Joint Chiefs chair wants Gitmo closed
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, said Monday he wanted to see the detention facility at the U.S. Naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, closed because it damaged American’s international reputation. “I’d like to see it shut down,” Mullen said. “I believe that from the standpoint of how it reflects on us that it’s been pretty damaging.” Mullen said that legal and diplomatic hurdles prevented major problems in closing the facility, adding the legal issues “are way out of my purview” (meaning he hasn’t a clue).
Many close U.S. allies and human rights groups criticized Washington for maintaining the facility, which some say operates in stark violation to international law. The facility took in its first prisoners six years ago and so far has convicted only one – Australian native David Hicks whose life sentence was reduced to 9-months on a plea bargain (GO PENTAGON RAH RAH RAH).
U.S. officials say legal and repatriation issues handicap the facility’s closure, but Mullen said that some of the high value targets, such as Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, are “really, really bad people.”
But Ramzi Yousef and the five other bombers of the World Trade Center in 1993 – are “really, really bad people” currently rotting away in supermax facilities in the United States. Yousef is KSM’s nephew, launched an early plot to assassinate former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and helped coordinate the oplan bojinka plot – which KSM dreamed up as a simultaneous multi-plane detonation (which has been attempted at least twice now, see Richard Reid and ask someone why you can’t take a bottle of water on a plane any more). Why is he sitting in a civilian prison while the rest of the hooligans are getting the proverbial shaft (if you know what I mean) down in ol’ GITMO?
Now maybe we’ve arrived at some sort of turning point in the development of international codes of justice. Last year, I was harping about the Blackwater USA guys in, where was it, Ramadi? Anyhow, it seems the legal system hasn’t caught up to the 21st century yet. I wrote last week that the U.S. judicial system must be employed as long as the civilian courts are open and functioning. Is that the answer here with these GITMO guys, or do we stuff the KSMs away in perpetuity in hopes of drawing out all their dirty little secrets with a bucket of water and a nice, soft cotton towel stuffed in their mouth? Veritas, or better yet, in vino veritas (literally, in wine, truth). Maybe that’s the key, eh?