: Center for Terrorism Law (terrorismlaw@stmarytx.edu -: Monday, January 12, 2009 4:

Professor Jeffrey Addicott in Chattanooga Times Free Press OPED‏
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Professor Addicott has served as an expert advisor to the government on the military commission process. The attached photos are from his recent visit to the detention facility on a U.S. Southern Command sponsored inspection on 31 October 08.


CHATTANOOGA TIMES FREE PRESS
Sunday, Jan. 11, 2009 , 12:00 a.m.

Addicott: Keep GTIMO Open


By Jeffrey F. Addicott

The War on Terror demands moral as well as strategic clarity. Accordingly, it is not merely the use of military force against the "Taliban, al-Qa'eda, or associated forces," identified by the 2006 Military Commissions Act as enemy combatants. This War is also a public relations battle against the unrelenting waves of duplicitous propaganda lodged against almost every aspect of America's war effort to include attacks on our military commissions' process and our lawful detention of enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.

If soon to be President Obama "closes down GITMO," he will be providing a significant propaganda victory to our enemies. Even if Obama is attempting to derail the constant maligning of our detention operations in Guantanamo Bay, he is mistaken in the assumption that closing down the facility will result in a public relations victory.

Closing down GITMO would create a public relations disaster that would expend far beyond the logistical problems of what to do with the 80 or so detainees slated for trial by military commissions, the 60 or so detainees that the United States wants to release but can find no nation in the world to take them, and the remaining 110 or so detainees that are deemed to pose a continuing terror threat to America or its allies.

The propaganda campaigns against our efforts in GITMO come from our terrorist enemies, but they also come from a variety of ideologues who have never even visited GITMO, or, if they have, are so blinded by a predetermined agenda that they nevertheless call the military commissions process illegal, or accuse our military guards and interrogators of conducting command-directed physical and mental torture.

The detention facility may not be "Club GITMO," as commentator Rush Limbaugh is fond of calling it, but it is a fact that the most professional military on the planet conducts "safe, humane, legal and transparent care and custody of detained enemy combatants" at GITMO.

It's necessary to understand three fundamental and irrefutable facts to truly appreciate what's happening at GITMO:

(1) America is engaged in a real war as authorized by our Congress and President;

(2) under the law of war, America has the legal right to detain enemy combatants indefinitely until the war is over; and

(3) America has never formulated or practiced a policy that violates the rule of law in the context of interrogation practices against any detainee.

Military commissions are authorized by Congress and are perfectly lawful under the law of war. In fact, the rules associated with these military commissions reveal that the accused war criminals at GITMO are provided with more due process rights than allowed for by any military commissions process in the history of military commissions, in the history of warfare. Clearly, the fact that the "media" refused to give more than a passing blink to the recent conviction by military commission of al-Qa'eda enemy combatant al-Bahlul, speaks volumes - the process is valid and working well.

As accusations of abuse go, the record is equally clear. Despite the spurious allegations of torture at GITMO by some of the more the 500 detainees who have been released, not one has ever proved credible (not all liars are terrorists but all terrorists are liars).

Propaganda plays a pivotal role in determining the ebb and flow of success in the War on Terror. There is no question that America has made errors in judgment that have needed correction. But closing GITMO will not stop the negative distortions leveled against the United States regarding military commissions and detention operations. It will only embolden the false perception that we have somehow been acting in violation of the law of war. In contrast to the closing and demolition of Abu Ghraib as an act of atonement for the crimes of a handful of renegade soldiers, there is absolutely nothing at GITMO that we need to atone for.

The War on Terror is far from over. Our detention operations at GITMO are being conducted with the utmost professionalism under the watchful eyes of the nation and the world community. Moral clarity demands that America let the lawful process continue at GITMO.

Jeffrey F. Addicott [Lt. Col. (ret.) US Army] is a Distinguished Professor of Law and the director of the Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary's University School of Law, San Antonio, Texas. He has served as an expert advisor to government on the military commissions process.

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/11/addicott-keep-gtimo-open/