by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright June 12, 2006
All Rights Reserved.

ommitting public relations suicide together with real self-inflicted deaths at Guantanamo Bay, the White House stubbornly refused to finally shut down Camp X-Ray, where over 450 “battlefield detainees” have been warehoused since military operations in Afghanistan following Sept. 11. When the U.S. took action against the Taliban for sheltering Osama bin Laden, the world was on the U.S. side. Since moving the front to Iraq, world opinion lost sympathy, now seeing the U.S. as the 800-pound gorilla. Nowhere, including the disastrous prisoner abuse scandal at Iraq's Abu Ghraib, has U.S. credibility been hurt more than Guantanamo Bay. White House attorneys, led by now Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales, argued that Guantanamo prisoners should not be given status under the Geneva Convention, allowing the Pentagon to hold prisoners without due process indefinitely.

      U.S. and international civil rights groups have begged the White House to treat Guantanamo's inmates as prisoners of war, giving them rights under the Geneva Convention, including Habeus Corpus, the right to petition a court. President George W. Bush has argued that terrorists don't deserve the same protections as real soldiers from recognized armies. After Sept. 11, Guantanamo Bay symbolized the U.S. get tough attitude, playing hardball with America's enemies. Today, Guantanamo represents what's wrong with American foreign policy, especially the Iraq War which robbed the U.S. of its moral authority to prosecute the war on terror. While Bush calls Iraq “the central front in the war on terror,” it's become a costly detour—and mistake. Like so many other errors, Guantanamo empitomizes the public relations disaster since the attacks of Sept. 11.

      Guantanamo paints a day-glow bull's eye on the American flag, inviting legitimate condemnation from America's enemies and shameful silence from friends and allies. Three suicides by two Saudis and one Yemini by makeshift bed-sheet-made nooses give more ugly publicity to the U.S. What began as a forceful action of self-defense has become a media nightmare of hypocrisy in American justice. “A stench of despair hangs over Guantanamo. Everyone is shutting down and quitting,” said Mark Denbeaux, a Seton Hall University law professor who, together with his son Joshua, represents two Tunisan inmates. One of his clients, Mohammed Abdul Rahman, was placed in a restraint chair and force-fed with a nasogastric tube due to a hunger strike, drawing condemnation from International medical groups. No matter how embarrassing, it's difficult to stop suicides.

      Military officials view hunger strikes and suicidal behavior as a continuation of holy war against the U.S. “They're determined, intelligent, committed elements and they continue to de everything they can . . . to become martyrs in the jihad,” said Gen. John Craddock, commander of the U.S. Southern Command, insisting the suicides were part of militants' holy war against the United States. Whatever the internal logic, inmates' suicides can't hurt U.S. national security, other than creating more bad publicity. Confining prisoners indefinitely leads to pathological behavior, including suicide. Instead of getting defensive, the U.S. should reexamine its policy of indefinite confinement, especially at high-profile, media-magnet places like Guantanamo Bay. If the U.S really believes some detainees represent at threat to national security, they should be relocated to other prisons.

      Suicides at Guantanamo give the U.S. a black eye prosecuting the war on terror. Suicide or homicide is a problem at most prisons dealing with long-term incarceration. Bush can't heed the European Union when it suits him and ignore it when it counters his foreign policy. Twenty-five members of the EU believe it's time to close Guantanamo. Swedish Prime Minister Jan Eliasson sees recent suicides as proof that the Cuba-based detention facility should be shut down. Danish Prime Minister Fogh Rasmussen believes Guantanamo violates “the very principle of the rule of law” and weakens the war on terrorism, questioning the legitimacy of anticipated military tribunals. Military tribunals conjur up images of Soviet-style kangaroo courts, where convictions and executions are rubber-stamped facts of life. Publicizing military tribunals can only make the current PR nightmare worse.

      Guantanamo Bay has become the lightning rod for everything wrong with U.S. foreign policy. Publicizing suicides only adds to the perception that the U.S. talks a good game about civil and human rights but practices another when it comes to prosecuting the war on terror. “There has to be a good procedure that balances the need to keep these people off the street with the need to find out who in fact is a terrorist,” said Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), backing Bush on the need to keep thugs and terrorists off the street. U.S. authorities can't prevent all hunger strikes or suicides contributing to adverse publicity. Guantanamo no longer serves as a feared reminder of the U.S. get-tough policy on terrorists. Keeping it open represents a losing PR battle, costing the U.S. precious credibility at a critical time in Iraq and elsewhere. Closing Guantanamo would help repair some of the damage.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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