Comments on: Close Guantanamo? Wait Just a Minute.

By: Lunarts

Lunarts — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 18:20:57 +0000

well, fly them to the US then. No charge is no conviction. They could be right people willing to start a new life on Us soil. Enemies (if any) can become friends (if any).

By: Julie

Julie — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 05:57:06 +0000

Adam-

Thanks for your thoughtful comment. The fact of the matter is that any American plans to close Guantanamo will not (no matter how much you or any of wish differently) just suddenly result in the release of the men who continue to be held there (except, perhaps, for the men who have been deemed ready for release by the JTF’s administrative review board, but there remains the issue of finding a country that will take them back, which has been the issue since they were cleared for release.). With that in mind, you have to understand that closing Guantanamo remains a symbolic gesture– unless it’s coupled with some solid, serious, and effective plans to determine the status and the future of the men being held there.

By: Adam Holwerda

Adam Holwerda — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 09:20:16 +0000

I don’t comment on things I stumble very often. However, this one struck me as kind of odd – not odd in a “what a strange viewpoint,” but in more of an ethically philosophical way. I don’t know if I can offer a valid refutation, but I’m going to try. Say, for instance, you get arrested here in America, and the police don’t tell you why. They send you to Germany, a place where you don’t know anyone, don’t know the language, and can’t really fend for yourself in that society. You’re also being held against your will for a crime you haven’t been tried for, and you are possibly tortured while being incarcerated. Maybe you find out while you’re in jail that America says you can’t come back. No one else wants you. And somebody finally steps up and tells you he has the choice to let you go or keep you wrongly detained.

He looks at you, listens to your sad story, and says, “You know? You don’t have anywhere to go. It’s for your own good to stay in here…because we don’t have a plan for what to do with you when you get out.”

This can’t be your justification. Surely it’s more wrong to continue to hold an innocent prisoner against his will than it is to free him, regardless of what he does outside.

I agree, yes. They probably won’t have the best opportunities. But you and I probably also agree that if we were in the same position we would want freedom.

These are lives. Lives the government has already ruined. They should be given back, yesterday. Not put in a box for “safe-keeping,” as it were.

By: bowloftoast

bowloftoast — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 09:14:08 +0000

There is something significant being missed in all this banter. Gitmo is one of dozens of incarceration centres of this kind peppered around the planet. Closing this prison is, sadly, a political move because of the significant attention it has received due to its proximity to the US. Closing this prison may appease folks in the shallow short term, but the idea that these prisoners – many abducted based on the same sort of intelligence that claimed weapons of mass destruction – will ever see the light of day again, is naive. The closure will take place. The prisoners will be shifted to another black hole that’s outside media scrutiny, and the human rights abuses in defiance of US federal law will continue unchecked as they have for decades.

By: Alina M. Lopez Marin

Alina M. Lopez Marin — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 21:27:18 +0000

Yet another country willing to take some prisoners: Germany

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/822795.html

By: Alina

Alina — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 17:59:19 +0000

See article below:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7781019.stm
There is an effort by Portugal to provide asylum to some of the prisorners.

By: Alina

Alina — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 01:34:03 +0000

Julie, I found this article that may be of interest to you.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation/story/774678.html

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 22:13:35 +0000

Great article, Julie. Very thought provoking. Using the scenario you outlined it would indeed be very difficult to close Guantanamo. No one has considered the “human” factor.

There is much more to this than the War on Terror, and the dark totem that Guantanamo has become.

By: Lola

Lola — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 17:46:15 +0000

Solid work as always. Stumbled!

By: Alina M. Lopez Marin

Alina M. Lopez Marin — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 04:05:49 +0000

Julie, I welcomed Sean Penns article and I am no longer tolerant of anyone who is not interested in a dialogue. There was also an article in the Miami Herald regarding Cubans who delivered signatures this year to the government demanding equal access to dollars, complaining about the dual economy in Cuba. Apparently 10,000 signatures were delivered last year and there are now more than 20,000 signatures. Clearly, if people are willing to sign their name and complain to the government there seems to be a big change taking place in Cuba and I believe that the US should take advantage of this opening and willingness of Raul to establish
a dialogue. I am hoping that Obama will spearhead some kind of rapprochement. I do not have much faith however on Hillary Clinton to engage in any kind of meaningful diplomacy.
Best wishes,