CCR Guantanamo Attorneys Criticize Obama Plan for Closing Prison
Center for Constitutional Rights, February 23, 2016
http://ccrjustice.org/home/press-center/press-releases/ccr-guant-namo-attorneys-criticize-obama-plan-closing-prison
New York--In response to the release of President Obama’s new plan to close
Guantanamo, the Center for Constitutional Rights issued the following
statement:
This is not a plan to close Guantanamo. It lays out several obvious steps
that the Center for Constitutional Rights has long called for, and that the
Obama administration has long reneged on--finally releasing the men who have
been cleared for transfer, most for years, and strengthening and speeding up
the Periodic Review Board process--but talk is cheap. Unless the Obama
administration shows real will and dramatically steps up its efforts on
these basic fronts, men whose detentions the administration itself has
determined are unnecessary, who have already been imprisoned for 14 years,
will continue to languish long after President Obama has left the White
House. This is senseless and cruel. The 35 men currently approved for
transfer must be transferred without delay--we would expect by mid-summer.
And the administration must ensure that every man still waiting for a
PRB--unbelievably, as many as 33--is reviewed in time to have an actual
chance at being transferred this year. We need to be clear: any detainees
not reviewed before President Obama leaves office are not those the
administration believes "too dangerous to release," but men whose status it
hasn’t reviewed for over six years, since 2009, whom it simply didn’t get to
in the PRB line.
Meanwhile, the centerpiece of the plan--moving those detainees who have not
been and will never be charged with any crime to a prison in the U.S.--does
not "close Guantanamo," it merely relocates it to a new ZIP Code. The infamy
of Guantanamo has never been just its location, but rather its immoral and
illegal regime of indefinite detention. Closing Guantanamo in any meaningful
sense means putting an end to that practice.
For a detailed analysis, see CCR’s position on each aspect of the plan.
The Center for Constitutional Rights has led the legal battle over
Guantanamo for 14 years--representing clients in two Supreme Court cases and
organizing and coordinating the work of hundreds of pro bono lawyers across
the country, ensuring that nearly all the men detained at Guantanamo have
had the option of legal representation. Among other Guantanamo cases, the
Center represents the families of men who died at Guantanamo, and men who
have been released and are seeking justice for their illegal treatment in
international courts.
The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and
protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys who
represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is a non-profit legal
and educational organization committed to the creative use of law as a
positive force for social change.
