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[Previous entry: "Off for the weekend"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "Quote of the Week"] 29 May 2003: "Guantanamo revisited"
So the latest developments regarding the Camp Delta detention facility at Guantanamo Bay appear to be that the US DoD is thinking about installing one or more courtrooms for use by military tribunals, possibly a permanent prison, and possibly an execution chamber as well. THE US has floated plans to turn Guantanamo Bay into a death camp, with its own death row and execution chamber.Let's get some fucking perspective here, shall we? The term "death camp" evokes associations with places like Auschwitz-Birkenau, whose ultimate purpose was to exterminate every person herded into them. Even the most notorious of the Bosnian Serb camps, Omarska, was not what you'd call a "death camp" (though it came damn close). The fact that the Pakistani Daily Times ran this article unaltered (except to add "in Guantanamo" to the headline) can, given Pakistan's human rights record, only be construed as something of a sick joke. One particular quote from the article which I find highly amusing is the following: British activist Stephen Jakobi, of Fair Trials Abroad, said: "The US is kicking and screaming against any pressure to conform with British or any other kind of international justice."Ah yes, British justice. As I recall, it was British justice which inspired the Americans to declare themselves independent from Britain in the first place, and write that radical document, the Constitution. For much of the 19th century, British justice abroad is best summed up by Hillaire Belloc, who wrote Whatever happens we have gotDuring the Second Boer War, the British gave the world the term "concentration camp." Unlike the Nazi camps, the purpose of these was not to exterminate their inmates, but due to British incompetence, they came close to having that effect. More recently, Sir John Stevens' report indicating collusion between British security forces in Northern Ireland—notably the army's Force Research Unit and the Royal Ulster Constabulary—and loyalist (i.e Protestant) hit squads indicates that the British might want to hold off beating their chests over upholding justice while fighting terrorism. It's almost superfluous to point out that British law does not apply in Afghanistan or Cuba; there may be British subjects (note "subjects," not "citizens") held in Camp Delta, but I believe the concept of extraterritorial rights went out with the end of World War One or so. The problem underlying the Guantanamo Bay situation, in my opinion, is that the US government has been reacting since 11-Sep-2001; it has not been anticipating problems. When Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda were fingered as the party responsible for the 9/11 attacks, the US government's response was "we want him; we haven't really thought about what we're going to do when we get him, but we want him, and right now." When the Taliban didn't want to play ball and hand over Bin Laden cum suis, the US launched the incursion into Afghanistan, and as a result ended up with a batch of prisoners; it then became readily apparent that no prior thought had been given to what was going to be done with these prisoners. Subsequently, the question was probably asked (in so many words) at the White House and the Pentagon "where can we stick these prisoners for an undetermined period of time without having to accord them any rights, until we figure out what to do with them?" Oh, hey, Guanatanamo Bay; it's not American soil, but Cuba has no jurisdiction. Perfect; we can leave them there in limbo. Then the administration more or less forgot about these guys, or just failed to acknowledge that they were going to have to deal with them sooner or later, until finally the complaints from the governments of the prisoners' countries of origin got a bit too loud, and State told Defense to get their finger out and resolve the situation already, and Defense comes up with this. The bottom line is that I'm not worried about the Bush administration having some Palpatine-esque "master plan" to undermine the rule of (international) law and subvert the Constitution, because it's patently obvious there is no plan at all; the whole "War on Terrorism" has been one ill-thought out stop-gap reactive measure after another. I don't think the administration has a bloody clue where its course of action is taking it. And that does scare me. |
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