Fuzzy Math at Guantanamo

Picture Courtesy of Istanbul Archeology Museum

The first detainees from the War on Terror arrived in Guantanamo on January 11, 2002. Make that the Global War on Terror. Actually the War on Islamic Extremism. Or was that Extreme Terrorism? Anyway, by May 9^th 2003, according to the Washington Post, the center held a maximum of 680 prisoners. No, not prisoners, but enemy combatants. Wrong again, unlawful enemy combatants. Just don't say prisoner of war. We were told from the beginning that these were the worst of the worst, a terrorist every one. And yet there are now about 200 prisoners, or detainees, or insurgents, or whatever.

So here’s my question? What happened to the other 480 “prisoners”? These people were so bad that they could be held forever, not worthy of the Geneva Convention, did not even deserve a trial. OK, there may have been some mistakes, but 480?  The Washington Post has a timeline of the Guantanamo prisoners, showing that many were released in small batches over several years. But wait a minute. We were told they were all guilty terrorists. What happened? I guess some of them were terrorists, but not guilty. Or maybe guilty, but not terrorists. Maybe not the worst of the worst, just the worst. Anyway, a lot of them were “released”.

I was sitting in a restaurant one time and overheard a couple of people discuss the fact that the ACLU was trying to represent the detainees. One suggested that the lawyers for the ACLU should be arrested and thrown in jail for defending the enemy. Let me think about that. Back to the 480. It seems like many of them were released because it turns out they were innocent. A simple case of mistaken identity. Actually, a large portion were turned over by bounty hunters, who rounded up anyone not of their faith, or tribe. This bounty included young boys, old men and anyone who may have needed to run an errand that day and ended up being captured by the entrepreneurial bounty hunters.

After they arrived in Guantanamo, or Abu Ghraib, or Bagram, or wherever, how was innocence determined? Perhaps, in some cases a little water-boarding, or stress positions or a variety of tactics that a  neutral observer would call torture. In other words, some of the detainees were tortured in order to prove they were innocent. Oh wait, that was the Salem Witch trials. A couple of years ago, I was called by a reputable polling agency regarding the state of the country. One of the questions was worded somewhat like this: if it turns out that the detainee trials are illegal, should the prisoners be set free? Let me think about that. OK, here’s an idea. Why don’t we have legal trials?

There remain about 200 prisoners in Guantanamo. The debate is over what to do with them and whether they can be tried because…stop me if you’ve heard this before. “They are the worst of the worst”.

Thank You

Ron Brown