美国国家公共电台 NPR Trump Inherits Guantanamo's Remaining Detainees

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: 

The Pentagon, earlier this week, announced that they have transferred 10 detainees from Guantanamo Bay to Oman. Forty-five prisoners remain in the U.S. detention¹ facility in Guantanamo. NPR's Arun Rath has been reporting this story as part of an upcoming project with the PBS series "Frontline."

Today, on President Obama's last full day in office, Arun looks at Obama's effort and failure to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay and the challenges ahead for President-elect Donald Trump².

ARUN RATH, BYLINE³: On his third day in office in 2009, President Obama signed Executive Order 13492. It ordered the detention facilities at Guantanamo be closed, quote, "as soon as practicable and no later than one year from the date of this order." To that end, it also ordered a review of the 240 detainees then held in Guantanamo. Matt Olsen was the head of President Obama's Guantanamo Review Task Force, which compiled and evaluated all the available information on the detainees. The files had never been brought together in one place.

MATT OLSEN: We concluded that 126 detainees would be approved for transfer. And that means transferred to another country with security measures.

RATH: But the yearlong review process also revealed how complicated the job of closing Guantanamo would be. It still wasn't clear where to put those who could not be released - those would be tried as war criminals, those considered too dangerous to release but too difficult to prosecute⁴. In 2011, Congress began to place restrictions⁵ on Guantanamo transfers, effectively preventing the president from transferring the population in Guantanamo to a U.S. facility.

Even the detainees cleared for release were stuck in Guantanamo if, for whatever reason, they couldn't return home. There were dozens of Yemenis, for instance, who had been cleared but could not return to a country descending⁶ into civil war. It was up to the State Department to find a country willing to take them in. The U.S. would not.

CLIFF SLOAN: Rather than being the worst of the worst, there are some who have the worst luck because they were from Yemen, because they were from a country that they cannot go back to.

RATH: Cliff Sloan served as special envoy⁷ for Guantanamo closure in 2013 and '14. He was responsible for convincing third countries to accept detainees.

SLOAN: It's a very interesting process, talking to foreign governments about their willingness to accept detainees for resettlement. The conversations are difficult. There are many things to work out.

RATH: The State Department won't discuss details of the deals between the U.S. and foreign governments. But the detainees have ended up all over the world, from Kazakhstan to Uruguay. Ambassador Lee Wolosky, the current special envoy for Guantanamo closure, says that one of the things that makes it difficult to convince foreign governments to accept detainees is that old but sticky label, worst of the worst.

LEE WOLOSKY: The fact that they have been labelled in a political discourse⁸ as the worse of the worst - which some of them are but some of them aren't. And the ones we're moving out are not, but they're lumped in there - that certainly makes the task of doing what we do, which is looking at each case and convincing our foreign partners to look at the facts in each case, more difficult because of the labeling.

RATH: The dozens of detainees left in Guantanamo include seven men being tried in military commissions, like 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, as well as others whose actual value and danger are disputed. Even if Mr. Obama had more time, it's unlikely they'd be anywhere else. Chuck Hagel was President Obama's secretary of defense⁹ from 2013 to 2015.

CHUCK HAGEL: Until we're able to get a policy, a plan, agreed to by a president and by a Congress to deal with the reality of - what are you going to do to address that last group of really hard-core people who are down there? - then this will stay open indefinitely.

RATH: President-elect Trump has said he intends to start loading up Guantanamo with new war detainees - bad dudes, in his words. Secretary Hagel says Trump will have plenty of opportunity to do just that.

HAGEL: The reality is that we're at war. I mean, America is still at war after 15 years. So as long as that's the reality, we're going to be dealing¹⁰ with Guantanamo and what you do with those that you capture and you pick up and you have responsibility for.

RATH: There are still a handful of detainees who have been cleared for release in Guantanamo, and it's possible the transfers could continue up until the moment Mr. Trump, who has called for the transfers to stop, takes office.

Arun Rath, NPR News.

1 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

2 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 prosecute   

vt.告发；进行；vi.告发，起诉，作检察官

参考例句：

• I am trying my best to prosecute my duties.我正在尽力履行我的职责。
• Is there enough evidence to prosecute?有没有起诉的足够证据？

5 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

6 descending   

n. 下行 adj. 下降的

参考例句：

• The results are expressed in descending numerical order . 结果按数字降序列出。
• The climbers stopped to orient themselves before descending the mountain. 登山者先停下来确定所在的位置，然后再下山。

7 envoy   

n.使节，使者，代表，公使

参考例句：

• Their envoy showed no sign of responding to our proposals.他们的代表对我方的提议毫无回应的迹象。
• The government has not yet appointed an envoy to the area.政府尚未向这一地区派过外交官。

8 discourse   

n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述

参考例句：

• We'll discourse on the subject tonight.我们今晚要谈论这个问题。
• He fell into discourse with the customers who were drinking at the counter.他和站在柜台旁的酒客谈了起来。

9 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

10 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。