US PRESIDENT Barack Obama has issued a forceful defence of his decisions to end the use of torture and close the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, declaring that the Bush administration lost its way after the September 11th, 2001, attacks.
In a lengthy speech at the National Archives in Washington, where the US constitution, Bill of rights and declaration of independence are held, the president said Guantánamo had made Americans less safe.
“We are cleaning up something that is, quite simply, a mess; a misguided experiment that has left in its wake a flood of legal challenges that my administration is forced to deal with on a constant basis, and that consumes the time of government officials whose time should be spent on better protecting our country,” he said.
In a response to Mr Obama, however, former US vice-president Dick Cheney defended the torture of suspected terrorists and accused the president of “ recklessness cloaked in righteousness”.
The president’s speech came a day after the US Senate overwhelmingly rejected his request for funds to close Guantánamo amid mounting unease in Congress at the prospect of resettling some of the detainees in the US.
Mr Obama said he would not release anyone if it endangered national security but insisted that federal courts and maximum security prisons in the US could deal with many of the pending cases.
“Where demanded by justice and national security, we will seek to transfer some detainees to the same type of facilities in which we hold all manner of dangerous and violent criminals within our borders – highly secure prisons that ensure the public safety.
“As we make these decisions, bear in mind the following fact: nobody has ever escaped from one of our federal ‘supermax’ prisons, which hold hundreds of convicted terrorists,” he said.
“Some have derided our federal courts as incapable of handling the trials of terrorists. They are wrong. Our courts and juries of our citizens are tough enough to convict terrorists, and the record makes that clear.”
Mr Obama said that, while some of the 240 detainees at Guantánamo could face trial in federal courts, others would be tried by military commissions and a few dozen would be resettled, if possible, in third countries. He identified a fourth category, however, of prisoners deemed too dangerous to be released but who could not be prosecuted for past offences.
“Examples of that threat include people who have received extensive explosives training at al-Qaeda training camps, commanded Taliban troops in battle, expressed their allegiance to Osama bin Laden, or otherwise made it clear that they want to kill Americans. These are people who, in effect, remain at war with the United States,” Mr Obama said.
“We must have clear, defensible and lawful standards for those who fall in this category. We must have fair procedures so that we don’t make mistakes. We must have a thorough process of periodic review, so that any prolonged detention is carefully evaluated and justified.”
Mr Cheney, who spoke at the American Enterprise Institute minutes after the president’s speech, said the September 11th attacks required a new approach from the US government to prevent another terrorist strike on US soil.
He said “tough interrogations” were essential in gathering intelligence that could prevent further attacks. “The interrogations were used on hardened terrorists after other efforts failed. They were legal, essential, justified, successful, and the right thing to do. The intelligence officers who questioned the terrorists can be proud of their work and proud of the results, because they prevented the violent death of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of innocent people,” he said.
The former vice-president criticised Mr Obama’s decision to publish legal memos the Bush administration used to justify the use of torture, arguing that al-Qaeda operatives would now be able to resist interrogation more effectively. He also rejected Mr Obama’s argument that Guantánamo and the use of torture had served as recruiting tools for terrorists.
“This recruitment-tool theory has become something of a mantra lately, including from the president himself. And after a familiar fashion, it excuses the violent and blames America for the evil that others do. It’s another version of that same old refrain from the left, “We brought it on ourselves”,” Mr Cheney said.
“It is much closer to the truth that terrorists hate this country precisely because of the values we profess and seek to live by, not by some alleged failure to do so. Nor are terrorists or those who see them as victims exactly the best judges of America’s moral standards.”