Sunday, October 2, 2016

Andy Worthington Takes a Look back at Gitmo as the Obama Years End

I remember how excited one of my clients was when I went to visit him in the weeks after Obama was inaugerated. Obama announced that one of the first items on his to-do list was to close Guantanamo and he promised to close the place in one year. As the year went by it was clear to many of us that Gitmo was not going to be closed by January 2010. Obama was not heeding the advice of those who had practical ideas as to how to close the place- he was listening to the military. And the military has never wanted to close Guantanamo.
Obama's promise was more than 7 1/2 years ago and although more of the men have been released the place is from from closed and one of my clients still remains with no prospect of going anywhere- you see he is "too dangerous to release" but there is nothing to charge him with. He has sat in prison for 15 years and he has never been charged with a god damn thing. And he never will be charged- he has done nothing wrong.

Andy Worthington looks back over the years and looks forward to what is to come in this blog post.