What Will Happen To Detainees If Guantanamo Is Closed?
In the April 14th issue of The New Yorker, Jeffrey Toobin asks what will happen to the detainees once Guantanamo Bay is closed? He writes:
If a defendant is acquitted, he need not be released; he can simply be returned to detainee status at Guantánamo, to remain in custody until the end of the war on terror—raising the question of what sort of recourse the [military commission] proceedings really provide. . . .
Of the two hundred and seventy-five or so detainees now in Guantánamo, about sixty have been approved for transfer, if countries can be found to take them. . . . Of the remaining detainees, [the legal adviser to the Office of Military Commissions Brigadier General Thomas W. ] Hartmann anticipates that there is sufficient evidence to bring commissions against only between sixty and eighty. In sum, there are more than a hundred and thirty detainees for whom Administration officials acknowledge they have no plan, except indefinite detention without trial.