With the WikiLeaks release of another data bomb of classified U.S. files, this one about Guantanamo, allies and adversaries alike are expressing shock at President Obama’s failure to close the facility. This editorial from Spain’s El Pais expresses dismay at what it regards as his betrayal of all those around the world who supported his election.
The editorial from El Pais says in part:
These reports on over 700 prisoners, many of whom were taken to Guantanamo arbitrarily and in some cases held there for nine years, show a typically totalitarian system of incarceration, based on suspicion, speculation and accusation.
The Guantanamo prison is incompatible with a country that claims to champion the rule of law. It is one of the greatest failures and profound disappointments of Obama’s half-full/half-empty presidency. The retreat of a president who charmed so many of his countrymen and half the world, particularly the Muslim world, when he proclaimed his determination – “I will not be ambiguous about it, we shall close Guantanamo” – seems to lend weight to the idea that in the end, the White House doesn’t find Bush’s creation so abominable. And it adds a dash of irony to Obama’s silence on the unacceptable conditions under which Bradley Manning, the soldier incarcerated for being WikiLeaks’ informant, is being kept.
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