The Missing Plan For Closing Guantanamo Bay

As Barack Obama signed the executive order that will close Guantanamo Bay in the next twelve months, a former member of the United States detention center was already appearing on international television.

Ali al-Shihri, was released to Saudi Arabia in 2007 and passed through a Saudi rehabilitation program for former jihadists. Certainly, something must be lacking in that Saudi program because last week the former terrorist resurfaced on a television video as a senior member of Al Qaeda in Yemen.

Ali al-Shihri was not very repentant about his days at Guatanamo Bay. He said: "By Allah, imprisonment only increased our persistence in our principles for which we went out, did jihad for, and were imprisoned for."

The Defense Department estimates that as many as 61 of the 520 released Guantanamo detainees have returned to the battlefield. In fact, last weeks terrorist video highlights the risk the new administration faces as it moves to empty Guantanamo of its remaining 245 prisoners and close the controversial detention camp in the next year.

The ramifications of Obama's executive order to close the detention center will require that some detainees be released. Others would be charged in U.S. courts, where they could receive the constitutional rights of Americans and may have the option of open trials.

As a result, terrorist detainees with help of money secured from groups like the Council for American Islamic Relations, the ACLU, and others will secure smart, left-leaning defense attorneys. These defense attorneys will intentionally confuse combatant behavior on the lawless battlefield with the rules of evidence in United States federal law.

The goal of the terrorist defense will be to use the American justice system to gain defendant freedom on procedure, legal nuance or technicality. So, the prospect of releasing Islamic jihardists to other countries or having them gain freedom on American soil should be a security concern for every American citizen.

Eventually, terrorist detainees could return to the battlefield to once again fight against the American military or they could stay in the United States and become part of a future terrorist cell. Eventually, a released terrorist may even become part of a terrorist attack. Certainly, that would have dubious political implications for the President and the Democratic Party on a future election day.

So, Obama's executive order to close Guantanamo will surely require the creation of a new legal system in order to handle the cases of the detainees. The new legal system also needs to provide security for the classified information inherent in some of the most sensitive cases.

There now is a one year deadline to close the detention center but there is still little understanding about the handling of the cases of the detainees and the new American legal system necessary to resolve their cases.

There is risk to homeland security as well as a future political risk to the President with the closing of the Cuban military base. Indeed, when the Executive Order was signed, there should also have been a plan for the day when this country will close Guantonamo Bay.

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