Closing Guantanamo

In an attempt to distance his own administration from the policies of its predecessor's, Obama's statement of intent, made just days after being sworn in as president, set the closure date for Guantanamo for January next year. But with less than two months to go before the end of 2009, the president is struggling to find homes for those detainees cleared of charges and is facing growing unrest over how and where suspects should be tried for their crimes.

The decision taken last week to try five alleged plotters of the 9/11 attacks in a New York civilian court has only added to Obama's problems, with prominent Republicans seizing the chance to heap further criticism on the administration's approach.

Obama's opponents are enraged that the 9/11 suspects, including alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, will be tried in a city still wounded by the attacks on the World Trade Center eight years ago, in a federal court where they would have the same constitutional rights as US citizens.

Many believe that the suspects should be tried by military tribunal as war criminals, an argument Obama's political foes support for all Guantanamo suspects awaiting trial. This process is seen as the safer, tougher option by many Republicans as well as many relatives of the victims of the 9/11 attacks.

Civil court decision helps unravel complicated legal knot

But Anthony Dworkin, a senior US foreign policy and international justice expert at the European Council on Foreign Affairs, believes that the decision to try the 9/11 suspects in New York shows that the Obama administration has taken a step to solve this jurisdictional conundrum of who is tried in which prosecution forum.

"The Obama administration has put in place a real change in policy here," Dworkin told Deutsche Welle. "They have announced that, when possible, they will attempt to try people in US Article 3 courts, which are not your usual criminal courts. But this is only going to apply to some of these people, like the 9/11 suspects. They have created a clear procedure for who will get sent to trial where."

"The military commissions will deal with those detainees who were captured on so-called conventional arenas of war, such as actual physical battlefields, whereas more conspiratorial and terrorist acts against civilian targets in the US will be prosecuted in the federal courts."

"There is a long history of prosecuting people for terrorist acts within the criminal justice system in the US, such as the perpetrators of the first attack on the World Trade Center who were also tried in New York," Dworkin added. "I think it's a very welcome development that they are going to try these people before the system which has the greatest credibility and legitimacy for prosecution of criminal suspects."

Housing detainees in US jails adds to pressure on Obama

As well as pressure over how to try the suspects, the Obama administration is also struggling over how and where to intern prisoners once Guantanamo closes, and where to house those who have been cleared of charges.

The White House has recently made public a proposed plan to use US jails in Illinois, Michigan or Colorado to hold former Guantanamo inmates in a bid to solve the pressing problem that closing the camp is creating. But again, Republican critics have jumped on this plan as another example of the Obama administration's desperation.

The US Congress has up to now blocked the White House from resettling any detainees in the United States; a move that US and some European officials feared would lead other countries, particularly in the EU, to refuse to help close the military prison. But the Obama administration remains confident that its plan for a limited number of detainees at a single location in the US will persuade detractors to accept a compromise.

The other remaining problem is dealing with those detainees which are no longer seen as a threat. In August, a report claimed that Britain, France, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain had accepted or publicly agreed to take detainees who had been cleared of charge. In addition, four EU countries allegedly told the US administration that they were committed to resettling detainees, and five other EU nations were considering taking some.

The report, published by the Washington Post and quoting anonymous senior government officials, also said that the Obama administration had held positive talks with Australia and Georgia, and it had formally approached or was planning to hold talks with countries in South America, the Persian Gulf, the Balkans and the former Soviet Union.

Allies' reluctance applies brakes to closure plan

Dr. Henning Riecke, director of the Transatlantic Relations Program at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), believes that while having allies on board to help out with housing detainees is not an essential part of the solution to closing the prison on time, the process has been hindered by the reluctance of some.

"I don't think the Europeans offering solutions and homes for detainees is a necessary part of Obama's plan to close down the camp," Riecke told Deutsche Welle. "You must be able to close down Guanatanmo even if you don't have European allies willing to help out. On the other hand, the Europeans have been very vocal about closing down Guantanamo and I find it a little disappointing that they haven't been more helpful in finding solutions for the detainees."

Despite the continuing problems, pressure and mounting criticism, experts believe that the US administration is still on course to close the Guantanamo Bay camp, even if it takes longer than originally planned.

Experts believe camp closure is unavoidable

"There is an emerging consensus in the US that they're not going to hit the closure deadline," Anthony Dworkin said. "But if we look at the different developments we're seeing at the moment, I think they do represent a big step forward toward closing the camp. Of course there are still a number of problems but we now see a path forward and it is now possible to imagine Guantanamo being closed, if not by January then in a matter of months."

"I don't think that the prison will be closed in time," said Henning Riecke."There have been discussions and debates which have been going for longer than originally planned."

"When it comes to sending suspects to a civilian court, that has to be a decision made at a highly political level, and whether prisoners should be detained in the US is also a political question so you can't just click your fingers and have a solution. These things have taken time. But Guantanamo will be closed and it will be closed in the foreseeable future but it might take longer than Obama originally thought," he said.

Author: Nick Amies
Editor: Rob Mudge