Even after the Guantanamo prison is closed, the US may decide to keep up to 100 inmates under detention as they cannot be tried but are too dangerous to release, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told lawmakers on Thursday.
“The question is what do we do with the 50 to 100 — probably in that ballpark — who we cannot release and cannot try,” Gates told a Senate hearing.
“I think that question is still open,” Gates said when asked about US President Barack Obama’s plans to shut down the controversial “war on terror” prison.
His comments indicated that some inmates might have to be detained further even after the prison at Guantanamo Bay is closed as ordered by Obama.
But the defense secretary did not say if the detention would be temporary or for an indefinite period, and what legal terms would apply.
The US administration is closely reviewing the files of the some 240 detainees held at the center to determine who could be transferred to other countries or tried in US courts or military tribunals set up under former US president George W. Bush, Gates said.
About 60 detainees have been cleared of wrongdoing and the previous administration had planned to charge about 80 of the detainees.
The administration was asking Congress for about US$50 million to help cover the costs of possible further detention for some of the inmates, Gates said. The money could cover the costs of modifying US military or civilian prisons or adding new wings to accommodate the detainees, a defense official said on condition of anonymity.
Separately, the Justice Department was requesting US$30 million to help pay for the effort to review the detainees’ cases, Gates told the Senate Appropriations Committee. Senator Mitch McConnell, leader of the Republican minority, warned Gates that communities across the country were anxious about the possibility of detainees being transferred to prisons in their “neighborhoods.”
“I fully expect to have 535 pieces of legislation before this is over saying ‘not in my district, not in my state,’” Gates joked, referring to the total number of representatives and senators in Congress.
The testimony came a day after US Attorney General Eric Holder, who is overseeing plans to shut Guantanamo, said he was “pleasantly surprised” by the response of European governments to Washington’s requests to take in some of the detainees.
One of Obama’s first acts after taking office on Jan. 20 was to order the closure of the prison at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, within a year.
The detention camp set up in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks became a lightning rod for criticism at home and abroad for holding terror suspects without charges indefinitely.
Rights advocates say the idea violates fundamental civil liberties.
“How do we know somebody is dangerous?” said Sharon Bradford Franklin, senior counsel at the Constitution project in Washington. “Is this on the basis of torture and interrogation under torture that we know is not entirely reliable? If it’s not on that basis, if we have some evidence that we think is credible, then shouldn’t we also have or be able to gather enough evidence that we could prosecute this individual?”
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