The AP reports that President Elect Barack Obama is preparing an order to close the infamous Guantanamo Bay U.S. military facility — a facility that has become a “high concept” symbol of the Bush administration’s use of torture:
Advisers to President-elect Barack Obama say one of his first duties in office will be to order the closing of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay.
That executive order is expected during Obama’s first week on the job — and possibly on his first day, according to two transition team advisers. Both spoke Monday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Obama’s order will direct his administration to figure out what to do with the estimated 250 al-Qaida and Taliban suspects and potential witnesses who are being held at Guantanamo.
To Guatanamo’s defenders, the place has been a necessary not-so-evil. The argument is that in situations where literally millions of lives could be at stake — in the never ending war terrorists have launched on Americans and the counterwar America has launched on terrorists — torture (usually put under a less negative sounding name, just as “used cars” are called “pre-owned cars”) is a critical part of self-defense capability. To Gitmo’s critics, not officially using or encouraging torture was what always set the United States apart from brutal authoritarian regimes and merciless groups that would murder anyone of any sex or any age to increase the terrorists’ all-important body count.
In Obama’s case, this weekend he ran into a bee’s hive of criticism from progressives when he suggested on ABC he might not close Gitmo immediately upon taking office. Some were polite enough: Anthony Romero’s post in The Huffington Post was titled:“Obama: Close Gitmo On Day One — You Can Do It. We’ve Got Your Back.”
This new widely-carried story doesn’t really change that assertion.
This means he will order its closure and then the new administration — if it is indeed responsible, and all signs are that it will be — will have to figure out what to do with the prisoners who are there logistically.
Obama could well come under fire from some on the left if within weeks after coming to power there aren’t signs that Guantanamo is being vacated, but it’s likely most of the general public will accept the fact that once he has issued an order the hard part will come: closing the site down and deciding what to do with those who are there.
And it’s unlikely it’ll be actually closed down very soon.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.