President Barack Obama has refused to send any suspected terrorists captured overseas to the American detention center at Guantanamo Bay. But if the U.S. starts seizing more militants in expanded military operations, where will they go, who will hold them and where will they be tried?
Those are questions that worry legal experts, lawmakers and others as U.S. special operations forces deploy in larger numbers to Iraq, Syria and, maybe soon, Libya, with the Islamic State group and affiliated organizations in their sights.
Throughout Obama’s presidency, suspects have been killed in drone strikes or raids, or captured and interrogated, sometimes aboard Navy ships. After that, they are either prosecuted in U.S. courts and military commissions or handed over to other nations.
This policy has been enough, experts say — at least for now.
“If you’re going to be doing counterterrorism operations that bring in detainees, you have to think through what you are going to do with them,” said Phillip Carter, former deputy assistant defense secretary for detainee policy. “If the U.S. is going to conduct large-scale combat operations or large-scale special ops and bring in more detainees, it needs a different solution.”
Rebecca Ingber, an associate law professor at Boston University who follows the issue, warns that if the U.S. engaged in a full ground war in Syria, “chances are there would need to be detention facilities of some kind in the vicinity.”
Obama has not sent a single suspected terrorist to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where many have been detained for years without being charged or tried — something the president says is a “recruitment tool” for militant extremists.
He is to report to Congress this month on how he wants to close Guantanamo and possibly transfer some of the remaining detainees to the United States. That report also is supposed to address the question of future detainees.
Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., believes that the absence of a long-term detention and interrogation facility for foreign terrorist suspects represents a “major shortcoming in U.S. national security policy.”
Republican candidates who want to succeed Obama are telling voters that they would keep Guantanamo open.
“Law enforcement is about gathering evidence to take someone to trial, and convict them,” said Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. “Anti-terrorism is about finding out information to prevent a future attack so the same tactics do not apply. … But, here’s the bigger problem with all this: We’re not interrogating anybody right now.”
That’s not true, said Frazier Thompson, director of the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group. The tight-lipped team of interrogators from the FBI, Defense Department, the CIA and other intelligence agencies gleans intelligence from top suspected terrorists in the U.S. and overseas.
“We were created to interrogate high-value terrorists and we are interrogating high-value terrorists,” Thompson said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Since it was established in 2009, that team has been deployed 34 times, Thompson said, adding that other government agencies conduct independent interrogations as well. “We are designed to deploy on the highest-value terrorist. We are not going out to interrogate everybody,” he said.
Thompson would not disclose details of the cases his team has worked or speculate on whether he expects more interrogation requests as the battle against IS heats up.
“If there is a surge, I’m ready to go. If there’s not, I’m still ready to go,” Thompson said.
The U.S. has deployed about 200 new special operations forces to Iraq, and they are preparing to work with the Iraqis to begin going after IS fighters and commanders, “killing or capturing them wherever we find them, along with other key targets,” Defense Secretary Ash Carter said.
Brett McGurk, special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter IS, told Congress this month that in the final six months of 2015, 90 senior to midlevel leaders were killed, including the IS leader’s key deputies: Haji Mutazz, the top leader in Iraq, and Abu Sayyaf, the IS oil minister and financier.
In May, a Delta Force raid in Syria killed IS financier Sayyaf, yielding intelligence about the group’s structure and finances. his wife, known as Umm Sayyaf, was captured
Her case illustrates how the Obama administration is prosecuting some terrorist suspects in federal courts or military commissions or leaving them in the custody of other nations.
Umm Sayyaf, a 25-year-old Iraqi, is being held in Iraq and facing prosecution by authorities there. She also was charged Feb. 9 in U.S. federal court with holding Kayla Mueller and contributing to her death in February 2015.
Ali Soufan, a former FBI agent who investigated and supervised international terrorism cases, including the U.S. Embassy bombings in East Africa and the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen the 1990s, said sending suspected terrorists through the American criminal justice system works. He said the courts are more effective than military commissions used at Guantanamo that have been slow in trying detainees who violate the laws of war.
“The current practice of investigating and prosecuting terror suspects has proved incredibly effective,” Soufan said, noting that since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, only seven people have been tried and convicted under military commissions. “During that same time period, hundreds of terrorists have been convicted in federal courts and almost all are still in jail.”
But it’s hard to evaluate the effectiveness of the system.
The Justice Department declined to provide the number of foreign terrorist suspects who have been prosecuted or the number handed over to other countries, or their status. Lawmakers, including Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., have asked the Defense Department for the numbers.
Reports on how other countries handle the suspects are classified.
Raha Wala, senior counsel at Human Rights First, also is concerned about detention operations abroad.
“The government needs to be more transparent to the American people — and to the world — about who it is transferring overseas, and what procedures are in place to make sure we are not transferring individuals into situations where human rights will be abused,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Six Foot Under US
NOT under us on our soil….an un-inhabited island-preferably one with some wild hungry animals and dump them near the shore …… maybe find one that has natives who practice cannibalism-perhaps deep in the amazon region where they will be hunted by the natives as invaders…that would be fair.
right on brother
The Question is where will we detain POW’s from ISIS ? The plan Is to NOT have any POW’s. Drone them to death. Some very uncomfortable information might be disclosed about the Gun Running in Syria that precipitated Benghazi. Can’t have too much transparency out there it’s not good for the Ruling Class. Who is the Ruling Class you ask? Can you say Federal Reserve?
The whole thing is simple interrogate them when captured then kill them no need for Gitmo
Feed em some pig liver!
FRIED IN BACON FAT. SERVED BY A CHRISTIAN.
the muslim in the white house will probably have them in for beers at the white house, have them sleep in the Lincoln bedroom and move them into Blair House.
Yup that’s his style .
Maybe the terrorists could bunk with President Obama in the White House. The president and the terrorists both seem to have the same goals.
It is good to know many of these are meeting their end via drone. If the terrorist dies in a drone attack we are spared the cost of incarceration and the decision of what to do with the prisoner in the long term.
That’s true.
The local crematorium or cemetery would do just fine. I just don’t think that the White/Black House would do them justice.
We have plenty of prisons in the US. Release non-violent drug “offenders” to make space.
THATS CALLED TRADIN UP.
We should take a lesson from “Black Jack Pershing” and put the Muslim terrorist in a pig pen and drop pamphlets that state our bullets are dipped in pig blood. Then do fly overs and clean the camp up.
Just a thought: Why not release all of the detainees at GITMO and provide transportation half way back to their homeland and let them swim the other half.
Yes the ocean is so refreshing , and sanitary .
Take no prisoners kill them all.
How many of those released to other countries remain to be tried? Concerns are expressed about whether we are then following up to be sure they are being treated humanely. I suggest the opposite might be the case. They might be being released!
After all, Obama released terrorists who have gone right back to conducting activities at an escalated rate. By letting the “release” take place from somewhere else, he thinks he can deny involvement.
If these terrorists are our prisoners of war, they need to be incarcerated under our control; incarcerated until the war is over or until they are tried and sentenced. In other words, we need Gitmo or an equivalent. Alcatraz?
I thought obma was sending them all home so they can regroup and attack again.
Alaska, MT ID No, MN No.
Place them there in Open air cells to freeze in winter.
Send those assholes to Obama’s place, if his bullshit doesn’t kill them then his racist bitch old lady will.
What is wrong with Gitmo? This is a good place to put the prisoners. Obama, by making Gitmo such a big issue is the one who makes this prison look like a problem. Obama has made everything America has done, look like a problem. Remember when he was first elected president, he apoligized to the world for America. America has done so much to stabilize the world and stop poverty. America is always the First Nation to send help, when there is a disaster, some where in the world, America is there. But Obama apoligized because he is full of hate for America.
Well said. Obama does not like America, that’s why he (and other “progressives”) wants to fundamentally change it.
I FEEL THAT WE SHOULD KEEP GITMO UNDER OUR CONTROL. IT IS VERY IMPERATIVE THAT WE DO SO. I WILL NOT PUBLISH IT HERE AND I THINK THE T.V. STATIONS
SHOULD NOT PUBLISH TOO MUCH AS IT COULD BE USED BY THE ENEMY.
If you put the terrorists into American jails, they will either be murdered by US prisoners or will try recruiting the already disgruntled American prisoners to assist in schinanigans against the US when released. I don’t like the idea of co-mingling terrorists with citizens.
The best way not to take them to cuba,
” GITMO” …..Make sure they don’t make it there . Drop them out of helicopters on the way! I don’t think they could swim back to Syria………Oh Darn!!.
You can operate an old mothballed naval vessel as a prison ship a lot cheaper than a land-based hoosegow… put it in a northern remote location !
Greenland is nice this time of year … oh wait … no it’s not. Ever.
Great.