Obama's Third Gitmo Closure Envoy: Is Third Time the "Closing" Charm?

Among the sore points in US-Cuban political relations is Guantanamo Bay. The military base rankles Cubans; the terror prison rankles the world. In the 2008 presidential campaign, candidate Barack Obama asserted he would make every effort to close the Gitmo slammer. Seven years later show a distinct lack of progress toward that goal. The president has hired, and accepted resignations from, two emissaries called "Special Envoy for Guantanamo Closure." Their job was to negotiate prisoner release to the home countries of the incarcerated. Those discussions were filled with obstacles and a general sense the prisoners were not welcome to return.

Lee Wolosky
(Image: blfllp.com)

Obama's third envoy is a New York attorney named Lee Wolosky. According to a story in today's Miami Herald, the 46-year-old barrister brings more than Harvard Law smarts to a very rough game. He's worked with both GOP and Democratic administrations on sensitive national security matters. Wolosky currently represents clients suing the Bank of China for its alleged role as a conduit for terrorist funding. He's a partner in David Boies' law firm. In case you're keeping score at home, the publicity-welcoming Boies has repped the likes of former A.I.G. Maurice Greenberg, Al Gore's ill-fated legal action in the 2000 presidential election, and Apple. One can suppose from that background that Wolosky can manage "difficult" clients, intransigent counterparts, and complex cases.

Gitmo will certainly challenge Wolosky's skills. Meanwhile, let's see if Obama's third Gitmo envoy is the charm that brings this bizarre episode to a desperately needed ending.

Guantanamo Bay's Prison Library

Gitmo library selection
(Image: The New York Times)

One does not associate the Guantanamo Bay prison with sensitive readings of world literature. Yet, the high-profile incarceration camp does have a library from which its allegedly jihadist-inspired prisoners can withdraw books. The story about the library, its curious book collection, and its regulations, appear in today's Miami Herald.

Some of the donated titles, such as Catcher in the Rye, Little Women, and Frankenstein, seem unlikely to generate interest among Gitmo's incarcerated population. I'm trying to imagine them pondering the prose of Murakami or the poetry of Shakespeare, both of whose works are available to the prisoners. Maybe they'll compare notes on the Bard: one never truly knows. However, I do think a book discussion group is out of the question.

Trial of Alleged USS Cole Bomber Halted

According to today's Washington Post, the Justice Department quietly announced that it plans to stop its planned prosecution of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. The Saudi national was alleged to have masterminded the suicide bombing of the USS Cole in Aden nearly a decade ago. His capture and subsequent incarceration at Guantanamo Bay was a headline in the post-September 11th era. He and other Guantanamo prisoners remain a sticking point for American and international jurisprudence, as well as for the often very dirty business of counterterrorism.

The Bush (43) Administration's insidious twisting of judicial standards remains a heavy burden for America. The Obama Administration, which made closing Guantanamo a presidential campaign position, has backed away from the issue without expressing any clear line of reasoning for its decision. One wonders why.

The Justice Department's decision on Mr. al-Rahim al-Nashiri's case reminds one of another Bush Administration initiative that didn't go exactly according to plan. The administration publicly declared its interest in tracking down terrorist funding, especially through the hawala network. This effort threatened the core of a great deal of very unpleasant activity, possibly among sensitive, high-level Middle East officials, families, and religious figures. It also had the potential to inconveniently expose connections between Western institutions and double dealing Middle East figures.

The unloved program fell out of the light and eventually lost bureaucratic support. Meanwhile, the Cole case remains in limbo. Guantanamo remains open. What's wrong with this picture?