1:00 PM PDT, October 29, 2009
Virtually the first order of business for Barack Obama after his
inauguration was a series of executive
orders
aimed at closing the detention center at Guantanamo Bay within a year
and providing for a fair disposition of charges against the remaining
detainees there. His break with Bush administration policies garnered
extravagant -- and premature -- praise. Thanks to presidential
procrastination and congressional resistance, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder
Jr. recently said that the Jan. 22
deadline "will be difficult to meet."
We firmly hope he's wrong, and several developments in the last few
days suggest that he may be. Most important is a shift of opinion in
Congress. In May, the Senate voted 90 to 6 to block the transfer of
detainees to the United States and denied the administration $81
million it had requested to close Guantanamo. Last week, however, the
Senate approved and sent to Obama a budget measure that allows the
government to continue transferring detainees here as long as it
develops new guidelines and provides 15 days' notice before a prisoner
is moved.
That legislation will make it easier to close the now infamous
detention center, where the population has dwindled from nearly 800 to
220, 75 of whom have been cleared for release. But it won't resolve the
question of whether the remaining detainees will be tried in federal
court, as they ought to be, or before military
commissions.
Nor does it clarify what Obama plans to do with detainees he says
"cannot be prosecuted yet who pose a clear danger to the American
people." As we have said before, indefinite
detention is repugnant to the U.S. legal tradition and should be a
last resort.
George W. Bush discovered that when Congress and the executive
branch give short shrift to the rights of detainees, the courts will
intervene. Last week, the Supreme Court agreed
to decide
whether a judge had the authority to order the release in the U.S. of
14 Uighurs, Chinese Muslims who were wrongly held at Guantanamo and who
fear persecution if they are sent home. The Obama administration
opposes giving courts authority over what it sees as immigration
decisions. So why not render the case moot by treating the Uighurs as
political refugees?
The legal axiom that "justice delayed is justice denied" applies
with special force to Guantanamo. Whether they are dangerous terrorists
or, like many of those already released, bystanders caught up in a
post- 9/11 dragnet, these detainees have languished for years without
adequate due process. Obama should abide by his deadline for closing
Guantanamo and bring the same urgency to guaranteeing that the
relocated detainees have their day in court.