Six facts to know about Guantanamo

With the debate over the fate of Guantanamo detainees continuing in earnest, it is timely to review the facts about its detention and interrogation facilities today, with an honest appraisal about its past.

Due to a disingenuous public relations campaign waged by its critics, compounded by a series of post-9/11 cautious government decisions severely hampering the release of specific information about detainees and their public security threat, Guantanamo’s reputation has suffered unfairly.

183 detainees remain including those believed to have plotted the attacks of 9/11, on the USS Cole, East African U.S. Embassies and Bali nightclubs.  Though the Obama Administration failed to meet its top priority executive order of closing Guantanamo within one year, it continues to stress closure.

As the debate continues on transferring up to 100 detainees to the federal prison in Thomson, Ill., while re-locating other detainees to the mainland for trials by military commission or in federal court while the rest await repatriation and resettlement, there are six facts to know about Guantanamo.

Guantanamo has helped to protect the United States – Guantanamo has safely and humanely held roughly 780 detainees, including Al Qaeda’s top operatives believed to have planned the attacks of 9/11, on the USS Cole and U.S. Embassies in East Africa.  Removing hundreds of terror suspects from the battlefield has undoubtedly saved countless lives.

Guantanamo is a modern, role model detention facility – Thousands of visitors including a European Parliamentary delegation have characterized it as "a model prison."  Most detainees are held in two facilities patterned on prisons in Indiana and Michigan, while the most compliant detainees live in communal barracks where they have near unlimited outside recreation time.

Guantanamo’s reputation is undeserved – Isolated incidents of abuse were falsely portrayed as common through disinformation from detainees instructed to publicize such claims by Al Qaeda training manuals. Waterboarding was never used at Guantanamo.  Some have equated Abu Ghraib abuses with Guantanamo, though it was over 7,000 miles away and entirely unrelated.

Transferring detainees to Thomson, Illinois only creates a "Gitmo North" – As indefinite detention would continue for 50-100, those too dangerous to release yet not prosecutable, the legal basis to detain remains the same.  Meanwhile, the local area would be converted into a highly symbolic and easily accessible target to home grown or overseas terror cells, let alone attractive sites for potentially violent protests.   Economic benefits have been overstated, as up to half of the jobs would be for temporary construction projects and few locals would qualify to be guards.

Closing Guantanamo will not defeat Al Qaeda recruiting – The attacks of 9/11, on the USS Cole and East African Embassies all pre-date Guantanamo.  Al Qaeda’s top recruiting tools are the presence of U.S. troops in Muslim countries and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Guantanamo is but a minor sidelight compared to these broader issues.  Also, since the detainees who would be moved to another facility are the same individuals as currently held in Guantanamo, the next venue would simply replace Guantanamo as a source of anti-U.S. criticism until they are set free.

Military Commissions remain an appropriate forum for detainee trials – This legal system has historically been used to try enemy combatants in wartime, dating back to the Revolutionary War.  Hundreds of hearings have been held at Guantanamo since 2004 with three completed trials – all convictions.  Though legal challenges including up the Supreme Court resulted in three distinct versions of military commissions over the past six years, the military remains ready to move forward with additional trials.

In summary, facts about Guantanamo are in stark contrast to many of the myths that have fanned by its critics.  Increasing factual understanding of today’s reality, what happened in the past, and examining the threat posed by the remaining 183 detainees should spark a renewed debate on Guantanamo’s past, and its future.

JD Gordon, a Senior Fellow at the Center for Security Policy, is a retired Navy Commander who served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 2005-2009 as the Pentagon spokesman for the Western Hemisphere.