After 20 Years, Human Rights Groups Continue to Demand Closure of U.S. Guantanamo Prison

Interview with Maha Hilal, a postdoctoral scholar and organizer with the group Witness Against Torture, conducted by Scott Harris

It’s been 20 years since President George W. Bush opened the U.S. military detention center at America’s military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in the wake of the 9/11 2001 terrorist attacks.  Since 2002, nearly 800 detainees have passed through Guantánamo, with many prisoners never having been charged with a crime or tried in a court of law. Current and former detainees have reported abuse and torture while at the prison camp.

Guantanamo currently has 39 detainees left, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected architect of the September 11th attacks. Thirteen of the detainees still being held at Guantanamo have been cleared for transfer to other nations with security guarantees – and ten are considered “forever prisoners.” 

Human rights group around the world have urged President Joe Biden to honor his pledge, made during his 2020 presidential campaign to close the Guantanamo prison camp. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Maha Hilal, an organizer with the group Witness Against Torture and co-director of Justice for Muslims Collective. Here, Hilal talks about the ongoing effort to close down the Guantanamo prison, and the need for accountability and justice for the hundreds of detainees that were held there in violation of their basic human rights.

MAHA HILAL: So as of now, you know, the status of the prison is pretty unclear, although, you know, President Biden has indicated he wanted to close Guantanamo Bay prison. His administration has done very little at all to make any significant moves towards this end. I know that the kind of argument again would be that he has cleared a number of prisoners for release. But again, that doesn’t actually mean that they’ve been released, nor will they be released any time in the foreseeable future. When we talk about the closure of Guantanamo, I think there’s there’s a couple of things that that needs to be emphasized. One is that this has been a 20-year project.

There were — at the height of Guantanamo Bay and throughout the prison’s history post 9/11, of course, it has a very problematic history pre-9/11 — a total of 780 Muslim men who have gone through Guantanamo Bay prison. And of course, men who have been subjected to the most egregious forms of torture.

One of the things I think we need to focus on is not just the closure of Guantanamo, but the abolishing of Guantanamo because we talk about the closure of Guantanamo as if abandoning the use of the physical structure will solve the problems that Guantanamo created.

And really, the reason for this is the fact that we have prisoners that continue to be detained at Guantanamo and we have all of those who have been released from Guantanamo who basically have to live in very precarious circumstances.

The U.S. government has all but neglected them and abandoned them in most cases. And so their ability to resume a life of normalcy is severely compromised. And so I think this idea of closing the prison, there’s a lot to it.

And the other thing I will say is that many who have advocated for the closure of the prison have also advocated for the use of federal courts to try the prisoners. And for anyone who’s familiar with federal terrorism prosecutions post 9/11 and in particular, the targeting of Muslims, we know that that’s not a feasible solution in terms of getting around the very deeply entrenched problem of Islamophobia.

You know, there has been the suggestion of having plea agreements and you know, perhaps that is, you know, worthy of consideration. But I think you have to understand Guantanamo as part of a larger system of deeply entrenched, again, institutionalized Islamophobia that has run deep in the course of the war on terror.

SCOTT HARRIS: Dr. Hilal, I wanted to ask you about President Joe Biden’s pledge during his 2020 presidential campaign to close down the Guantanamo prison. What if any progress has the Biden administration made on fulfilling that pledge?

MAHA HILAL: It seemed as though there was some momentum in the beginning of his administration. You know, there was going to be a study examining the closure of Guantanamo Bay.

And then, you know, of course, there have been a few prisoners cleared for release. You know, those were positive movements towards the prison’s closure. However, as you may know, in December, there was a hearing that was led by Sen. Dick Durbin on the closure of Guantanamo, and the Biden administration failed to send a representative.

Of course we can, you know, expect that that was intentional. That kind of seemed like a very clear indication of where the administration is at in terms of the prison’s closure.

And we have to remember that he was vice president when Obama was trying to close the prison. And although he was said to be sort of vocally advocating for the closure of of the prison while he was vice president under Obama, it nevertheless did not happen at this point in time, right? There’s a lot of competing political demands, especially with the ongoing pandemic.

And so whether or not the closure of Guantanamo will be a priority to Biden, it remains to be seen. And so I’m not extremely hopeful in terms of Guantanamo Bay closing under the Biden administration.

And I think there’s a lot more that could be done and should be done. But I also think if the goal is to address Guantanamo in its totality, then it’s not just about closing the prison. It’s about the problem of Guantanamo, which has rendered again Muslim men summarily guilty, which not only affects those who remain detained, but also those who’ve been released. But there’s going to be a time where there’s a reckoning, and I think that’s already happening because so many survivors from Guantanamo Bay prison are speaking out about their experiences and their stories and how much they have struggled, how much they’ve struggled post-release.

So I think, you know, whether or not the United States wants to come to terms with it, there is a reckoning that’s happening. And I think it will do the country better if it actually acknowledges and this goes with the many historical state violence and state crimes that this government is responsible for that goes along with the enslavement of African-Americans and the systemic and structural injustice that’s rooted in anti-Blackness that has always been a part of this country.

For more information, visit Witness Against Torture at witnessagainsttorture.com and the Center for Constitutional Rights Guantanamo issues page at ccrjustice.org.

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