“Indefinite Detention” No Longer An Option At Gitmo?

IT’S ALL GOING WRONG for Bush & Co. these days. Last week the prosecutions’ cases against the first two Guantanamo detainees fell apart due to the language used in the Military Commissions Act. As if this wasn’t embarrasing enough for the current US administration, a court in Richmond, Virginia last night ruled that President Bush cannot order the military to indefinitely imprison a suspected al-Qaeda operative as an “enemy combatant“.

Given that all the 380 odd remaining detainees at Gitmo are currently classed as “enemy combatants” this poses a bit of a problem for ol’ Dubya and his cronies.

As enlightened as this ruling sounds, it’s not all clear sailing however. The powers that be could simply just decide to transfer the prisoners from Gitmo to somewhere in the mainland USA and then process them from there. At that point the government could still transfer detainees to civilian authorities to face criminal charges, initiate deportation proceedings, hold them as witnesses in a grand jury case or detain them for a limited period under the Patriot Act – so basically there are still options, however perverted, to the legal beagles in Bush & Co. should they wish to take them… but it’s still a huge embarrasment on the part of the administration in failing actually bring a single successful case against any detainee thus far. And it just goes from bad to worse…

Hell, even Colin Powell is calling for the immediate closure of Gitmo. He also called for the abolition of the military tribunal system, saying terror suspects should face trial under existing US federal laws – so even the old gaurd are starting to change their mind about this purgatory in paradise.

Even so, the US Justice Department is urging the courts to reconsider their decision and you can bet all the movers and shakers are working the same schtick in the background with all their legal contacts… but slowly and surely Bush still seems to be loosing their grip. Finally. Hopefully.

Meanwhile the detainees – some of whom may well be guilty of their alleged crimes but under the current so-called justice system we will never know - continue to sweat it out, continue to be endlessly interrogated and of course continue to non-exist as far as the rest of the world is concerned. And as for the American troops on guard duty there, well they have their own problems. According to this Gaurdian Unlimited article the U.S. military is currently probing how guards failed to prevent the death of a Guantanamo Bay detainee last month, an apparent suicide in one of the most closely monitored detention camps for suspected al-Qaida and Taliban members.

And let’s not forget the input this week from one of the original prosecutors at the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal. To quote prosecutor Henry King Jr: “The US war crimes tribunals at Guantanamo have betrayed the principles of fairness that made the Nazi war crimes trials at Nuremberg a judicial landmark… I think Robert Jackson, who’s the architect of Nuremberg, would turn over in his grave if he knew what was going on at Guantanamo“.

So then – are Bush & Co. loosing their touch? Is the rest of America finally waking up to the disaster that is Bush & Co.? The rest of the world certainly has, but is America catching on to that reality yet? Hmmmm.

Maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel. Just maybe.

I guess we will have to wait and see.