So the United States wants to close down the “tainted” gulag called Guantanamo Bay Prisons but the ruling elite represented by the American congress does not want any of the prisoners “on our soil”. Let’s get the difficult question out of the way: if the U.S., who snatched these individuals from various corners of the world on the pretext that they were “enemy combatants” is not willing to habour these people, where are they going to be sent?
It brings to mind the debacle we had a while back about what to do with our nuclear waste. The argument then was to send the waste to developing countries and dump the nuclear materials for monetary compensation. It looks like we are heading toward that same argument again viz: we have toxic individuals and we cannot risk our political careers in arguing for them to be brought to the U.S., so let’s send them to other countries.
This is imperialism at its finest form. If we all recall, non of the countries in Africa, Asia and Europe were consulted before these citizens were plucked from their streets. To argue that the United States is unable to harbour criminals in the prisons we have here flies in the face of the fact the the country has some of the most secure prisons in the world. The selective ignorance of American lawmakers is grossly irritating, to say the least. The constant tendency to couch sensitive issues that may be politcal deathblows to the campaign of some office seekers around fear is frustrating. The fact is that some in congress are worried that if they vote to fund the closing of the Guantanamo Prisons, and authorize the transfer of some prisoners to the U.S., there is the risk and possibility that their opponents will run ads accusing them of making America less safe. And we all know that with the gullible citizenry we have, fear as a political weapon sells. So to save their political hides, the American Congress would rather have these prisoners sent to other countries. It is safe to assume then that the “concrete plan” being asked of president Obama is exactly that: the plan to send the prisoners to other countries.
What makes it better for the prisoners at Guantanamo to be sent to the prisons of Yemen as opposed to the Maximum Security facilities we have in the U.S.? Are the possibilities of escape better overseas than the are in the U.S.? One may tend to say yes. Unless of course, we are just looking for an escuse to continue the policy of rendition where we outsource these prisoners to other countries for arbitrary torture because “the United States does not torture”.