The battle to close Guantanamo Bay

In September 2001, just days after 9/11 George Bush launched the Global War On Terror. In October of that same year, he sent troops to invade Afghanistan, hunt down Bin Laden and go after the Taliban. America started offering cash rewards often enough change lives for anyone who help capture a terrorist. Many people in Afghanistan and Pakistan took advantage of the cash rewards and started turning people in, often times with very little evidence. The US sent those people to secret prisons in Afghanistan, Thailand, Romania, Poland and Lithuania called “Black Sites”. Here they were interrogated and tortured. But after about a month they started looking for a larger prison to consolidate all those prisoners, eventually settling on an American military base in Cuba. In January 2002 the first detainees began to arrive at Guantanamo Bay. Hundreds of prisoners were held at Guantanamo Bay, some were tortured, few were charged with a crime and none of them received a fair trial.

There are a few different kinds of people that were held at this military prison. The first are hardened terrorists, like Ali Al-Bahlul who was Osama Bin Laden’s personal secretary. The second are are petty criminals like drug dealers, not exactly terrorists but not good people either. The 3rd are people more involved in Al-Qaeda or the Taliban. The last are people picked up and should never have ended up there at all. Like a group of Uigher Men, members of a mainly muslim ethnic group trying to flee prosecution in China. These are people who found there way into Al-Qaeda camps, the US didn't know what to do with them so they ended up at Guantanamo Bay. In fact many of the detainees here ended up at Guantanamo despite very little evidence, by 2003 there were almost 700 detainees here and very few of them were actually charged with any crimes.

The Bush Administration chose Guantanamo Bay because of its location, it was under US control but wasn’t technically inside the US. So they claimed US law did not apply here. If they put them in a US prison they would have to either charge them and put them on trial or release them, in their minds it would give these prisoners a way to get out and they didn’t quite trust the American justice system. They also claimed international law doesn't apply here, even though over a hundred countries including the US signed The Geneva Conventions, a special set of laws protecting prisoners of war. For those laws to apply, the US would have to define these detainees as “Prisoners Of War”, and they would have to be released as soon as the conflict ends. So instead of charging them as criminals or calling them prisoners of war, the US came up with a new term “Unlawful Enemy Combatants”, the US claimed they could hold them without charges indefinitely and the detainees couldn’t challenge it in court. But the US could prosecute them, in a new court system run entirely by the military. This type of court was designed to be complex with rules that benefited the US. For example, the US could present evidence without showing it to the detainees first, this made Guantanamo Bay a legal black hole.

Than world leaders, allied governments and American politicians began to push for the closure of Guantanamo Bay. Plus Bush was recognizing that the prison was actually hurting The War On Terror. It became clear that they would have to eventually let some of these detainees out, and Bush began examining every case and set up a transfer process. The process was simple, move them back to Afghanistan no questions asked. Over a 5 year period the Bush Administration transferred 532 detainees and convicted just 3 through the military court. That left 242 left at Guantanamo Bay when Bush left office, with hope that the prison would hopefully close. On his 2nd day in office, Barack Obama signed an executive order to close the prison within 1 year. The Obama Administration split the detainees into 3 groups. The first was about half the prisoners, they would be moved either back to there home country or if there home country was too dangerous or too unstable the US would make a deal with other countries to take them or they would be released to America. The 2nd group would be tried in a US Federal Court, among them are 5 men who helped plot the 9/11 attacks. But that still left a 3rd group, the US was unsure what to do with the detainees in this particular group. The official plan for this 3rd group was to move them to a supermax prison in Illinois, than Guantanamo Bay can finally close down. This was the plan to close Guantanamo Bay, it has risks but keeping the prison open has risks too.

But than in spring 2009 Republican politicians stepped in, in congress they fiercely opposed every aspect of the plan. Transferring them, moving them to supermax, and even putting them on trial here in the US. What was unreasonable about this is these are the same republicans that asked no questions about closing the prison when Bush was in office. The Obama Administration gave up at the first sign that it would take a lot of political capital to get this to happen. The only 2 options detainees had at this point got much harder, the military courts were extremely slow and ineffective. By 2016, 3 convictions were overturned. Transfers became more complicated, many of the detainees were from Yemen but couldn't go back after conflict broke out there in 2011. So the US had to ask other countries to take them, but that is easier said than done. Especially if the US is showing that they aren't willing to take them themselves. Only approximately 17 men who weren't allowed to be released to the US had their transfers approved. Over the period of 8 years 187 detainees were moved out of Guantanamo, and 5 were convicted through the military courts. 4 more died inside the prison 3 were reported to be suicide, that left 41 detainees when Obama left office.

Donald Trump was next to take office, but unlike his 2 predecessors he wanted the prison to remain open. During the 4 years he was in office his administration only transferred out 1 detainee. When 2021 rolled along Trump left office, Joe Biden is now in office with no plans publicly announced as of this article for what will happen with Guantanamo Bay. All we know is as of when this was written, 5 detainees have been approved for transfer. If Guantanamo Bay is to close the last remaining detainees have to be transferred out, and military courts need to conclude trials for the 10 currently stuck in the system. Among those 10 are 5 alleged 9/11 plotters who have been on trial for a decade now.

Guantanamo Bay was created during the Bush Administration, since than the battle to close the prison was ongoing. No new detainees entered in since Bush left office, hundreds were moved out of the prison, no one knows what the current fate of this military prison is. But if its for the prison to close, the last of the detainees will need to leave for that to happen.