Case Western University Guantanamo Bay Report

By Michael Kraft

Amid the discussions inside and outside the government over how to deal with the hard core prisoners in Guantanamo Bay and in advance of President Obama’s reaffirmation last night of his intention to close the prison facility, Case Western University has released a new report calling for a comprehensive approach.

In brief passage in his speech to Congress last night on the nation’s economic situation, President Obama said:

“To overcome extremism, we must also be vigilant in upholding the values our troops defend — because there is no force in the world more powerful than the example of America. That is why I have ordered the closing of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay and will seek swift and certain justice for captured terrorists — because living our values doesn't make us weaker, it makes us safer and it makes us stronger. And that is why I can stand here tonight and say without exception or equivocation that the United States of America does not torture.

The Case Western University Report said that shutting down Guantanamo is a start, but it will not be a comprehensive solution to the question of security detention (detention without charges of persons deemed a threat to national security) for the United States and other countries. The report suggested it is likely that security detention will continue to be utilized, though to a lesser extent and in different venues, by the new administration. Meanwhile, the report predicted that other countries would continue to experiment with their own various security detention programs.

The report and associated articles, was published last week in the Winter 2009 issue of the Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law and can be accessed at http://www.case.edu/orgs/jil
The report came out after my February 19 roundup blog item on recidivism and released terrorists.

The report was based on two days of meetings last September by a group of U.S, and international officials, law experts and academics, at Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland by the International Committee of the Red Cross and Case Western Reserve University's Frederick K. Cox International Law Center.

Case Western Reserve University Professor Michael Scharf (and a former State Department lawyer) who organized the project was quoted in a university’s press release as saying “Guantanamo was designed as a law-free zone, a place where the government could subject detainees to indefinite incarceration and harsh treatment without having to worry about the legality of such action."