Once Upon a Time, There Was ‘Guantanamo’

[unhappycamper]

http://watchingamerica.com/News/229961/once-upon-a-time-there-was-guantanamo/

Once Upon a Time, There Was ‘Guantanamo’
L'Opinione , Italy
By Stefano Magni
Translated By Anna Carapellotti
11 January 2014
Edited by Bora Mici

Guantanamo's Mahmoud Mujahid, Yemeni al-Qaida militant and alleged former bodyguard to Osama bin Laden, captured by the Americans in 2002, could soon be out on bail. The final decision has yet to be made, but this was announced yesterday by David Remes, a spokesperson for the Pentagon: “There is no justification for holding him. After 12 years at Guantanamo, it is time to reunite him with his family.”

Then again, bin Laden is already dead. The committee on Guantanamo, called by Obama at the beginning of his first term in 2009, back when he still intended to keep his campaign promise to immediately close down the large prison camp for terrorists, has already spoken on the prisoner's non-dangerous nature.

Bin Laden's former bodyguard cannot even be tried in civilian or military court. He was detained because of his role — most likely an alleged one since there are no official duties in a secret terrorist movement — at the time he was captured, but there has not been any evidence gathered legally on his anti-American activities. However, either for the sake of security or because of bureaucratic red tape, over these last five years, Mahmoud Mujahid’s name has remained on the list of the most dangerous detainees. In other words, he was unreleasable. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have always challenged Guantanamo for arbitrary detention, without trial or evidence, in extra-judiciary territory. Within a logic that is essentially legalistic, the organizations for the defense of human rights are perfectly right.

Provided we agree to equate a terrorist with an international criminal, the problem lies in understanding where crime ends and war begins. A criminal gets arrested, his rights are respected and he is considered innocent until proven guilty, deprived of his freedom — or life — only after conviction, justified through evidence and witnesses. An enemy must be fought instead, without even asking his name: A moment’s hesitation and it will be the enemy that kills you, your friends and loved ones. These are two very different approaches. Today, it seems normal for an alleged bodyguard of a deceased terrorist who has been dead for two years to return to freedom. His is simply a case of judicial malpractice, to be repaired lavishly and through a thousand pardons.