Obama’s failure to close Guantanamo is complete

all credits: Cageprisoners
published: 05 April 2011

The announcement on 4 April 2011 by US Attorney General Eric Holder that the alleged 9/11 conspirators will face trial by military commissions at Guantanamo Bay hails the complete failure by the Obama administration to fulfil its promise to close the notorious prison camp.

Cageprisoners believe that by reverting to much discredited military commissions the US government will completely undermine any legitimate prosecution case that they may have had against the men. Further, no trial under military commission will be considered to have provided due process and will result in the cases being used to exemplify how the US system of justice is inadequate.

Holder refused to rule out the use of the death penalty in the case of the men who will face the military commission. Such a move would only be used as collateral by those who seek to highlight the hypocrisies in the US justice system.

Director of Cageprisoners and former Guantanamo Bay detainee, Moazzam Begg, said of the news,

“Of the 779 men once held in Guantanamo as ‘the worst of the worst ‘only six them been successfully prosecuted there. These men included a cook, a driver, a video-maker and a child. This statistic in itself would render Guantanamo an object of ridicule – if the matter was not so deadly serious. Prosecuting these five men, the ‘9/11 conspirators, through the military commissions will appear to many as an attempt to legitimise the illegitimate. The fact is that some of these men were waterboarded and had their children abused in front of them. How does one avoid such information from challenging the whole process in open court? Trial by military commission.”

Posted by Alison Leslie on 12/04/2011. Filed under Human Rights,Questionable Convictions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry