At Guantanamo Bay (GITMO), the question of where to hold a significant portion of the detainees who are not being brought before military commissions is the subject of an article from yesterday’s issue of the Financial Times. Lawyers representing the detainees have expressed concern about prolonged detentions and have even argued against the legality of the military commission system used to try some of the prisoners. In any event, these lawyers continue to hope that the new wave of military commissions will “help [the U.S.] move towards the goal of closing the detention facilities”.
There is a need for Americans to redirect the debate over GITMO, since an answer that involves merely closing the facility in Cuba does not mean that a similar compound here in the United States would be immune to criticism. Instead, the focus at the heart of the debate over Guantanamo should be on how the U.S. government treats its detainees and how we prosecute the war on terrorism. If America succeeds in this respect, location will prove to be an ancillary concern. Read more here.
