Obama, the one person with the authority to shut down Guantanamo, lacks the political will to put the issue at the top of his priorities, Thomas Wilner, an attorney representing Gitmo inmates, told RT.
RT:Why do you think the White House isn’t getting
more involved here, it seems reluctant to put a stop to
this?
Thomas Wilner: The White House has said that it is still
interested in closing the Guantanamo but it has delegated the issue
to other people. It has also thrown up its hands and said Congress
is stopping us from doing anything. I think that is wrong. I think
the White House has to get directly involved.
RT:It could make noise. How can it get more
involved?
TW: Well, let me draw it in perspective. The woman you’ve
just talked to who is down at Guantanamo, talking about her client
about the White House improving the conditions in Guantanamo but
what is really wrong and the real cause of this hunger strike is
the absolute desperation and despair of these people. She said that
86 people down there, more than half of the people, 86 of them have
been cleared over three years.
These are innocent people who are continued to be held. My former
clients are innocent people who are wrongly held. The President can
get in and make sure that those people are released and sent home.
They do not pose a danger. Those people are desperate. They want to
die.
RT:Even if he does not think that he has the political
capital to do that, surely there are some legal ways to force their
release?
TW: The shame of this is, we have won the cases in
Guantanamo. We won the Supreme Court cases saying that these people
are entitled to the rule of law and to have a review of their
detention. They’ve now had their review and the President has
reviewed them and the 86 of them have been cleared. But the
US courts have no authority to release someone who is in
Guantanamo. They are in the hands of the President. The President
has the authority to do it. Congress has said he could do it only
with difficulty but he has the authority to do it
RT:What is the gain of keeping these people incarcerated
as they are?
TW: There is no gain in doing it from an overall sense. I
think from a political sense, the President of the United States
says, 'I have a lot of important things to do and taking care of
166 Arabs who happened to be stuck in Guantanamo is not the thing I
want to put at the top of my priorities.'
RT:How is it covered in America and what is the public
opinion about it?
TW: I want to congratulate you for covering it. Nobody in
the US has been covering Guantanamo for the past three years. If
you talk to people in the United States, they simply don’t know
about Guantanamo. They do not know today that 86 out of 166 people
down there are innocent, have been cleared, have already been
cleared. Many of the others are also innocent. They don’t know that
the people in Guantanamo weren’t picked up on a battlefield. They
were sold for bounties by Northern Alliance people. They do not
know these facts anymore because there is no more coverage in the
United States. I congratulate you for covering it.
RT:So what is the future for these people now? What do
you think is going to happen?
TW: Well the immediate future is probably that the US will
try to make some accommodation in conditions to stop the terrible
hunger strike and the threat to these people’s lives. And
clearly, I hope that the conditions improve so that these people
will begin eating again, that my clients won’t die, that innocent
man won’t die to protest. But more importantly, there’s got to be
pressure on the administration to step in and solve this. Put
somebody in charge of closing Guantanamo, relocating these
people. There is a rehabilitation center set up in Kuwait
that can be used, Saudi Arabia.
RT:Do you think we could have a conversation on what
could have been done in a year’s time?
TW: I hope not. I hope not. I hope the people would stand up
and scream and get this place closed. These people are innocent and
they should get out of there.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.