The Economist: Just Close Guantanamo

[Nye Bevan]

The prison is a deeply un-American disgrace. It needs to be closed rapidly

THE authorities at Guantánamo Bay say that prisoners have a choice. They can eat or, if they refuse to, they will have a greased tube stuffed up their noses, down their throats and into their stomachs, through which they will be fed. This can cause gagging and bleeding in a compliant patient, and is a lot nastier when done against his will. It takes up to two hours, during which time an unco-operative prisoner must be restrained to stop him pulling out the tube. Lawyers for the 23 or so men who are being subjected to this treatment report that it is deliberately being done roughly, with unsterilised tubes that are too large: those claims are denied. But even if they are false, the business clearly violates an individual’s rights; according to the president of the American Medical Association, it also breaches the “core ethical values of the medical profession”.

Roughly 100 of the 166 detainees still in Guantánamo are now on hunger strike, and extra doctors were brought in this week to help with what the administration refuses to call force-feeding (see article). No matter what they have done, this is wrong. This newspaper has condemned Guantánamo as unjust, unwise and un-American for a decade. The spectre of prisoners denied either a fair trial or the possibility of release is Orwellian. Nothing has done more to sully America’s image in the modern world. They should be tried or set free, just as terrorist suspects are in every other civilised country.

....

Most of the blame lies with Congress—with politicians from both parties. Mr Obama’s original plan to close the camp was scuppered by the Senate in 2009 when it voted, by 90 to six, not to let him use federal money to transfer the remaining prisoners in Guantánamo to a prison in Illinois for trial in a civilian court. Votes seldom get more bipartisan than that. In subsequent legislation Congress made it virtually impossible for detainees to be sent anywhere at all.

....

America is in a hole. The last response of the blowhards and cowards who have put it there is always: “So what would you do: set them free?” Our answer remains, yes. There is clearly a risk that some of them would then commit some act of violence—in Yemen, elsewhere in the Middle East or even in America itself. That risk can be lessened by surveillance. But even if another outrage were to happen, the evil of “Gitmo” has recruited far more people to terrorism than a mere 166. Mr Obama should think about America’s founding principles, take out his pen and end this stain on its history.

http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21577065-prison-deeply-un-american-disgrace-it-needs-be-closed-rapidly-enough-make-you-gag

[malaise]

1. +1,000

Rec

[spanone]

2. k&r..

[Newest Reality]

3. !!!!!!!!!!!

Is there something other than the prisoners that they don't want to let out?

Regardless, this is an ominous specter hovering at the fringe of our collective and the moans bespeak of dystopia and the Fascist nightmares of Corporate Sirens howling out dark prophecies.

[Laelth]

4. Hear, hear! k&r n/t

-Laelth

[WillyT]

5. HUGE K & R !!!

[longship]

6. Mind you, this is "The Economist" not the NYTimes.

They often take free market positions in their editorial content -- decidedly conservative. However, I have read a few copies of it and from what I've seen its news coverage is sometimes pretty good.

[eridani]

7. Guantanamo camp burns through $900,000 a year per inmate

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/04/us-usa-guantanamo-costs-idUSBRE94211N20130504

It's been dubbed the most expensive prison on Earth and President Barack Obama cited the cost this week as one of many reasons to shut down the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, which burns through some $900,000 per prisoner annually.

The Pentagon estimates it spends about $150 million each year to operate the prison and military court system at the U.S. Naval Base in Cuba, which was set up 11 years ago to house foreign terrorism suspects. With 166 inmates currently in custody, that amounts to an annual cost of $903,614 per prisoner.

By comparison, super-maximum security prisons in the United States spend about $60,000 to $70,000 at most to house their inmates, analysts say. And the average cost across all federal prisons is about $30,000, they say.

The high cost was just one reason Obama cited when he returned this week to an unfulfilled promise to close the prison and said he would try again. Obama also said that the prison, set up under his Republican predecessor George W. Bush and long the target of criticism by rights groups and foreign governments, is a stain on the reputation of the United States.

[idwiyo]

8. K&R here is an idea: if Obama doesn't have money to close Gitmo, how about he asks for donations?

Last edited Sat May 4, 2013, 05:55 PM - Edit history (1)

I will donate to close that abomination.

[Nye Bevan]

9. kick