Hamas’ Attack Disrupts Release of Guantánamo Prisoners
Report and photo by Phil Pasquini
San Francisco: Citing “Another Lost Year on Guantánamo” a group of human rights activists from Amnesty International demonstrated at Harry Bridges Plaza calling attention to the ongoing horrific conditions suffered by prisoners in the Guantánamo Bay detention facility. In 2023, United Nations Special Rapporteur Fionnuala ni Aolain described those very conditions as “cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment under international law.”
Late last year, eleven prisoners, all of whom have ties to Yemen, when being readied for transfer to Oman saw that prospect canceled after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7. Fearing the “optics” of their release in the aftermath of that attack during an election year, and the negative blowback it would generate, the Biden administration terminated the transfer. When pressed on the issue afterward, a spokesperson for the administration stated that the transfer would take place “at a later date.”
Biden, who during his 2020 presidential campaign promised to close the facility, to date has had limited success in fulfilling his commitment at the expense of the prisoners, nine of whom have languished there since 2002. Presently there are 30 prisoners remaining in the facility.
Activists are fearful that if Trump is reelected, he will stop all transfers. That view is espoused by analysts Yumna Rizvi and Scott Roehm from the Center for Victims of Torture who stated that “The steps to close Guantánamo are there for the taking, and 2024 could be its last chance to take them.”
While wearing orange Guantánamo prisoners’ jumpsuits with black hoods during the late afternoon rush hour along the ever-busy Embarcadero, several passersby stopped to read the signs and to sign postcards calling on President Biden to close the facility. One postcard features a drawing of Tawfiq Nassar Ahmed al-Bihani, a Yemeni citizen detained since 2002 who was cleared for release in 2010. He has been indefinitely detained as a “law-of-war “detainee since that time without any charges being filed and without a trial. Originally arrested in Iran in 2002, he was taken into US custody in Afghanistan and sent to Detention Site Cobalt, a CIA facility there.
Amnesty International has been holding frequent Guantánamo demonstrations for the past several years to bring pressure on the government to close the prison. While 2023 looked to be the year that promised the release of several remaining detainees, it closed without having realized that prospect. While the demonstration may seem like an exercise in futility to some, a number of those who stopped by indicated that they were unaware of the situation and were curious to learn more about supporting its closure.
(Phil Pasquini is a freelance journalist and photographer. His reports and photographs appear in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and Nuze.ink. He is the author of Domes, Arches and Minarets: A History of Islamic-Inspired Buildings in America.)
