The quagmire of Guantanamo

As President Obama appoints an official to edge the closing of the facility, we ask if any real progress is being made. ”Cliff by ”PJ has two challenges: one is obviously to see what can be done to resettle the detainees and to see whether there is an effective rehabilitation programme in place to accept them – but largely his challenge is to work with Congress there is stiff resistance to closing Guantanamo.”] The continuing hunger strike by over 100 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay has only served to draw attention to one of the most glaring unkept promises of Obama’s presidency. When asked about a timeline for closing Guantanamo, state department spokeswoman, Jennifer Psaki, said there wasn’t one, but that it is something the US is committed to: “Clearly, when the president of the United States talks about something in his speech, when we’ve taken follow-up steps like appointing this official to work here at the state department, this is something we are committed to. As it increasingly also becomes a medical ethics–free zone, we believe it’s time for the medical profession to take constructive political action to try to heal the damage and ensure that civilian and military physicians follow the same medical ethics principles.” It continued: “Using a physician to assault prisoners no more changes the nature of the act than using physicians to ‘monitor’ torture makes torture a medical procedure. “Military physicians are no more entitled to betray medical ethics than military lawyers are to betray the Constitution or military chaplains are to betray their religion.” To discuss the latest developments around Guantanamo Bay, Inside Story Americas, with presenter Shihab Rattansi is joined by guests: David Remes, the legal director of Appeal for Justice, a human rights and civil liberties litigation firm which represents 18 Guantanamo detainees; Carlos Warner, a federal public defender who represents 11 Guantanamo prisoners; and PJ Crowley, who has served as US assistant secretary of state for public affairs between 2009 and 2011, and is currently a fellow at the George Washington University institute for public diplomacy and global communications.