Inside Gitmo
Chapter 14: The Future of Guantanamo
Content Summary
- This is the heart of the issue: if detainees are not going to be housed at Guantanamo then where will they be kept? Will they be relocated to US soil or released outright? Tried in the US judicial system? Freed - maybe in America - if poor battlefiel evidence collection or safeguarding of classified information does not conform sufficiently to strict evidentiary standards?
- These are not mere academic hypothetical questions. Federal judges, advocacy groups, and pressure from domestic and international activists all point to these as plausible solutions to the "problem" of Guantanamo.
- Learn here some of the real, meaty issues that are certain to arise if an Obama administration moves arbitrarily to close Gitmo without sufficient forethought.
- These issues - regardless of how you think and feel about the existence of Guantanamo - will affect every American citizen. This is a critical issue that needs to be debated openly, unemotionally, and based on fact, not myth.
- Since these issues will affect you and your friends and family you need to become fully aware of them and the factual basis for the debate. Inside Gitmo is an excellent beginning, and using this web site and the multiplicity of resources contained herein: news, blogs, podcasts, discussion groups, references, and more will give you the tools required to be an informed citizen on this issue. I urge you to take advantage of our work and to become involved.
Reprinted end notes from chapter fourteen of the book, with links to source
documents
and other supporting materials
1. For a summary of some shocking intelligence failures, see Congressman
Curt Weldon, Countdown to Terror: The Top Secret Information That
Could Prevent the Next Terrorist Attack on America . . . and How the CIA
Has Ignored It. Washington, DC: Regnery, 2005.
2. Khan, My Guantánamo Diary, p. 65.
3. News releases, U.S. Department of Defense, March– June 2007.
4. Tom Junod, “Innocent,” Esquire, Vol. 146, Issue 1, July 2006.
5. Adam Lisberg, “An Exclusive Look at Lindh’s Life Behind Bars,” New
York Daily News, April 2, 2006.
6. “Exclusive: Marine Sergeant Comes Forward to Report Abuse at Guantánamo
Bay,” ABC News, October 12, 2006.
7. Rodriguez interview, December 2005.
8. “Afghans Declare Guantánamo Bay Jail Conditions ‘Humane,’ ” Fox
News, July 14, 2006.
9. Nat Hentoff , “Gitmo’s Innocent Victims,” Washington Times, March 6,
2006. [Inside Gitmo website administrative note: this article was previously located at http://www.washingtontimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20060305-093315-9638r but has been removed.]
10. Dana Priest, “CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons,” Washington
Post, November 2, 2005, p. A01.
11. Sarah E. Mendelson, “Closing Guantánamo: From Bumper Sticker to
Blueprint: A report of the CSIS Human Rights and Security Initiative
and the Working Group on Guantánamo and Detention Policy,” Center
for Strategic and International Studies, September 2008.
12. Julian E. Barnes, “Guantánamo Closure Not an Easy Prospect,” Los Angeles
Times, April 14, 2008, http://articles.latimes.com/2008/apr/14/nation/na -gitmo14 .
13. Ibid.
14. Martha T. Moore, “Guantánamo Bay Puzzles Candidates,” USA Today,
June 18, 2007.
15. Tom Curry, “What Are the Alternatives to Guantánamo?” MSNBC,
December 1, 2007.
16. Senator Sam Brownback, “Don’t Put Detainees at Ft. Leavenworth,” Los
Angeles Times, April 18, 2008.
17. Moore, “Guantánamo Bay Puzzles Candidates.”
18. Thom Shanker and David Sanger, “New to Job, Gates Argued for Closing
Guantánamo,” New York Times, March 23, 2007.
19. Curry, “What Are the Alternatives?”
20. Barnes, ”Guantánamo Closure.”
21. Ariane de Vogue, “ ‘Ironic’ Task: Resettling Gitmo Detainees Refugee
Group Prepares to Help Uighur Detainees from Guantánamo Bay Settle
in the U.S.; Justice Department Prepares Appeal of Court Ruling,” ABC
News, October 7, 2008. http://www.abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/Story?id=5977907&page=2 .
22. “China: Attacks Possibly Linked to Terror Groups,” USA Today, August 13,
2008. http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-08-13-china-terrorN.htm . [Inside Gitmo website administrative note: this article is now located at http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-08-13-china-terror_N.htm .]
23. Hope Yen, “Judge: Let Chinese Muslims from Guantánamo into US,”
Associated Press, October 7, 2008. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081007/apongocastpe/guantanamochinesedetainee;ylt=ArurTzmsAUncDg4mfEN4dIDW7oF .[Inside Gitmo website administrative note: the cited URL is no longer valid, although the article can still be read at http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/10/07-15 .]
24. Ibid.
25. Barnes, “Guantánamo Closure.”
26. Jim Garamone, “Commander Discusses Perceptions of Guantánamo,”
American Forces Press Service, June 27, 2007.
27. Jed Babbin, “The Gitmo Varsity.”
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Chapter Summaries & Source Documents
Join the Inside Gitmo discussion group
The Inside Gitmo email-based discussion group on Guantanamo's detention facility is intended to encourage rational, civil discussion of the myriad issues and problems associated with the facility, the detainees, and the staff.
Note that in the coming months I will be participating in dozens of radio shows across the country, and asked to speak on Guantanamo topics in a variety of different venues.
Rather than operating in a vacuum, the questions, comments, thoughts and exchanges from a wide variety of different people will enrich my perspectives and understanding of what others think and believe about Guantanamo.
Journalists, lawmakers, analysts, students, law enforcement professionals, and foreign affairs experts are encouraged to join.
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 "I've also been 'inside GITMO,' and Cucullu's riveting account shows why we've been safer with it — and why we may soon regret being without it."— Monica Crowley, host of the Monica Crowley Show and author of Nixon in Winter
 "Our new president should read it — twice — and take its truth-telling to heart." — Ralph Peters, columnist and author of Looking For Trouble
 "Every relevant military and civilian official should give Cucullu's analysis a fair hearing." — Victor Davis Hanson, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and the author of An Autumn of War
 "An explosive expos of what's really been happening - 'inside the wire' at Guantanamo. Gordon Cucullu - with his Special Forces background, thorough research and extensive visits to Gitmo - knows more about the now-infamous detention facility than any 'outsider.' This book is a must-read for all who care about how we protect ourselves from those who are dying to kill us." — Oliver North, LtCol USMC (Ret.), host of War Stories on FOX News Channel & NYT bestselling author of American Heroes in the Fight Against Radical Islam
 "Inside Gitmo is a book of incalculable importance. It lays bare the myths and the stakes involved in the campaign to shut down a facility that any objective reader must conclude is vital to our national security. Every policy-maker in Washington and every citizen across America should study this books brilliant first-hand reporting and its alarming findings." — Frank Gaffney, Jr, President, Center for Security Policy and author of War Footing
 "Gordon Cucullu has written a lively work of history that fulfills its promise to explode 'the myths of Guantanamo Bay.' Anyone who wants to speak authoritatively about the Bush administration's detainee policies has to read this book." — Douglas J. Feith, senior fellow, Hudson Institute, former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, and author of War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism
The "Living Book" Concept
The "Living Book" Concept
This companion web site to Inside Gitmo was conceived and executed by Avery Johnson in collaboration with Chuck Martin. As a highly skilled, experienced researcher, Avery imposes strict demands on her work and that of author's with whom she works. Every stated fact must be backed by hard documentation. Hence readers find 524 citations in Inside Gitmo from a multiplicity of sources. Avery took that as "a good start."
Her concept - that you can interact with on these pages - is that with an issue as dynamic and multi-faceted as Guantanamo is too large to be captured only in a work of print. In order to complement and supplement the final work so that readers may continue to be apprised of developments on this critical subject and dig deeper into subjects that interest them, it is necessary and valuable to take advantage of technology.
Illustrative of this concept is that this site functions as a repository for all original documents used in the book as well as providing additional sources for continued research into the subject. For readers seeking context for specific passages referenced in the book, the site provides access to the original report, news article, book, or other source quoted. By so doing we are able to circumvent necessary space limitations in print by augmenting the book with electronic back-up.
Additionally, the site goes where print cannot: it provides an email based discussion group, videos, updated news articles, a blog, podcasts, and other resources. It highlights new developments, steers readers to newly published works, and offers visitors the opportunity to purchase relevant works from the site.
I think that this concept - a continually updated, vibrant companion website for a published book with complete references included - ought to be the new gold standard in publishing and strongly urge new and proven writers and authors to advantage themselves of these services.
Avery Johnson and her team can be contacted at avery.j@comcast.net.
I'm a retired Green Beret lieutenant colonel, Vietnam War veteran and career officer, and now a writer. After serving more than thirteen years in East Asia I was sent on assignments in El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, and eventually worked Korea and East Asian affairs at both the Pentagon and Department of State.
My many adventures since then have included raising llamas and alpacas in upstate New York, serving as the Executive Director of the Korea Society in Manhattan, working as an international marketing VP for General Electric in Asia, and traveling within corners of the world that few have had the privilege of experiencing.
In April-May 2008 I spent a month embedded with Military Police units in Iraq. Stories from my trip are posted at supportamericansoldiers.com — a book about what I saw and learned is also in the making.
My first book Separated at Birth: How North Korea became the Evil Twin was published in September 2004. |
Author's Notes
Many of the articles and works referenced in the book Inside Gitmo contain highly controversial, often inflamatory, and frequently inaccurate information. I cited these works for very specific reasons - to extract quotes, show contravailing points of view, and, in cases where factual information is contained in the piece, to use sources that may be intellectually opposed to Guantanamo for balance.
Use of these varied references does not imply that I agree with most, all, or any of the content. They are used for the reasons noted above, and ought to be read in context with the entire book for complete understanding.
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