To Be Done with the Glaring Symbols of the Bush Years

The apparent difficulties that Barack Obama has in closing the Guantanamo prison, as he promised to do as soon as he took office last January, don’t bode well.

One hopes that the U.S. president will follow up on his intentions, and in spite of the reluctance of his compatriots who are fired up by Dick Cheney- the ex-vice president and damned soul of George Bush- who made cynicism his religion.

Obama declared once that “Guantanomo has probably created more terrorists in the world than it ever detained.” Well said.

The word “mess” was thrown in to describe the legal situation of prisoners on the island of Cuba.

The first African-American president had started his term with a strong act: the prohibition of the armed forces and the CIA from resorting to torture.

But over the course of a few months, and in spite of a high-minded speech in Cairo on June 4th, defenders of human rights have become disenchanted on certain issues, like the clear refusal to tackle impunity. It is true that to climb up the wire of responsibility regarding torture, one would risk arriving at former residents of a house yet so white.

However, there are emergencies. The indemnity of hundreds of former Gitmo captives who went without any due process, released after years of detention, is one of them. But the most urgent demand consists first of emptying foreign American prisons of the innocents who are rotting there. The scandal of these prisoners (sometimes minors at the time of their arrest) who have spent five, six or seven years in deplorable conditions is that they never received their right to a trial.

Certainly the Americans have, at times, found it difficult to release these poor wretches (like the 17 Chinese Uighurs cleared since 2002 who no one wanted until yesterday!) But Obama would improve his administration by agreeing to the priority of ending one of these glaring symbols of injustice from the Bush-Cheney years.