By Kenneth J. Theisen
On January 22, 2009 President Obama issued an executive order, directing that the hellhole prison run by the U.S. military at Guantanamo, Cuba should be "closed as soon as practicable, and no later than one year from the date of this order". He claimed that the U.S. needed to regain the "moral high ground" that it had lost under the Bush regime. (In the interest of brevity, I will refrain from getting into the fact that the U.S. has never held the “moral high ground”.)
This order boosted Obama’s standing with millions throughout the world. But now we know the order was merely a public relations gesture meant to placate the world-wide outrage at the abuses and torture conducted by the U.S. at Gitmo.
On Wednesday, November 18th Obama admitted in a Fox News interview that his administration would not shut the prison down as indicated on January 22nd. He refused to set another deadline while claiming, "We are on a path and a process where I would anticipate that Guantanamo will be closed next year.”
There are currently about 215 prisoners still being held at Gitmo. Many of them, like hundreds of other prisoners held there over the last several years, are completely innocent of any crimes. Yet they are still imprisoned. Those incarcerated there have included children.
Last week the administration said it would move some of the prisoners from Guantanamo Bay to New York to be tried. But this will only be a small percentage of those incarcerated at Gitmo. And those to be tried will not receive any more justice than they received at Gitmo.
It is evident that these prisoners will not get fair trials. Obama has prejudged them as guilty as indicated by a recent statement he made to CNN. He said: “I think this notion that somehow we have to be fearful, that these terrorists possess some special powers that prevent us from presenting evidence against them, locking them up and exacting swift justice, I think that has been a fundamental mistake".
Attorney General (AG) Eric Holder expressed similar views to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday when he said he would not "cower in the face of this enemy…At the end of the day, it was clear to me that the venue in which we are most likely to obtain justice for the American people is in federal court. By bringing prosecutions in both our courts and military commissions, by seeking the death penalty, by holding these terrorists responsible for their actions, we are finally taking ultimate steps towards justice." Why bother with the show trials or judicial murders, why not just lynch the defendants? Many have already confessed under torture.
Despite the repeated use of the word “justice” by the president and the AG, the U.S. imperialists in their war of terror have never practiced justice, nor will they now under the Obama administration. Shortly after Obama issued his executive order regarding Gitmo, his administration requested Congress to give it more money to expand a similar hellhole prison at Bagram, Afghanistan. Congress gave it to him.
Bagram is a place where torture and death are delivered on behalf of the U.S. imperialists on a greater scale than even at Gitmo. Even though Bagram is in Afghanistan it holds prisoners of the U.S war of terror captured around the world by U.S. forces and its allies. The prison, just like Gitmo, is enclosed within a U.S. military base. Just like the Bush regime did at Gitmo, Obama’s Department of Justice has gone to court to deny Bagram prisoners the rights of due process, including the right of habeas corpus to have their cases heard in U.S. courts.
Gitmo and Bagram are just two of the many hellhole prisons run by the U.S. as part of its war of terror. Tens of thousands, including women and children, have been held in these U.S.-run prisons. Torture, rape, death and other abuses has been the sort of justice that prisoners have received at the hand of U.S. authorities.
Closing Gitmo or holding a few show trials does not mitigate the crimes of U.S. imperialism. We can not allow the Obama administration to lull us into believing that a few cosmetic changes have changed the nature of American justice in the war of terror. Thousands are still held in prisons around the world. Until they are released and those U.S. officials who are responsible for the crimes that occurred in these hellholes are prosecuted, there will be no justice.