Life After Gitmo

The Saudis have a rehabilitation program to deprogram jihadis who served at Guantánamo. How successful has it been?
The Saudi program has been a great success. And the way you judge if it's been a success or not is by the recidivism rate of people who leave the program. The Saudi government says the recidivism rate is very, very low. And I think the U.S. government has been very happy with the way the Saudi government has conducted itself with respect to the rehabilitation program. Now, it works because Saudi society is organized around very close-knit family and clan structures, so the Saudi government enlists the entire family and clan in being responsible for ensuring that once these people get through the re-education program, they don't go back to the fight because they know there are going to be consequences for the village and the family.

What about the third-country resettlement diplomacy that was going on? The way I understand it, about 50 people at Guantánamo would face torture if sent home and need to be resettled in third countries. But only Albania, so far, has been willing to accept former detainees, is that right?
Correct.

Tell me about that type of negotiation. What do third countries say when the United States approaches them on the resettlement issue?
Well it's been a very difficult process. The State Department over the past few years has approached almost every country on the globe and asked them to take Guantánamo detainees for third-country resettlement. The problem is a sort of obvious one, that is, you are not the country of nationality for these people, what is your incentive to want to take people who the U.S. often believes have some links to terrorism, although they may be able to be managed, and bring them to your country? These governments have parliaments, they have domestic political opposition to bringing these folks in, and then they have some security considerations. Why do they want to bear the burden, in their minds, to bringing these people in? And lastly, one of the most frequently mentioned stumbling blocks would be the fact that the United States itself has not let anyone in from Guantánamo. So you often get people saying, "Well why don't you take in people first?"

What ' s the U.S. response to that question?
This administration made a decision a long time ago that it was not going to allow Guantánamo detainees into the United States … The U.S. basically makes a burden-sharing argument: the U.S. is bearing the burden of detaining all these people and their detention helps the whole world so it's up to our allies to help with the burden and that would come in the form of resettling people once the U.S. has determined they no longer need to be detained.

It seems to me you're saying that until the United States agrees to take in some number of Guantánamo detainees, we're not going to be able to persuade our allies—European countries, Canada, Australia and others—to do so. Is that your view?
It is my view. Although one caveat on that is there is no guarantee even if we were to take people in that these countries would actually take people in themselves. Many times the countries will say, "OK, we'll do it if you do it," as a stalling tactic. So we won't know for sure until we do take some people in whether in fact that will grease the wheels and get other countries to take them in. I think one thing the president-elect can do is think about convening some kind of detainee conference where the U.S. pledges to take a certain number of detainees for resettlement in exchange for pledges from other countries at the conference.

But one way or another, it sounds like you're saying we should get used to the idea that some number of Guantánamo detainees in perhaps a year or two will be living freely in or or elsewhere in the United States. There is a certain irony here, given that the Bush administration has told us Guantánamo detainees are the "worst of the worst."
I can see the irony in that situation and I can see why as a political matter it would be very difficult to do but the reality of the situation is there may be few if any options with respect to some of these people … One thing that should be explored is the extent to which the FBI and the Justice Department more generally would have tools at their disposal to monitor Guantánamo detainees once they are released to the United States.

© 2008