rssRights Groups Demand Full Access to Gitmo
Friday, January 30, 2009 at 3:43 pm
- 5 Comments
President Obama really opened a big fat can of worms when he issued those executive orders last week. Not only did he make all sorts of promises on state secrets that he’s now being called on to fulfill, but in promising to review the conditions of detention at Guantanamo Bay, he opened himself up to the obvious request today from some of the nation’s most prominent civil and human rights groups: Let us in!
The Bush administration, of course, was extraordinarily secretive about Gitmo, allowing only carefully circumscribed guided tours of model parts of the facility for human rights workers and journalists. Even lawyers representing Gitmo detainees were not allowed to meet privately with their clients and had to turn over their notes for inspection before leaving the facility.
Now, the heads of the ACLU, Human Rights First, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are following up on Obama’s promises to “immediately undertake a review of the conditions of detention at Guantánamo to ensure full compliance with [Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions],” and making their own request for “full access to the Guantánamo Bay detention camps so that we may independently review and report on the conditions of confinement there and make concrete recommendations for change.”
Given his big promises, it’s hard to see how President Obama — even under Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a holdover from the Bush administration — will be able to deny their request.
5 Comments
Comment posted January 30, 2009 @ 3:46 pm
You know, he may have every intention of allowing them in. We shouldn't just reflexively assume that was all talk, at least not until Obama does something genuinely hypocritical.
Right now Guantanamo is Bush's mess… I seriously doubt he wants to “own” that problem, and that's exactly what would happen if starts denying requests like these.
Comment posted January 30, 2009 @ 5:00 pm
LET THEM ALL GO VISIT….GIVE THEM AN OPPORTUNITY TO STAY IN ONE OF THE CELLS. FEED THEM. CLOSE DOWN THE CAMP AND LEAVE THEM BEHIND IN THE CELLS….CASE CLOSED.
Comment posted January 31, 2009 @ 9:23 am
It may be Bush's mess but Obama has to clean it up. Opening the place up for inspection by these groups should be an easy call but Obama the president is not the same as Obama the candidate. I'm betting he won't allow these groups in because that would expose too much and open Obama up to criticism from Republicans and the subservient press. As if that should matter to Obama but strangely it will. The watchword is secrecy. Government secrecy will still rule in this administration except for some minor cosmetic adjustments around the margins.
Comment posted January 31, 2009 @ 5:23 pm
It may be Bush's mess but Obama has to clean it up. Opening the place up for inspection by these groups should be an easy call but Obama the president is not the same as Obama the candidate. I'm betting he won't allow these groups in because that would expose too much and open Obama up to criticism from Republicans and the subservient press. As if that should matter to Obama but strangely it will. The watchword is secrecy. Government secrecy will still rule in this administration except for some minor cosmetic adjustments around the margins.
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