ANY hope that transfer of prisoners from the Guantanamo detention center to other countries would resume this month was dashed last week when the US House of Representatives rejected a bill that would have revived a process that came to an abrupt end in January this year. This was the second time the House was turning down proposals to move toward closing the Gitmo. Last month, lawmakers said no to an amendment to the annual defense authorization to close the prison by the end of 2017. Since January 2002, a total of 779 people have been brought through Guantanamo. A large majority were people who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on America. There were boys too. Akhmed Abdul Qadir Hussain, for example, was 18 in early 2002 when he was arrested by the Pakistani police, who gave him to American security forces to be sent to Guantanamo. Most were released without charge after being held for years. President George W. Bush had proclaimed he had the power to indefinitely detain suspected terrorists captured after 9/11 without charge or trial. The detainees are all in solitary confinement. They are shackled when they are taken to the shower. They cannot speak to their families unless they submit to that same repugnant body search. At least seven detainees have died in custody. The death on Sept. 12, 2012 of Adnan Latif, a 32-year-old Yemeni, held without charge since January 2002, showed how severe is the emotional pressure under which the prisoners live. He had spent almost a third of his life at Guantanamo where he repeatedly went on hunger strike and once slashed his wrist and hurled the blood at his lawyer. Like Latif, many had to resort to hunger strike to draw global attention to their plight. At one time, 100 of the 166 inmates refused food and authorities responded by even more inhuman method of force-feeding. When Obama took office, there were 242 detainees. At the beginning of 2014, there were 155. This year 33 were transferred, leaving a prison population of 122. Last week's developments came amid reports that the Obama administration intends to transfer up to 10 detainees to other countries this month. Of the prison's 122 detainees, 57 have been cleared for transfer by the Pentagon. Last week's vote went largely along party lines with Republicans vehemently opposing any move that would relieve or lessen the prisoners' agony. They have been resisting all efforts by the Obama administration to transfer detainees or close the Gitmo, citing various reasons including the recent terrorist attacks in Paris and conjuring up visions of released detainees returning to terrorism. There is nothing surprising about the Republican attitude toward Gitmo detainees. After all, it was a Republican president who signed an order in 2002 authorizing the detention of suspected Al-Qaeda members and supporters at the 45-square-mile American enclave at Guantanamo — a prison kept out of reach of American territory and legal overview. What is surprising or intriguing is President Barack Obama's attitude. True, on his first full day in office in 2009, Obama signed an executive order to close the prison within the year, but somewhere along the way he seems to have lost his nerve. With the result his actions have been indistinguishable from that of his predecessor just as the offshore detention facility is indistinguishable from the camps of the Soviet gulag during the Stalinist era. Obama promised much but delivered more of the same. Worse still, critics say he has actively hindered the closure of the Gitmo. For one thing, it was he who placed a ban on the repatriation of Yemeni prisoners. On his watch, the parole boards that are supposed to review individual cases of detainees remained inoperative for a long period. He also delayed the appointment of a Gitmo envoy at State Department who will hold discussions with other countries to know whether they are willing to accept detainees. With regard to the system of military commissions for prosecuting terrorism suspects and indefinite detentions, Obama's position is no different from that of Bush. “History will cast a harsh judgment on this aspect of our fight against terrorism,” Obama said in one of his speeches referring to Guantanamo. History's judgment will likely be harsher on this president who, taking shelter behind the legislative constraints imposed by Congress, seems to have made the closure of the Gitmo prison even more difficult, if not impossible.
