What's Next for Gitmo Detainees?

Obama Administration Struggles to Find Countries to Take Detainees

Earlier in the summer the Obama administration transferred Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, to the United States for his involvement in the '98 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Other terrorists such as Ramzi Yousef, a planner of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the so-called 20th hijacker, Zacarias Moussaoui, have been convicted in federal court.

In testimony this summer, Jeh Johnson, general counsel of the Department of Defense, said that the number of detainees approved for transfer to another country is "substantially north of 50." Already the administration has been furiously trying to find a third country for a handful of ethnic Muslims from China -- called the Uighurs—who the administration no longer believes are a threat. But finding countries willing to take former detainees has proved a prickly subject.

"Even for those who don't seem to pose much threat, it's very difficult to get other countries to open their doors, especially when our own government won't let any detainees into the United States," said Matthew Waxman of Columbia Law School, who served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs in the Bush administration.

He adds, "There are also many detainees from Yemen whom we believe are dangerous but we'd like to transfer. For them, the issue is we lack confidence that the government of Yemen can deal with them adequately, and no other country is willing to take them either."

Detainees to be Indefinitely Held

Perhaps the thorniest question of all is what to do with detainees who cannot be prosecuted yet the administration intends to continue to detain.

Obama has remained steadfast on the issue. "I am not going to release individuals who endanger the American people," he said in May. His options for dealing with the last group are limited and controversial.

"The signals the administration has sent suggest that it plans to continue holding some number of Guantanamo prisoners without charge, because the Bush administration's policies made them hard to prosecute, but that it does not intend to detain without charge suspected terrorists who may be captured in the future," said Malinowski.