The Gitmo quagmire

The US Justice Department is urging a federal district judge not to delay the military trial of Guantanamo Bay detainee Salem Hamden, scheduled to start on Monday.   This would be the first Military Commission convened in US-controlled territory for over fifty years. However, following last month’s Supreme Court ruling that habeas corpus extends to Guantanamo inmates, District Judge James Robertson is likely to postpone the case to allow more time for the legality of the process to be considered.

Hamdan, who has admitted having been the driver and bodyguard of Osama bin Laden, was in court for a preliminary hearing on July 15. He claims that his jailors in Cuba mistreated him during his six years at the facility, subjecting him to 50 days of sleep deprivation, years of isolation and sexually inappropriate interrogation by a female jailor.  While the military has denied mistreating Hamden, the claims will be an unwelcome development for the Bush Administration, coming days after the release of video footage showing a sobbing sixteen year-old detainee being questioned by Canadian interrogators. 

These recent controversies mean that Guantanamo is likely to feature in the presidential election campaign.  Both Republican and Democratic hopefuls John McCain and Barack Obama have pledged to close the camp, although they have shown significantly different attitudes towards the problem.  Obama hailed last month’s Supreme Court ruling as essential if the US is to re-establish its credibility internationally.  McCain decried the decision as one of the worst in American history. 

For whoever wins in November, the system of detentions will be troublesome to end, since the legal and security status of its inmates is now so awkward. While some of the remaining 270 detainees may be entirely innocent, others such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed pose a genuine threat.   Years of quasi-legal detention and so called 'enhanced interrogation techniques' have substantially reduced the possibility that trials in civilian courts could take place.  Out of embarrassment and fear of releasing genuine terrorists, then, a system similar to that employed in Guantanamo is likely to persist, and inmates such as Hamdan will find themselves stuck in a legal quagmire for many more years to come.