ATTORNEY General Eric Holder toured Guantanamo Bay this week, a “fact finding” visit prompted by President Obama’s “close Gitmo” order.
One wonders if his eyes were open to the facts on the ground – given Holder’s evident conflict of interest.
Holder’s previous job, after all, was as a senior partner with Covington and Burling – a white-shoe DC law firm that devotes considerable pro bono time to defending the Gitmo detainees. The job paid $2 million a year, and he expects to collect a like amount this year as part of his separation package.
As a senior partner, he undoubtedly had significant input on what kind of charity cases his firm picked up. He surely knew that dozens of lawyers from from his firm were among the 500-plus civilian lawyers representing the 244 or so remaining detainees (on top of military-court-appointed defenders).
Even now, his Covington colleagues continue to allege rampant torture at Gitmo. They’re fighting hard to have detainees tried through the US court system – essentially given the same rights as US citizens. And their arguments and plans hinge largely on having Holder issue a bad report card.
Recent polls indicate that at least half of Americans disagree with affording the detainees legal rights on US soil. Will they have the same access to Holder’s ears as his former colleagues do?
Will the people that Holder recently called a “nation of cowards” on racial issues be prepared to handle the truth from Gitmo – that, aside from three isolated cases of abuse in fall 2002, treatment at Gitmo has been transparent and exemplary?
If he tells the truth, Holder will report back that detainees are treated far more humanely and safely than in most US prisons – and are accorded religious respect in the form of individual Korans, prayer beads and orange cones in hallways during prayer time to remind US guards to speak softly.
He’ll tell the president that the amount of actionable intelligence information flowing from Guantanamo is significant, has thwarted attacks on America and broken up sleeper cells here and in Europe. And that such intelligence gives us the tools to intercept al Qaeda money-laundering and cash transfers, defeat improvised explosive devices and disrupt terrorist recruiting and organizing.
If he toured the hospital and dental facilities, he saw more modern equipment than is available to the soldiers and sailors who guard and treat the detainees. Perhaps he was impressed by the digital radiological equipment or the physical-therapy ward with prostheses for detainees of the same quality available to wounded US soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Did Holder have the courage to speak quietly with the brave men and women who walk the blocks daily, subject to constant verbal and physical attack by the detainees? If so, maybe he learned of the young female medic who, while treating a detainee, had her face smashed against the bars, requiring 16 plastic surgeries to repair the damage.
Or of the nurse who returned to treat a detainee who’d punched her viciously in the face. “Why?” he asked. “Because you are my patient,” she replied – after listening to him shout for a change of clothing because “this infidel whore’s blood has defiled me.”
Or perhaps the fact that African-American medics and guards are constantly called the “N” word by detainees grabbed his attention.
The Holder visit gives Obama the chance to revise his policy of closing the facility within a year by taking credit for “fixing” Gitmo. An honest public report from the AG will let the president say, It was bad, but now it’s better, thanks to me.
When it comes to national security, results are more important than credit. If Obama insists on reflexively criticizing his predecessor’s policies but continues measures, such as keeping Gitmo open, that keep Americans safe, then we ought to be grateful. Even if with an asterisk.
Gordon Cucullu, a former Army lieutenant colonel, is author of “Inside Gitmo: The True Story Behind the Myths of Guantanamo Bay.”