Guantánamo Bay: an excellent distraction

The justifiable joy at Obama's pledge to close Guantánamo must be tempered with the knowledge that its detainees represent less than one percent of prisoners still held by the US beyond the rule of law.

In mid-2007 my mother sent me a ‘George Bush Countdown Calendar’. I have been tearing off the leaves, each with its quote from George W. That happy occasion, the final page, comes on January 20, 2009.

Happy for most in Guantánamo Bay, that is. The people remaining there find themselves in three groups – some 40 who will be taken to the US for a trial (somewhat fairer, at least, than the current military commissions); 160 will simply go home (at last); and a final 60 refugees, many long since cleared for release, must hope that President Barack Obama spends some of his political capital to find them an asylum state.

Yet the justifiable joy at Obama’s ascendancy must be tempered with the knowledge that Guantánamo always has been a diversionary tactic in the ‘War on Terror.’ The 250 men there represent fewer than one percent of the 27,000 prisoners being held by the US beyond the rule of law. There is a reason why most people have never heard of the plight of these unfortunates – they are ghost prisoners in secret prisons.

Obama has yet to speak of the missing 99.1 percent. It is not clear how much he even knows about them. With America at war in two countries, new captives are being taken every day. They aren’t coming to Cuba, so where are they being held?

Many are in Iraq and Afghanistan, but a smattering end up in US detention in Bosnia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kosovo, and in twenty-first century ‘prison hulks’ off Diego Garcia and Somalia. The most miserable are held in proxy prisons in Egypt, Jordan and Morocco.

There is plenty of commitment to continue this project. Obama will keep Bush’s Secretary of Defense and perhaps even his CIA Director in place. And modern renditions are not a solely Republican phenomenon, as they began with Ronald Reagan, but continued with Bill Clinton.

As the economy takes up every front page, we must continue to work to ensure that these prisoners are not wholly forgotten.

This article also appeared in the Guardian newspaper.