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Shut it Down: Gitmo has Outlived Its Usefulness
Editorial
Tulsa World
May 24, 2006
May 24--Not all ideas that come from the United Nations are bad. Therefore, its request that the United States shut down the detention center at GuantanamoBay has merit.
It's time to close it down.
In the wake of 9/11 and the mass arrests of suspected terrorists in Afghanistan, Iraq and other regions, Gitmo seemed a logical solution. It was a secure military facility far enough from U.S. soil to avoid any collateral damage if an attack were attempted.
There was, unfortunately, a darker side to placing detainees at Gitmo. Since it was not on U.S. soil but an area leased from Cuba, the Bush administration believed that by holding the prisoners outside U.S. borders they were exempt from U.S. law and could be accountable to a military tribunal.
In 2002, when Gitmo was opened as a detention center, almost any solution to prevent another terrorist attack seemed reasonable. That led to all sorts of stories and rumors about torture and mistreatment of Muslim prisoners by U.S. guards.
The administration believed that it could extract valuable information from detainees, many with direct al-Qaida and Taliban connections. The inmate population of Gitmo is now about 500. Many prisoners have been sent back to their homes.
It is doubtful that there is any more information to be gleaned from the remaining prisoners. Most have been held captive so long that it is difficult to imagine that they can be of any further use to U.S. intelligence agencies.
President Bush can close the detention center at Gitmo any time he chooses. It has outlived its usefulness and continues to be a blight on America's prestige. Shut it down.
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