WASHINGTON – An advocacy group that includes at least two retired generals Tuesday launched a national TV and Internet ad campaign urging Americans to push Congress to shut down the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, saying failure to do so would serve as a recruiting tool for al-Qaida and harm the moral stature of the U.S.
The National Campaign to Close Guantanamo will air ads on TV networks and hundreds of Web sites, according to Tom Andrews, a former Maine congressman who is running the campaign and is a founder of New Security Action, which is sponsoring the campaign. The first round of ads will cost about $100,000, he said.
“Our hope is that we can transform this climate into one in which Americans look at this … based upon reason and the best of American values… and not upon fear mongering and hysteria,” said Andrews.
Since 2002, the U.S. has detained prisoners it considered terrorists at Guantanamo Bay. According to the White House about 800 prisoners have been held at the prison since 2002; New Security Action, a left-leaning group that is sponsoring the campaign, said most were held without being charged with a crime. Interrogation methods used on prisoners have been called torture by a number of experts.
“There’s no question in my mind that the excesses that we used in Gitmo in torturing the prisoners is an issue still very much in the minds of those who recruit the terrorists to fight our troops and kill them,” said retired Lt Gen. Robert Gard in a telephone news conference.
He was joined by retired Brig. Gen. John Johns, who said, “I joined the campaign to ban torture several years ago because of my concern about the loss of moral stature by the United States.” Both he and Gard are affiliated with the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.
President Barack Obama signed an order to close Guantanamo during his first week in office. But he has faced strong opposition from Republicans in Congress who say transferring prisoners from Guantanamo to U.S. military prisons would threaten the American people. The initial deadline for closing the prison, Jan. 22, 2010, has been pushed back. No new deadline has been set for its closure.
“There is a young officer on the ground somewhere in Iraq or Afghanistan right now who’s trying to do their job every day and is completely undermined by the Bush and Cheney policy with regards to torture,” said Jon Soltz of Vote Vets, which is participating in the campaign. The group promotes political candidates who support veterans’ issues.
But proponents of keeping the prison open say it is a necessary tool in maintaining national security and fighting terrorism.
“Americans don’t want some of the most dangerous men alive coming here or released overseas, where they can return to the fight,” said Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in a recent speech on the Senate floor. “In my view, these men are exactly where they belong: locked up in a safe and secure prison, and isolated many miles away from the American people.”
But Andrews said such arguments ignore the fact that “145 international terrorists have been tried and convicted since 2001 in the U.S. courts and sent to U.S. maximum security prisons.”