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Just under a fortnight ago, President Obama joked at the annual White House Press Corps dinner that after the success of his first 100 days in office he would complete his next 100 in only 72 day (and rest on the 73rd).
However, Guantanamo Bay threatens to wipe the gleam off the first year of the Obama presidency.
The issue that led to so many problems for the Bush administration is now a problem for Obama. The system of military tribunals as well as the entire detention operation at Guantanamo has reared its ugly head again. Bush robustly defended Guantanamo; President Obama has gone out of his way to robustly criticise it.
The signs of a possible retreat from idealism to pragmatism in Obama’s policies came with his decision to perform a u-turn on the policy to release information on the abuse of prisoners in US custody, including pictures. While this may have annoyed civil liberties campaigners, it’s easy to see the pragmatism of Obama’s move.
Would it really help the situation in Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere across the Middle East if previously unseen torture pictures were released? His decision to have the US government argue against the release in the Supreme Court is understandable even if slightly embarrassing politically.
He also decided not to pursue action against those US spies who used torture techniques such as waterboarding against detainees. This is a pragmatic decision; it wouldn’t change the fact that such things happened or that those techniques were endorsed by a past administration. His recent decisions on Guantanamo, coupled with the US Congress and elements of the US media, are going to cause him a bigger headache.
One of the main controversies surrounding Guantanamo has been the use of military tribunals to try those detained there. During the Bush presidency, there was a whole host of arguments about whether the detainees were prisoners of war under international law or terrorists under US law. At the heart of this is whether the detainees are allowed to claim rights under the US Constitution. If so, the military tribunals are illegal. So the decision to restart military tribunals by Obama after he suspended them in his first month in office has angered many liberals and civil rights groups in America.
They’re already on dubious legal grounds and it goes against what Obama seemed to promise when he entered office. In his presidential campaign, Obama said that Guantanamo was a “sad chapter in American history”.
In his first month of office he signed an executive order closing the detainee camp down. Although promises were made to ban the use of evidence gained by torture and hearsay, these assurances haven’t eased any uneasiness over the new administration’s seeming endorsement of the Bush era’s national security strategy.
Another problem has occurred involving Guantanamo. Although he decided to continue trying detainees by military tribunals, President Obama is still going ahead with his plan to close Guantanamo. This would involve moving those detainees still viewed as a threat to the US to the mainland and putting them in federal high-security prisons. In the US Congress, which has elections later this year for the entire House of Representatives and a third of the Senate, the idea of bringing terrorists to mainland America is incredibly unpopular.
Even though the Congress is controlled by the President's party at the moment, the US Senate voted overwhelmingly 90-6 to not provide funding for the closure, echoing a move by the House of Representatives earlier. Most Senators and Representatives may agree in principle with the closure of Guantanamo, but in an election year it appears they’re not willing to actually provide the means to do so.
Obama’s plans were criticised by some sections of the American media, as can be expected. Fox News used a recent terrorist trial in which three terrorists had conspired to carry out an attack whilst in a federal prison to ask why terrorist detainees transferred from Guantanamo wouldn’t do the same.
Although US satirist Jon Stewart rightly pointed out that the argument that prisoners might conspire with each other in prison which would lead to the closure of every prison in America, such a powerful news organisation being so set against the idea was bound to play on the minds of many Senators and Congressmen in marginal seats. Although Obama’s first 100 days were a huge success, the issue of Guantanamo Bay is likely to be one that doesn’t go away. The thorn in the side of the Bush administration appears to have lasted into Obama’s and won’t go away as simply as he and the White House hoped it would.
How the issue will play out is uncertain but it will probably rumble on for some time yet. One thing is for sure though - Obama will not be resting on the 73rd day.
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