Gitmo Clock Marks 350 Days Since President Obama's Promise to Resume Releasing Prisoners from Guantánamo; 77 Cleared Men Still Held

The logo for the Gitmo Clock, launched by the "Close Guantánamo" campaign in summer 2013, which marks how many days it is since President Obama's promise to resume releasing prisoners from Guantánamo, and how many men have been freed.

Please visit, like, share and tweet the Gitmo Clock, which marks how many days it is since President Obama's promise to resume releasing prisoners from Guantánamo (350), and how many men have been freed (just 12).

By Andy Worthington, May 8, 2014

Today (May 8) marks 350 days since President Obama's promise, in a major speech on national security issues on May 23 last year, to resume releasing prisoners from Guantánamo. Since that time, however, just 12 men have been released, even though 75 of the 154 prisoners still held were cleared for release in January 2010 by the high-level, inter-agency Guantánamo Review Task Force that President Obama established shortly after taking office in 2009.

In addition, two more men have been cleared for release this year by a Periodic Review Board, consisting of representatives of the Departments of State, Defense, Justice and Homeland Security, as well as the Offices of the Director of National Intelligence and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who are reviewing the cases of 71 men recommended for ongoing imprisonment or for prosecution by the task force.

Last year we at "Close Guantánamo" established the Gitmo Clock to mark how long it is since President Obama's promise, and to note how many men have been freed. Please visit the Gitmo Clock, like it, share it and tweet it if you are disappointed that just 12 men have been freed in the last 350 days, and if you want more action from President Obama.

President Obama's promise to resume releasing prisoners from Guantánamo was triggered by a prison-wide hunger strike, which reminded the world of the ongoing injustice of Guantánamo and resulted in widespread criticism of the president's failure to close the prison as he promised when he took office in 2009. The promise came after a period of nearly three years in which just five prisoners were released, after Congress raised obstacles that the president found it politically inconvenient to overcome.

The obstacles were indeed onerous, requiring the president and the defense secretary to certify that, if released, prisoners would be unable to engage in terrorism (a promise that was, I believe, impossible to make), but the legislation contained a waiver allowing the president to bypass Congress if he regarded it as being "in the national security interests of the United States," which, nevertheless, the president refused to use.

As noted above, since his promise last May, the president has released 12 men from Guantánamo, but 77 cleared prisoners remain. At this rate, it will take until 2020 for the cleared prisoners to be released. This is unforgivable, especially because, in December, Congress eased its restrictions on the release of prisoners.

In his speech last May, President Obama promised to appoint two envoys to deal with the closure of Guantánamo, which he subsequently did, appointing two Washington veterans to the posts, Cliff Sloan at the State Department and Paul Lewis at the Pentagon. These men have been involved in the release of the 12 men, and are, presumably involved in ongoing negotiations to release 20 of the 77 other cleared prisoners who are still held, but for the 57 other cleared prisoners the problem is that they are Yemenis, and the Obama administration is unwilling to release them, citing worries about the security situation in Yemen.

This is completely unacceptable, as it thoroughly undermines the purpose and credibility of both the Guantánamo Review Task Force and the Periodic Review Boards. In addition, as I have repeatedly stated, it represents behavior on the part of the US that is more cruel than that of dictators, who, when they flout international law by imprisoning people without charge or trial, as at Guantánamo, do not pretend that there is a review process that will lead to the prisoners' release, and then follow up by not releasing them. That cruelty has cast a pall of despair over the remaining prisoners at Guantánamo, and with good reason.

To address it, the president needs to immediately release the Yemenis prisoners who have been cleared for release -- if not all 57, then at least those whose immediate release was recommended by the task force in January 2010 -- 25 men in total, who were not released because, in December 2009, a Nigerian Man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who was recruited in Yemen, tried and failed to blow up a plane bound for Detroit with a bomb in his underwear, and, in the resulting hysterical backlash, President Obama imposed a moratorium on releasing Yemenis from Guantánamo, which he only lifted on his speech last May. At the time, he said that the Yemenis would be reviewed "on a case by case basis," but in the last 350 days not one of them has been released.

Here at "Close Guantánamo," we believe that all the Yemenis cleared for release should be freed, although we recognize that starting with the 25 would be less contentious politically. We acknowledge that, back in January 2010, the task force recommended 30 other Yemenis for "conditional detention," which it described as being "based on the current security environment in that country."

The task force added, "They are not approved for repatriation to Yemen at this time, but may be transferred to third countries, or repatriated to Yemen in the future if the current moratorium on transfers to Yemen is lifted and other security conditions are met."

With the moratorium now lifted, these 30 men should, logically, join their 25 compatriots on the next plane home, but, as noted above, we are prepared to accept that, as a first move, the 25 men who were told in January 2010 that the US had no interest in continuing to hold them should be released, with the 30 others following once it has been established that the release of their 25 compatriots has been a success.

The two other cleared Yemenis are those whose release was recommended by their Periodic Review Boards, and for those reviews to have any credibility, they too should be released as soon as possible.

What you can do now

Call the White House and ask President Obama to release the Yemeni prisoners whose release has been recommended by the Guantánamo Review Task Force and the Periodic Review Boards. Call 202-456-1111 or 202-456-1414 or submit a comment online.

Please also visit this page on the Witness Against Torture website to see a list of protests to mark the first anniversary of President Obama's speech on May 23, and, if you can, please do get involved.