by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright June 9, 2005
All Rights Reserved.

hen Amnesty International called the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay “the gulag of our time,” White House notoriety reached a new climax in the war on terror. Nearly four years after Sept. 11, the U.S. needed an offshore holding tank for recently captured Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners. Churning in the wake of 9/11 was the unsightly reality that U.S. intelligence failed to protect the homeland—a disgraceful admission by the FBI and CIA. With abysmal intelligence on the ground in Afghanistan, the U.S. had no other option than extracting information out of Afghan detainees. Finding an offshore location, branding prisoners “enemy combatants,” skirting the U.S. constitution and Geneva Convention and conducting intense interrogations were essential steps—or so the logic went—to prevent another Sept. 11. Camp X-Ray, with its wire cages, became a symbol of the U.S.'s new get-tough policy with terrorists.

      Speaking in Brussels, Belgium, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld hinted that the administration soured on Gitmo, now that the notorious detention facility had become the symbol of global embarrassment. With prisoner abuse scandals at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay dominating the headlines, President George W. Bush said he was “exploring alternatives,” signaling, for the first time, that changes were in the works. When Newsweek broke its story about Koran-abuse at Guantanamo Bay, notoriety pile up, forcing the administration to take corrective action. Recent Pentagon admissions about Koran-abuse together with Newsweek's sensational story about Korans-in-the-toilet pushed the White House to switch gears. Bush and Rumsfeld now leave the door open for closing Gunatanamo Bay, something thought unthinkable a few weeks ago.

      Calling Amnesty International's “gulag” charges ridiculous, Rumsfeld dismissed the idea of widespread abuse. Yet Rumsfeld's abrupt U-turn indicates that Gitmo has become a lightening rod for world condemnation. “Our desire is not to have these people . . . Our goal is to have these prisoners in the hands of the countries of origin, for the most part,” admitting that the U.S. seeks an exit strategy from Camp X-Ray. Together with bad news in Iraq, notoriety from Guantanamo Bay has caused, in part, Bush's approval ratings to plummet in recent weeks. Since Sept. 11, the Pentagon insisted that interrogators gained essential information from which to thwart future terrorist attacks. Most of Gitmo's 540 prisoners were low-level Taliban detainees, unlikely to hold any significant intelligence about future attacks. Yet the White House insisted they collected invaluable intel.

      After hearing about Koran-abuse, former President Jimmy Carter called on the Pentagon to shut down Guantanamo Bay. Carter has been far more critical than former President Bill Clinton, whose Tsunami relief-work with former President George H.W. Bush muted his remarks. Despite mounting casualties in Iraq, Clinton has been unwilling to join the drumbeat, condemning Bush's for pathetic intelligence failures and the current mission that costs billions and claims daily U.S. lives. Carter's past criticism hasn't been taken too seriously since most Americans agreed with Bush that the U.S. reserved every right to military might following Sept. 11. Bush successfully argued that in a post-Sept. 11 world, diplomacy wasn't enough to prevent future terrorist attacks. Most people agreed that toppling the Taliban and going after Osama bin Laden were necessary steps in the war on terror.

      Former special counsel to President Bush and now U.S. Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzalez worked overtime after Sept. 11 to find clever ways to skirt the Geneva Convention and U.S. Constitution, redefining prisoners of war as “enemy combatants.” Not only could Pentagon interrogators take undue liberties with controversial methods but preventing detainees access to legal representation created perpetual incarceration. Guantanamo Bay set the worst possible precedent for U.S. policy, denying prisoners any legitimate rights. It's impossible to know whether prisoners who sung like canaries jumped through interrogators' hoops or gave real actionable intelligence. Instead of showing off the best of U.S. military justice, Guantanamo exposed the worst type of Mafia-like practices. Even serial killers and gangsters get access to attorneys and have their day in court.

      Embarrassed in the court of world opinion, the White House had now choice but to cut its losses and end the ugly notoriety at Gunatanamo Bay. After Sept. 11, the U.S. enjoyed the moral high ground in its pursuit of the savages that perpetrated the worst terrorist act in U.S. history. Whatever righteous case the U.S. had following 9/11, practices at Gitmo exposed the world to the wrong side of U.S. justice. Keeping prisoners in wire cages was bad enough but engaging in controversial interrogations and religious desecration hurt the U.S. image in the eyes of the world. Closing Gitmo and returning prisoners to their native lands would be a positive step in reversing the disastrous publicity now harming the U.S. global image. It's difficult condemning Cuba's Fidel Castro or North Korea's Kim Jong Il for human rights' abuses when the U.S. engages in disgraceful behavior.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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