06 Sep A Tactical Retreat: Bush Closes the CIA Prisons and Renews the Fight for Military Commissions
President Bush announced today that he is transferring 14 suspects from CIA custody to detention at Guantanamo Bay, including alleged Al Qaeda leader Khalid Sheik Mohammed. This would, according to Bush, remove all detainees from CIA custody. During the same speech, Bush argued that the CIA prisons had been crucial to the ability of the U.S. government to prevent terrorist attacks.
At the same time, Bush is announcing a renewed push to get legislation reinstating military commission trials for Al Qaeda terrorists in response to this past summer’s decision in Hamdan. The actual details of this latest bill is not yet available online (I think) but it is reportedly staying firm on at least one issue: detainees would not have the right to access to all evidence being used against them.
In a simultaneous release (a busy news day), the Pentagon released a revised version of the Army Field Manual for interrogation, according to the AP. This also appears to prohibit the most aggressive techniques and does not contain a “secret section” of methods, as had been previously suggested.
Overall, this seems like a pretty smart strategy, necessitated by political and legal realities. The key is in the details, though, and I trust the blogosphere will dissect the proposed legislation, the new army field manual, and the aftermath of the CIA prison system, in the days (or perhaps hours) to come.
Julian,
I have posted a link to the President’s proposed MC legislation on my personal blog at: http://www.lawandterrorism.com
Best,
Greg McNeal
Julian is correct to state that the Administration’s new Military Commission proposal still allows for the exclusion of the defendant from selected proceedings to protect classified information, a bone of contention for many critics and a point which will surely be hotly debated.
My colleague Michael Scharf, testified before the House Armed Services Committee last month regarding how International Tribunals handle the requirement that a defendant be present to challenge the evidence against him.
His testimony is linked to from my blog post here along with a summary of the provisions for the protection of classified information.
And JURIST has an informative news post on the aforementioned Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogation, which makes explicit reference to the Geneva Conventions.
I’m a little unclear on something here – is the fact that he’s transferring 14 detainees to Guantanamo the reason why he’s saying the secret prison project is closing? if so, what happened the to rest of the secret detainees? I seem to remember Human Rights First doing a report on Ghost detainees that put the figure higher than that.
On the one hand my instinctive reaction to this is that it’s good from a rights-enforcement perspective (sure there are going to be lowered standards in GB to what there’s be in domestic prisons, but at least there’s SOME kind of review mechanism). My second reaction is this seems a little counterintuitive, like there’s something more to it. Hamdan doesn’t close the door on the SC finding constitutional rights for GB detainees (in fact I think they should, can and will) – would any breaches of constitutional rights done outside US territory but by US officials then come into play if the SC allowed an original habeas petition from a Guantanamo detainee??
I don’t know….something just doesn’t feel quite ‘right’ about this; maybe my expectations of the Administration’s ethics have just been unrealistically lowered over recent years.
fdelondras, I think your misgivings are right. This may not so much be a retreat as a feint.
Others are postulating that this is an election year stunt, especially given the timing of the roll out right before the fifth year anniversary of the September Eleventh Attacks. See here, here, and here.
Maybe they’re taking Professors Anderson and Alford’s suggestion seriously. Have the debate while you still have a majority in Congress, maybe get the legislation you want, and at the very least have a great campaign ad against the Democrats this fall.
On my reading, the “most aggressive techniques” (eg “stress positions”, sleep deprivation, “waterboarding”) were already pretty explicitly prohibited by the previous version of the Army FM 34-52 manual. It seems that the new version does not cover interrogations by CIA, so not much may change from this “tactical retreat”. Indeed, Bush’s speech yesterday looks to me as though it is essentially saying “You can’t stop us continuing to torture”.
I think a fact that is kind of getting swept under the carpet here is the fact that these secret CIA detentions existed in the first place. The administration and CIA have denied their existence over inquiries by human rights groups, the Council of Europe, and the European Parliament.
Now I know the whole point of the CIA is to be secret, but having them actually hold prisoners for indefinite periods of time frightens me. If we know how bad Guantanamo is, despite all the assurances of the executive…can you imagine what these secret prisons are like? I also find it suspect that the administration will only admit these things when cornered.
Now Bush says that the only way these prisoners will ever face justice is if Congress passes his bill. I feel like this administration has conflated “justice” with “revenge.”
I think a fact that is kind of getting swept under the carpet here is the fact that these secret CIA detentions existed in the first place. The administration and CIA have denied their existence over inquiries by human rights groups, the Council of Europe, and the European Parliament.
Now I know the whole point of the CIA is to be secret, but having them actually hold prisoners for indefinite periods of time frightens me. If we know how bad Guantanamo is, despite all the assurances of the executive…can you imagine what these secret prisons are like? I also find it suspect that the administration will only admit these things when cornered.
Now Bush says that the only way these prisoners will ever face justice is if Congress passes his bill. I feel like this administration has conflated “justice” with “revenge.”
Moving beyond secret prisons By Benjamin Davis As the President has now made his long awaited admission that there have been secret CIA prisons around the world in which individuals have been held in prolonged, secret incommunicado detention in clear violation of international law (see American Society of International Law Centennial Resolution at http://www.asil.org/events/am06/resolutions.html), one has a sense of relief that the coverup is lifting and the truth at least in part has finally started to come out. In due course I am certain we will learn that the “tough” interrogation techniques admittedly used in these secret detention facilities violated Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. Thus, if one was somehow still in denial, one must come to terms with the dawning realization through these admissions that violations of international humanitarian law and war crimes have been committed by the United States that were authorized by the highest levels of civilian authority of the United States. It is important that we do not think of this failure of our leadership to respect the most elemental aspects of international law as a failure of the Executive. In time, I hope that the ranking members of the Senate and House committees… Read more »