In President Obama's 60 Minutes interview today, he said that
some of the people released from the facility in Cuba have rejoined terrorist groups. He also says U.S. officials have not always been effective in determining which prisoners will be a danger once they are let go. But he says the Bush administration's policy of holding detainees for years on end with no trials is "unsustainable,' and has only fueled anti-American sentiments.
see here
The desire to eliminate the Gitmo facility has raised the issue of premature release of prisoners. Related issues are:
- when we are ready to release a Gitmo prisoner, in some cases the country of origin does not want them back.
- or the country of origin may take them back, but only to torture and kill them--a scenario we in the west find a violation of our norms of civilized behavior.
- we find ourselves in the west with radical islamists we want to deport, but the country of origin may, as above, torture or kill them upon their return. Or the islamist is already a legal citizen of the western country and the gov't is too afraid to prosecute them for hate crimes or incitement. For example in the UK there are a number of radical islamist preachers the gov't wants out of the country or in jail, but the gov’t is politically unable to do anything. See just last week
Radical Muslim Preacher Urges Stoning of Homosexuals
I think we could use an intermediate facility, a kind of half way house for radical islamists, which is more humane than being in a prison (like Gitmo) but from which the individual can’t leave. It would address all the above situations and would be more acceptable than Gitmo. Further it will appear to the rest of the world as a more proper way to house detainees. I am thinking of an island which will have minimal decent and sanitary housing, medical facilities, recreation, halal food, a mosque, etc. It can even have a visitors center so those residing there can meet with their lawyers or others who wish to see them.
The plan would be when Gitmo detainees/prisoners are determined to be less dangerous and we have no place else to send them, and we don’t want to bring them back to the USA because it‘s politically unpopular to do so, then we give them the upgrade to the Island Center. When we have radical islamists who we can no longer tolerate in our societies, like the Preacher cited above, and we are afraid or politically unable to prosecute and jail them for expressing their awful beliefs, and we have no place to send them, then they can be sent to (downgraded, if you will) to the Island Center. The idea being that all the residents of the Island Center would be using legal means to try to find a country to take them in.
I see this as a problem that will continue to preoccupy our political leaders and the judiciaries in western countries.