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Issue Tracker: The Candidates on Military Tribunals and Guantanamo Bay

Council on Foreign Relations

July 17, 2007

The Bush administration policy of holding accused al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 9/11 has clearly divided Republican and Democratic presidential candidates. Most of the 380 remaining prisoners in Guantanamo [as of summer 2007] have been designated “enemy combatants” who have limited legal protections under international conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war. Most have been deprived of judicial review or due process.

The Democratic candidates have called for Guantanamo’s closure, saying the camp violates civil liberties and the Geneva Conventions. The Republican candidates have, with a few exceptions, reasserted their support for the activities at Guantanamo as legitimate for the country’s counterterrorism struggle. The 2006 Military Commissions Act divided the presidential contenders down party lines. That legislation, which passed, allows prosecution of Guantánamo prisoners in a military court, and abolishes habeas corpus for “enemy combatants.” The Democratic candidates in Congress voted across the board against the act, while nearly all of the Republican candidates serving in Congress voted to pass it. Meanwhile, the Bush administration has been steadily reducing the number of detainees and has been seeking to return dozens of cleared prisoners to their countries of origin. It has also considered closing Guantanamo and moving the prisoners to other detention centers.

Read the rest of this article on the cfr.org website.

Copyright 2007 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.