Closing Guantanamo: HRF’s blueprint for the next president

Human Rights First has issued a blueprint [download] for the next administration outlining a step-by-step approach to closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility within the first year of office. The recommendations are designed to minimize national security risks while moving legitimate terrorism cases forward to prosecution in U.S. federal courts—two outcomes the military commissions have failed to accomplish since the proceedings began in 2004. While the first military commission trial was finally completed in August 2008, it was fraught with fundamental legal flaws, including the introduction of secret testimony and coerced evidence. These results have only confirmed the disastrous but predictable effects of straying from established law to approve torture, illegal detention, and rigged trial procedures in the name of national security.

Both Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama have vowed to close Guantanamo as the first step to restoring U.S. commitments to human rights and the rule of law. Given the depth to which erroneous policies have been institutionally embedded, closing Guantanamo will require bold remedies. Human Rights First has put forth a detailed, multi-phased plan to get it done within a year.

In his first month of office, the next president should clearly indicate a new approach to detainee policy by taking the following steps:

• Announce intention to empty the detention facility at Guantanamo within one year.
• Direct the Attorney General to review cases for federal court prosecution.
• Direct the Secretary of State to perform individualized risk assessments and review remaining cases for transfer to prosecution, repatriation, or resettlement.
• Suspend all pending military commission proceedings.
• Terminate the Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRTs) and Administrative Review Boards (ARBs).

During his first six months in office, the next president should:

• Bring those detainees who the Attorney General believes have committed crimes against the United States to U.S. soil for federal court prosecution.
• Transfer for prosecution those detainees found eligible for transfer by the Secretary of State and who may be tried in their home countries or in third countries, even if they cannot properly be tried for crimes against the United States.
• Negotiate repatriation agreements, and begin to repatriate a third group of detainees who have not committed crimes against the United States and who may be returned to their home countries in accordance with U.S. obligations under international human rights and humanitarian law.
• Negotiate resettlement agreements, and begin to resettle a fourth group of detainees who cannot be returned home in accordance with international law.
• Manage the risk posed by repatriation and resettlement by expanding risk assessment, monitoring, and other security programs.
• Propose legislation to repeal the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA).

By the end of his first year in office, the next president should:

• Initiate federal court prosecutions of detainees suspected of having committed crimes against the United States.
• Complete transfers to prosecution, repatriation and resettlement of the remaining detainees.
• Continue to manage the risk posed by repatriation and resettlement.

“One of the foremost obligations of the Bush administration after September 11 has been to provide a legal process that could bring those implicated in the horrific acts of that day to justice. Prolonged detention, abusive treatment, and unjust military commission procedures at Guantanamo have failed that test,” said Washington Director Elisa Massimino. “Reversing the errors of the Bush administration will require comprehensive policy changes and a major investment of domestic and political capital.”

The Human Rights First blueprint sets forth an effective strategy for overcoming these challenges and beginning the long overdue process of justice for all the victims of 9-11.

Due Process Undone in First Conviction at Guantánamo

This morning, a jury of six military officers found Osama bin Laden’s driver, Salim Hamdan, guilty of providing material support for terrorism. Mr. Hamdan was acquitted of two counts of conspiracy.

Human Rights First has attended nearly every military commission hearing, including the Hamdan trial, since the proceedings began in 2004. From the inception, Human Rights First has voiced its objection to a system that permits the admission of evidence obtained through coercion and abuse, ignores fundamental tenets of due process, and has shown itself vulnerable to unlawful command influence, manipulation and political pressure.

“Inventing an entirely new trial system with such profound flaws was not only inconsistent with American traditions and standards of justice, but unnecessary as well,” said Washington Director Elisa Massimino earlier today. “Our existing criminal courts – civilian and military – are well equipped to handle these cases.”

Indeed they are. Human Rights First’s recent report, In Pursuit of Justice: Prosecuting Terrorism Cases in the Federal Court, studies more than 120 terrorism cases prosecuted in the federal courts during the past fifteen years and finds that the federal criminal justice system has succeeded in balancing the government’s need to protect sensitive national security information with defendants’ fair trial rights.

For more on this subject, take a look at U.S. District Judge John Coughenour’s recent Op-Ed in the Washington Post.

Mr. Hamdan’s sentencing hearing is scheduled to begin this afternoon. Regardless of the sentence, the U.S. government has said that Hamdan will remain imprisoned as an “enemy combatant” until the end of the “war on terror.”

Here is a breakdown of the verdict:

Count 1: Conspiracy

Specification 1: conspiracy to commit a variety of offenses (attacks on civilians, etc.) – acquitted

Specification 2: conspiracy to commit murder in violation of the law of war by attacking US and coalition servicemen – acquitted

Count 2: Material Support

Specification 1: Providing himself as personnel to al Qaeda with knowledge or intent that this support would “be used for an act of terrorism” - acquitted

Specification 2: Providing himself as personnel to al Qaeda, period – CONVICTED
Specification 3: Providing al Qaeda with SA-7 surface-to-air missiles in November 2001, knowing they would be used for an act of terrorism – acquitted

Specification 4: Providing al Qaeda with SA-7 surface-to-air missiles in November 2001, period – acquitted

Specification 5: Providing support to al Qaeda through his service as a driver, knowing this would facilitate communications and planning for terrorist acts – CONVICTED

Specification 6: similar to Specification 5 – CONVICTED

Specification 7: Providing support to al Qaeda through service as a bodyguard, knowing this would facilitate communications and planning for terrorist acts – CONVICTED

Specification 8: similar to Specification 7 – CONVICTED