Just two days after taking office in 2009, President Barack Obama ordered the shutdown of Guantanamo. The detention compound at the U.S. naval base on the southern coast of Cuba was built to hold militants captured in the course of the post-9/11 war on terror. But by the time of Obama’s ascent to the White House, Guantanamo had become synonymous with hypocrisy.
America insisted that other nations treat detainees with dignity, and yet secretly tortured and mistreated individuals it had in custody at Guantanamo, relying on the cover of national security to justify its actions. In signing an executive order mandating Gitmo’s shutdown, Obama said the U.S. would continue fighting terrorism “in a manner that is consistent with our values and our ideals.”
Obama was able to shrink the population at Guantanamo from 245 in 2009 to 41 when he left office, but Congress stymied his bid to shut down the compound. When Donald Trump became president in 2016, he not only kept Gitmo open, but pledged to fill its cells with even more detainees. For whatever reason, he never acted on that pledge.
The desire to shut down Guantanamo has been back on the table ever since Joe Biden took over the White House. Like his old boss, Biden at the outset of his presidency promised to permanently shutter the Guantanamo detention facility. More than a year and a half later, there has been little movement toward the compound’s closure.
Inexplicably, there’s still no end in sight for Guantanamo.
Today, 36 inmates remain, at a cost to American taxpayers of $13 million per detainee per year. Overall, Gitmo is estimated to cost $540 million annually, but cost isn’t the only reason why the Biden administration must act decisively to finally shut down the compound.
The United States cannot preach the sanctity of human rights to China, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia or a host of other transgressor nations if it continues to operate one of its most infamous symbols of disregard for fair, humane and just treatment of detainees — regardless of affiliation or alleged offense.
“By allowing Guantanamo to remain open, we are giving our enemies the power to define who America is,” U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said earlier this year. “It’s time to reclaim that power and prove to the world that America is not a nation defined by our darkest moments.”
Among those moments is the treatment Mohammed al-Qahtani received while held at Guantanamo.
Qahtani was brought to Gitmo on suspicion of being the would-be 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11 attacks. During two months of military-led interrogations at Guantanamo, Qahtani allegedly was subjected to sleep deprivation, exposure to military dogs, forced nudity and other harsh techniques, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
Because some of the evidence against Qahtani was obtained through torture, the Obama administration dropped terrorism charges against the Saudi national. The Biden administration repatriated Qahtani back to Saudi Arabia in March after a government panel’s finding that he suffered from schizophrenia and was no longer a security threat.
The movement to shut down Guantanamo has its opponents in Washington, and one of its biggest critics is U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. For Graham, the war on terror justifies keeping Guantanamo open. “I’ve never accepted the false choice of ‘try them or release them,’ ” Graham said earlier this year. “You can hold somebody until they die as an enemy combatant if it’s unsafe to release them — if the war is not over.”
It would be wrong for the U.S. to assume that the era of terrorism is a past chapter of history. But it’s also just as erroneous to think that this nation still needs Guantanamo at a time when its obsolescence is so apparent, and the harm that it inflicts on American standing in the world grows with each passing year.
The path forward is clear. Of the detainees remaining at Guantanamo, those clear for transfer should be repatriated or resettled. To help make that happen, Biden should revive a unit within the State Department that was tasked with the job of resettling Gitmo detainees — a unit that was shut down by Trump.
Five of the detainees are awaiting trial in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks, including the accused mastermind, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. Those men were charged in 2008. Fourteen years is far too long for any case, even one as complex as a 9/11 prosecution, to endure unresolved. Plea negotiations are ongoing that could result in life sentences; the U.S. government must decide whether to go along with the plea agreement or try the men.
During the Trump presidency, the U.S. relinquished its role as the world’s vanguard for human rights protection. The Biden administration is working to repair the damage wrought by Trump’s White House, and revive America’s role in helping safeguard human rights throughout the world.
Integral to that effort is the permanent shutdown of detention at Guantanamo, a living example of what happens when America loses its way.
