May 1, 2013 at 2:26 P.M. Please direct all hostilities to me, not to anyone close to me. My views are mine alone.
Frances Robles, "Cuba: U.S. Bars Raul Castro's Daughter From a Forum," in The New York Times, April 26, 2013, at p. A7. (After Cuba's cooperation on the recent custody matters, U.S. refuses permission to MARIELA CASTRO to attend a conference on gay rights. This U.S. decision seems petty, pointless, stupid and unlikely to encourage future cooperation that may be needed.)
"The Guantanamo Stain: While President George W. Bush celebrates his library, inmates expand a hunger strike," (Editorial) in The New York Times, April 26, 2013, at p. A30. (The words "library" and "George W. Bush" are not easily associated in my mind.)
Charlie Savage, "Despair Drives U.S. Detainees to Stage Revolt," in The New York Times, April 25, 2013, at p. A1. (93 prisoners are participating in a hunger strike observed and supported by persons from all over the world.)
Mathew Rosenberg, "Afghan Leader Confirms Cash Deliveries by C.I.A.," in The New York Times, April 30, 2013, at p. A8. (2,188 casualties in Afghanistan. What happens when the C.I.A. cash runs out? How will Mr. Karzai hold on to power? Will the Taliban regain power when the U.S. money is gone?)
The Guantanamo prison -- also possibly the continuing and very visible cybercrimes at these sites and many others rather than the Presidential Library in Texas -- may be George W. Bush's greatest (or only) legacy.
Mr. Bush still appears blissfully unaware of the devastation caused by his policies after 9/11. The former president has described himself as a man who rarely second-guesses his decisions and judgments. I believe him.
"[Guantanamo] became the embodiment of his dangerous expansion of executive power and the lawless detentions, secret prisons and torture that went along with them. It is now also a reminder of Mr. Obama's failure [emphasis added] to close the prison as he promised when he took office, and of the malicious interference by Congress in any effort to justly try and punish the Guantanamo inmates."
166 men -- most have never been accused of a crime much less convicted of any offense -- have been tortured, some severely tortured. A few inmates have died, probably after beatings and tortures as murder victims.
This facility symbolizes the American violation of human rights, torture, hubris, hypocrisy on international law issues as well as ethics matters.
Worse, Guantanamo means American hostility to Islam for billions of people who will hold this post-9/11 phase of political history against the United States. Global consensus on terrorism is not agreement with torture and detention without due process of law.
Guantanamo is a "legal black hole," a denial that the rule of law and due process should be applied to every person. Those of us placed in comparable legal situations appreciate the frustrations and absurdities encountered by counsel for Guantanamo "detainees" or "inmates." There is no right to appeal what we know is happening, but pretend is not happening.
America has chosen to step through the looking-glass into a nether region of Kafkaesque juridical quicksand and never-ending interrogations, or behind-the-back destruction efforts of "collateral victims," innocent and good persons must be injured to accomplish nothing beneficial that I can see.
Guantanamo is the contradiction, also, of everything that America should represent in the world. Accordingly, the continuing silence from the nation's legal profession and judiciary is shameful and makes legal professionals complicit in this atrocity.
Guantanamo raises the most important and genuine legal ethics question faced by America's system: Are slavery and torture -- the hurting of innocents -- a legitimate "means" to our "ends"? Will this not generate a response in kind from others? I suspect so.
I was happy to learn that President Obama will renew his efforts to close the facility in Cuba. Let us hope that President Obama will be successful in ending all such festering sores in America's body politic. No justice, no peace.
Ironically, more than half of those still being held have been cleared for release, but are confined because the Pentagon refuses (for undisclosed reasons) to provide the necessary releases. Many of the detainees are in the Catch-22 situation explained in the Times editorial:
" ... Nearly 50 detainees are deemed too dangerous for escape [or release?] but not suitable for trial because they are not linked to any specific attack" -- they haven't done anything criminal! -- "or because the evidence against them [of what?] is tainted by torture."
Guantanamo is America's first political prison and concentration camp which exists illegally. Our society has reached the level of the Gulag states of the twentieth century that were, rightly, despised and feared by all.
Will America become a subject of fear and despised by others in the world as a result of these failed policies?
We have chosen to ignore world opinion and human rights out of a spirit of revenge or frustration, post-9/11, that is directed against people who had nothing to do with that terrorist attack, but whose plight will inspire (I fear) many more attacks against Americans in the years to come.
Since I, my family members, my city and others I care about are among the victims and likely future victims of reprisals and attacks aimed against America and its core values, I hope that we all will remain committed to fighting political evils at home as well as terrorism abroad in legal and ethical ways.
Do you feel safer or the opposite because of Guantanamo prison?
