The $607 billion "defense" bill passed by the Senate on Tuesday includes a ban on transferring men held in Guantánamo to U.S. prisons, undermining President Obama's plan to institutionalize the practice of indefinite detention.
"On the point of transfer to the U.S., the U.S. wants to hold people in the U.S. without charge, indefinitely detain them, without any sort of due process," says Omar Shakir, a Bertha fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights. "They would be placed in a black hole where they are not subject to any sort of legal process."
Politicians from both sides of the aisle debate the future of Guantanamo at the expense of prisoners' lives. True "closure" of the detention camp can only be accomplished with a determination to charge or release all inhabitants.
see No Excuses
