friday they were expected to urge a White House announcement within weeks, according to the officials dealing with the issue.
The meeting was canceled as a result of a report Thursday by The Associated Press about it, said officials who knew about the session.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and their top deputies were among those scheduled to attend.
[On Friday, The Associated Press reported that the United States was helping to build a prison in Afghanistan to take some prisoners now held at Guantánamo. But the White House said Friday that it was not meant as an alternative to the facility in Cuba, The AP added.]
Dana Perino, a White House spokeswoman, said Friday that there was no deadline for closing down the facility. "Everybody is working toward the goal to meet what the president has asked them to do, which is to do it as soon as possible," she said.
The abrupt cancellation of the meeting prompted a statement Thursday evening by Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council.
"The president has long expressed a desire to close the Guantánamo Bay detention facility and to do so in a responsible way," Johndroe said. "A number of steps need to take place before that can happen such as setting up military commissions and the repatriation to their home countries of detainees who have been cleared for release. These and other steps have not been completed. No decisions on the future of Guantánamo Bay are imminent and there will not be a White House meeting tomorrow."
Guantánamo was chosen for the prison camp in the first place because, while it is an American military installation, it is not on American soil and thus not as subject to American law as are prisons within the United States.
Transferring the prisoners from Guantánamo would raise a host of legal, diplomatic and human rights questions, depending on whether they were sent to their home countries, other countries or to military prisons in the United States.
But the continued confinement of the prisoners, some from countries that are allies of the United States, has sparked intense criticism of the United States.
The Guantánamo detainees do not fit into easy categories. They are not prisoners of war in the traditional sense, in that they were not uniformed soldiers of countries at war with the United States. And only some of them have been charged with crimes.
Most of the prisoners are classified as "enemy combatants." Among them is Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who the U.S. government says was the mastermind of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Administration hard-liners have opposed housing the prisoners in the United States, at least in part because they would presumably have legal rights and thus be able to challenge the conditions of their confinement and interrogations.
Since the Guantánamo detention unit was opened in 2002, Bush has said that the suspects there do not deserve all the legal rights enjoyed by American citizens, and that to grant them would hamper the search for intelligence that could help capture other terrorists and perhaps prevent a repeat of the Sept. 11 attacks.
But the administration has suffered repeated setbacks in American courts, which have held that the prisoners should at least be able to challenge the basis for their incarceration.
Congress has responded with legislation to limit the detainees' ability to go to court.
Lawyers for some prisoners have criticized the military tribunals established at Guantánamo, asserting that they are designed not to provide fair trials but to reinforce the impression that the Americans rounded up the right people.
The momentum for closing the camp has come in part from Gates, who has argued repeatedly that it has acquired such a shabby image abroad that legal proceedings involving the suspects would not be respected around the world.
Gates and Rice agree on the issue, in sharp contrast to Gates's predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, who opposed shutting down the camp.
One sign of Gates's influence was his success in killing plans to build a $100 million courthouse complex at Guantánamo on the grounds that its construction would signal American intention to keep prisoners there for a long time. A much more modest, less costly facility was approved.
The move toward closing Guantánamo may also have picked up speed because Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who opposes shutting down the camp, has lost influence within the administration because of the continuing calls for his resignation over the firings of several United States prosecutors and other turmoil within the Justice Department.
Vice President Dick Cheney also opposes closing the camp and has been silent for some time about the issue.
Perino, the White House spokeswoman, noted Friday that the United States planned to release about 80 of the detainees soon.
"America does not have any intention of being the world's jailer," she said.
Helene Cooper, Thom Shanker and David E. Sanger contributed reporting for this article.
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