Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif died last week. He died alone in a cell without the presence of his family members, friends or relatives. We don't know whether he died of despair, natural causes or suicide. A Yemeni, Latif was the ninth detainee to die in Guantanamo, the most frightening face of the “war on terror" which President George W. Bush launched in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. These unfortunate human beings are being held without charge or trial in conditions that are as subhuman and appalling as they are unlawful and unconscionable. The prisoners are kept in isolation except for one hour a day, they can hope for direct sunlight only six hours a month, and there is never, never the chance to see a loved one. No wonder many are driven to suicide. It is detention without trial. Many were arrested not by evidence of wrongdoing, but by accident of nationality. Some like Latif were arrested because they happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. He happened to be in Afghanistan when the Bush administration was paying substantial bounties for “terrorists" or anyone of those who wanted to receive the US bounty apprehended. Those captured were held in nine separate camps at Guantanamo . Since there are no charges gainst them and no trial there is no end in sight to their ordeal. The United States government claims the legal authority to hold men like Latif until the “war on terror" ends, nobody knowing when it will end if at all it ends. This was not how things were supposed to turn out once Barack Obama came to office. In fact, Obama signed an executive order on Jan. 22, 2009 announcing the closure of the Guantanamo Bay. Central to the president's human rights policy was the closure of the detested facility within a year from the first day he entered the White House. Now his first term will end within two months, but the prison that has become synonymous with international kidnapping, detention without trial and barbaric torture still remains open. All indications are that it will stay open for decades to come, jailing even American citizens. The closure seems even more remote now than when the Obama presidency began. This is tragic because Obama is the one president who could have closed the Guantanamo facility. He allowed that opportunity to pass by making it certain that the infamous prison will remain a permanent blot on America's reputation. Obama's supporters may argue the president's plans had been undermined by mounting congressional opposition. This only means the president did not or could not make a convincing case for the closure of the facility. It will be more true to say that he allowed sinister electoral calculations and a willingness to make any compromise to avoid the charge of being “weak on national security" to change his mind. Whatever the truth, Obama's timidity or passivity has made it difficult for any future president to close Guantanamo. The argument will be, if Obama for all his liberal credentials and campaign promises could not do it how can anyone else? So it is quite possible that historians will blame Obama more than they would Bush for the enduring shame of the Guantanamo.
