Guantanamo, the prison which saved the West
Set up after the attacks against the Twin Towers, it’s the most criticized and hated facility in the world. But it prevented attacks and saved many lives.
It’s easy to be against torture after many centuries of horror, after the various inquisitions extracted so many fake confessions from heretic, witches or simply from enemies. The modern legislation prohibits its use in line with the Geneva Convention that also regulates the issue of prisoners of war during conflicts. But that’s the old scenario with soldiers surrendering, captured and ending up like tamed prisoners waiting for peace. Instead, let’s look at the current war waged by Islamic terrorism, with some Al Qaida followers who never surrender their main weapon: fanatism. They go on indefinitely with their war, even in jail and they’re well trained to endure torture and death. Let’s try to imagine capturing a terrorist who has just provoked a massacre. He’s announcing a new attack. It could be the attack against the bus your son is travelling on. How is it possible to extract the right information to stop the blood shed? And how is it possible to prevent the terrorist form going on with his war?
Guantanamo has been the center of all these fundamental issues, a ring for the ideological and political combat ,which Obama decided to shut down three years ago. But he didn’t. Today it’s possible to say that Guantanamo – with the intrinsic recognition that the fight against terror is a war – has saved a great number of human lives, by stopping terrorists with military but decent rules and with the use of a mosaic of information. Otherwise these terrorists would have never had any reason to stop. The methods have not alI been conventional, but no cruel or uncontrolled torture had been used. During the inspection ordered by Obama, the inspectors checked the Geneva Convention to have been complied with. The rumoured waterboarding torture during the Bush Administration has been used only for three per cent of the«prominent terrorists» detained. In any case, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had a treadmill in his cell, even though he was the mastermind of the attack against the Twin Towers, Abu Faraj al Libi, or Hassan Ghul, the leader of Hamas, had an Islamic library and other common facilities. All had air conditioning and time to be together. They also manage to throw urine and faeces against the supervising military personnel.
However, Obama has strategically obliterated Guantanamo: he decided it was preferable to use a lot of drones and targeted killings, including Bill Laden’s, rather than going on with this facility that has allowed to halt terror. But Obama and part of the public opinion believe that terrorism is not a war, but a criminal act. Therefore, Guantanamo – the American military and extraterritorial prison opened ten years ago – has become the main alleged humanitarian issue in the discussion on security and on the fight against terrorism.
But three years after promising to close this facility, Obama has not dared honor this pledge. He too knows that only this isolated prison - far away and outside the American soil – has prevented Bin Laden’s terrorist war from claiming other victims after September 11 and Cole. The mosaic of information gathered even through the Guantanamo questionings has saved many lives and has led to finding Bin Laden. Terrorists have been interrogated according to harsh rules such as strict isolation. But as stated by John Yoo, the legal expert who prepared the «torture memo» for Bush, the Geneva Convention ban against physical or mental suffering has taught how to avoid adding different types of suffering, such as sleep deprivation with isolation or diet changes. Since the beginning, 779 people have been detained in Guantanamo. Today there are 171 inmates of whom 60 are going to be transferred to other Countries, if possible and 46 are not eligible to be released because they’re considered to be too dangerous. Maybe the evidence against them is too risky to be revealed in a trial or too useful to avert other terrorist attacks. Obama has chosen drones and commandos with the order to kill. So, must we think that this really the most ethical way forward?