Terrorism Policy

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Terrorism Policy

• By Zach Cetlin and Amy Videon

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What is Obamas policy?

• Signed executive order to close the detention
  center at Guantanamo Bay by January 2010
• Obama believes it will make American safer
• Ordered the closure of CIA black sites by 2010
• Alter methods of interrogation and detention
• Military contractors may no longer provide prison
  security or perform interrogations

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Problems

• Attempt to halt the possible violation of the
  Constitution
• Denying writ of habeas corpus
• Stepping away from Bush terrorism agenda
• Represents the promised changed
• Aspects of Bush agenda being fixed according to
  the CATO Institute
• Government created no effective and objective way
  to determine guilt of detainees
• Used torture, violating both international and
  domestic law
• Ends the controversial military commissions being
  used
• Begins investigating methods of torture

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More Problems

• Closes the black sites that have been sparking
  human rights protests
• Loophole is still there if top terrorist
  officials are captured
• Improves U.S. image abroad
• Black sites have been damaging symbol to the
  world and served as a rallying cry for
  terrorists
• Many detainees have been wrongly held
• Evidence is either shoddy or nonexistent
• Puts the CIA onto even ground with the military
  bureaucracy
• Restores good chances of giving the detainees
  habeas corpus
• Damaged American tradition of being a trendsetter
  for human rights

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Proposals

• Biggest is to keep Guantanamo Bay open and
  continue to operate black sites
• Conditions are not bad at all
• Detainees have movie nights, quality healthcare,
  air conditioning, choice of meal plans, science
  and English classes, religious freedom
• Amnesty International wants to abandon military
  commission, facilitate speedy habeas corpus
  review
• Detainees should be charged and tried in federal
  court or released immediately
• Obama needs to stop appeasement of rival nations
• Has placed world opinion above well being of
  own nation
• Move detainees to Alcatraz
• Have Congress pass new legislation authorizing
  administrative detention
• Only for limited category of detainees

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Legislative Proposals

• Bills Requiring or Delaying Closure
• Interrogation and Detention Reform Act of 2008
• Requires closure of Gitmo within 180 days of
  enactment
• No proposed bill prohibits closure
• Bills Restricting Transfer to or Release in the
  United States
• Restrict relocation indirectly by prohibiting use
  of federal funds, forbidding extension of
  immigration status, restricting judicial
  authority
• Bills Permitting Detainee Transfer to United
  States
• Purpose is to speed up prosecution process
• Transfer detainees to international tribunals, to
  native or other country, or simple release
• Bills Relating to Interrogation, Treatment or
  Prosecution
• Conformity away from Military Commissions Act of
  2006

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Court Alternatives

• The Strange Bedfellows Court
• Proposed by Neal Katyal and Jack Goldsmith
• National Security Court that would operate
  independently of civilian judicial system but
  staffed by federal judges
• Hear arguments from lawyers with with security
  clearances and well aware of counterterrorism
  laws
• Would treat citizens and noncitizens equallly
• The Involuntary Commitment-Plus Court
• Brookings Institution legal analyst Ben Wittes
• Special federal court to replace Gitmos review
  procedures
• More lenient rules to enter evidence compared to
  American civil courts
• Only for foreigners, American citizens would be
  put into American system

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More court alternatives

• Military Commissions Version 3.0
• Proposed by Glenn Sulmasy, law professor at U.S.
  Coast Guard Academy
• Natural evolution of current system
• Abolish preventative detention
• Trials closed to public but UN observers would be
  allowed
• Proposed to be just used on al Qaeda
• The Legal Melting Pot
• Devised by former federal prosecutor Andrew
  McCarthy
• Prosecution and defense would be drawn from a
  pool within the Justice Department and in
  militarys Judge Advocate Generals office
• Judges chosen by chief justice of Supreme Court
• Supported by Attorney General Michael Mukasey

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Politics involved in court alternatives

• Any alternative to federal court system is not
  favored by human rights groups
• Humans Rights Watch says only fairness would be
  something close to criminal justice system
• Also supported by some Democrats

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Politics Supporting Policy

• Basic principles for the policy are national
  security and respecting the Geneva Conventions
  and other international agreements
• CIA still allowed to detain suspects on a short
  term basis
• Uighurs and other inmates would face persecution
  if released to host nation
• States secrets privilege still intact
• Portugal, Albania, Yemen, U.K. has taken in
  inmates
• Urged other EU nations to do the same
• Would not allow the use of Authorization for Use
  of Military Force as a reason to detain suspects
• Support of ACLU
• Executive director Anthony Romero said the orders
  represent a big step forward and President
  Obama should be commended for this bold and
  decisive action

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American Opinion
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American Opinion Party
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American Opinion Ideology
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Politics Supporting Policy

• Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has asked his
  team for a proposal on how to shut it down and
  what would be required specifically to close it
  and move the detainees from that facility
• American people must still be protected from any
  terrorist threat
• Has left loopholes for any of the orders to be
  gotten around in case of needing severe torture
  techniques or any high ranking al Qaeda official
  is captured
• D.C. District Courts decision in Boumediene v.
  Bush
• Affirmed Constitutional rights of detainees at
  black sites to challenge their detention in U.S.
  Civil courts
• May have established a precedent giving quicker,
  more decisive trials to get the rest of the
  detainees out of Guantanamo

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Think Progress Supporting

• A liberal blog
• Want to close down Gitmo
• Putting detainees in maximum security prisons
  would serve the same purpose
• Have already put Zacharias Moussaoui on trial,
  possible for other detainees
• Believes American lives could be endangered
  either way, whether at Gitmo or in U.S.

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Human Rights First Supporting

• Single standard of conduct for all U.S.
  interrogations is necessary
• No longer use the Army Field Manual or any
  loopholes passed down by the executive office
• Types of torture used
• Water Boarding
• The Cold Cell
• Attention Slap
• Long Time Standing
• Belly Slap
• CIA has operated black sites in
• Afghanistan, Pakistan, Jordan, Morocco, Diego
  Garcia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine,
  Kosovo, Macedonia
• Held ghost detainees
• Dont report whereabouts of detainees or that
  theyre even there

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Human Rights First Supporting

• Private Contractors responsible for abuses at
  Abu-Gharib
• Also for abuse of detainees, homicides and
  assaults on the ground in Iraq
• U.S. believed to send detainees to other nations
  known for torture methods
• U.S. has called it a war, but do not follow laws
  of war
• Military Commissions Act of 2006 fails to follow
  Geneva Conventions
• POW must be tried in a regularly constituted
  court affording all the judicial guarantees which
  are recognized as indispensable by civilized
  peoples.
• Strips citizens and non-citizens of habeas corpus
• Undermines Supreme Court decision of Rasul v.
  Bush
• All detainees at Gitmo entitled to challenge
  their detention in federal court

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Politics Constraining Policy

• Fear of moving dangerous inmates to federal
  prisons
• Such as Leavenworth, Kansas and Charleston, South
  Carolina
• Some inmates will remain in U.S. custody, but
  need somewhere to put them
• Would take extensive renovations of prisons
• Create separate wings or clear out areas for the
  detainees
• Reinforced to avoid being vulnerable to terrorist
  attacks
• Secondary and tertiary concerns to town, county,
  and state
• Difficult to find nations willing to take in
  inmates
• Either too dangerous for inmates or too dangerous
  for nations
• Austria has rejected detainees
• Obama has ordered military commissions halted,
  but the detainees have neither been released nor
  proven innocent or guilty
• Slow moving administration, such as Bush
  administration

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Politics Constraining Policy

• Reformed detainees have reentered ranks of al
  Qaeda
• Said Ali Al-Shihri is deputy leader in Yemen
• 61 total have returned to terrorist organizations
• Yemen
• Yemenis make up largest group of detainees
• Poor security and porous borders will leave U.S.
  exposed to threat again
• Bagram Detention Center in Afghanistan also faces
  being closed
• Takes away another option for detainees to be
  transferred
• Obama argument of making American safer by
  closing Gitmo has holes
• Terrorists had already announced intentions
  before establishment of detention center at Gitmo

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Politics Constraining Policy

• FinkelBlog
• Conservative
• Option of reforming terrorists in Saudi Arabia
  not guaranteed to work
• American Enterprise Institutes John Yoo
• Mr. Obama may have opened the door to further
  terrorist acts on U.S. soil by shattering some of
  the nation's most critical defenses.
• Khalid Sheikh Mohammad still detained there
• Mastermind of 9/11 attacks
• Senate passed a non-binding Sense of the Senate
  Resolution
• Prevents Gitmo detainees from being transferred
  to facilities in the U.S.

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HumanEvents.com

• A conservative website
• Believe Islamic hatred towards America existed
  before Gitmo
• Gitmo is only playing a small part in
  contributing to anti-American sentiment
• Islamic youths trained to hate America from a
  young age
• Before theyre even aware of Gitmo
• Potential insults to American troops
• Closing suggests our service members have done
  something wrong
• Some inmates must still be detained and will
  claim to be tortured no matter where they are
  held
• Gitmo is going to be shut without devising a new
  plan of what to do with the inmates and how to
  treat them in the future

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Move America Forward

• Pro-troops, grassroots, non-profit organization
• If trials are conducted in U.S.
• Become show trials
• Will embarrass troops and U.S.
• Created petition to keep Gitmo open
• Conditions are not that bad
• Detainees are given regular movie nights in
  overstuffed couches, top-notch healthcare,
  air-conditioned accommodations, choices of six
  meal plans, regular exercise, art and English
  classes and every religious consideration.
• May put detainees on Welfare
• Obama effort to give them new opportunity if
  proven innocent

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Policy Window

• Obama
• Strong public dislike of Bush and all of his
  policies
• Taken advantage of with order being passed a few
  days into office
• Made drastic change ASAP
• Keeping campaign promise
• Facing major public skepticism on human rights
  and treatment of detainees at Gitmo
• Public
• Obama ordered closure so there is opportunity to
  support or amend his closure or to propose policy
  that deals with issues within Guantanamo (i.e.
  torture and interrogation)

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Policy Window Likelihood of real policy

• Strong chance with executive order already signed
• Legislation necessary to make order permanent
• Very possible with Democratic Congress
• Democrats are pro-closing Gitmo
• If none of the proposed bills pass
• Special Task Force on Detainee Disposition will
  most likely address the questions raised by the
  proposals
• Complete emptying of Gitmo supposed to happen by
  January 2010