By Otto Spijkers

Will Guantanamo be closed soon? The detention camp at the US Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has been open for more than five years, and the debate has been ongoing for five years. Many documentaries have been made, and many articles have been written about it, by University professors, policymakers, and LLM students…. it seems all arguments have been exchanged, and now enough is enough. Powell needs a little over a minute to explain why Guantanamo must be closed:

Powell’s conclusion is that those in Guantanamo have to appear before ordinary criminal courts. Interestingly, some of those less critical of the Guantanamo detention facility now seem to use a most awkward argument: Guantanamo is less and less of a problem because it begins to look more and more like a normal detention facility. According to an editorial in the Washington Post:

Guantanamo [is] now, by far, the most comfortable and legally accountable detention facility maintained by the United States for foreign prisoners. Conditions there were crude in 2002, but since then one state-of-the art detention facility, modeled on a prison in Indiana, has been built, and a second is under construction. Guantanamo’s detainees have recreation facilities and good medical care; their continued detention is reviewed once a year by military boards, and prisoners are assigned advocates to help argue their cases. Pending a decision by the Supreme Court, they are also able to appeal their detentions to U.S. federal courts, and many have U.S. civilian lawyers.

If Guantanamo is like any other detention facility, then why keep it open? Indeed, the Washington Post writes that "reluctantly, we have to agree: Guantanamo will have to be shuttered." (Apparently, the verb "to shutter" can mean both "to close with shutters" and "to cease operations and close down"; I hope the Washington Post uses the verb in the latter sense.) – Otto