From Trump To Harris, Political Silence on a Normalized Guantanamo

Edited and with some items at the end by Spencer Ackerman

I'M WRITING IRON MAN FOR MARVEL COMICS! IF YOU PUT IT ON YOUR PULL LIST AT A COMIC STORE (AN ONGOING SUBSCRIPTION WHERE THE STORE RESERVES EACH ISSUE FOR YOU), I'LL SEND YOU FREE STUFF! EMAIL SOME KIND OF RECEIPT TO FOREVERWARS.BULLPEN@GMAIL.COM AND THE SWAG WILL BE YOURS!

I KNOW I SAID WE WERE OFF THIS WEEK, but Mansoor Adayfi, who last wrote for us in August, sent me an op-ed he'd composed on a topic I had been meaning to address. Better coming from someone who's been locked inside Guantanamo than from me, an outside observer—especially since I kept delaying my coverage because of the million other breaking-news developments on this frantic beat. And that, frankly, speaks to the point Mansoor addresses. So only for him would I publish on Thanksgiving week. I hope you'll read this and keep in mind Guantanamo and the 30 men who remain caged there while those of us in the United States reflect on the things for which we are grateful. 

I'll have some brief items after Mansoor's piece. Before we turn it over to him, here's a reminder that IRON MAN #2 is in stores on Wednesday, so please pick it up—it makes an excellent read for your holiday travel or for when you can't take watching various Cowboys do the Tommy DeVito Italian-hands while beating up on the hopeless Giants. AIPT has a preview here. And if you want more Iron Man, be sure to pick up WEST COAST AVENGERS #1, also out on Wednesday, a Gerry Duggan joint that fans of his INVINCIBLE IRON MAN run are going to want to read!  

With that, over to Mansoor… 

AS THE U.S. ELECTION results were broadcast on Wednesday, November 6th, Americans as well as members of the global community anxiously waited in anticipation of which candidate—Donald Trump or Kamala Harris—would win the vote and become president in January 2025. This question of who would assume the presidency would be consequential not only for voters, but for many governments worldwide as well, whose fates and the fates of their citizens are tied to U.S. policy. For the prisoners at Guantánamo Bay and former prisoners like myself, and for the families of those still imprisoned, the election brought back painful memories. A Trump victory meant more Guantanamos, and worse—more suffering for the U.S. and the world.

For the first time in U.S. elections since the establishment of Guantánamo Bay prison in the War on Terror, neither candidate addressed the issue. Both Trump and Kamala Harris chose to ignore Guantanamo, sidestepping the uncomfortable reality it represents. [I would argue Guantanamo was similarly invisible as an issue in 2020 and marginal in the 2016 presidential election as well, but Mansoor's point stands.—Spencer] By failing to acknowledge Guantanamo Bay, they both continued the legacy of the War on Terror—a war that has been shaped not only by the violence sanctioned by the American government, but a wholesale lack of accountability for the lives shattered by U.S. policies.

Despite the absence of Guantánamo in election discourse and campaigns, the prison has long been a political tool in U.S. politics, wielded by Democrats and Republicans alike to score points against one another. But in this election, both parties seemed to agree on one thing: Guantánamo was inconsequential.

When Donald Trump first spoke about Guantánamo during his 2016 campaign and pledged to keep the prison open, fear gripped us all—especially those of us who were held in indefinite detention without trial. But Trump not only pledged to keep the prison open, he endorsed torture. For any progress made in previous administrations, Trump made it clear that he was committed to reversing it.

In fact, early in his first presidency, Trump issued an executive order that kept the prison open. His administration also shut down the State Department office dedicated to overseeing prisoner releases and monitoring those who had been freed. The release of cleared prisoners was halted, and conditions inside the prison worsened. The Periodic Review Board (PRB) system was altered, and prisoners' artwork was banned from leaving Guantanamo. Meanwhile, many of the released prisoners found themselves in legal limbo, without support. Some were even deported back to their home countries, where they faced imprisonment, torture, or death. Needless to say, under Trump, Guantánamo will soon witness its fifth U.S. administration without closure. Given his policies, it’s clear that shutting down the facility is unlikely anytime soon.

In 2016, while still in Guantanamo, I wrote letters to each candidate—Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and even Trump. My lawyer confirmed that each candidate received my letters, and even told me that Trump said he would reply. I’m still waiting for that response. These letters are now included in my audiobook Letters from Guantánamo (Published on Audible in May 2024, it has been recognized as one of the best releases of the year 2024), although some of Trump’s supporters dismiss it, especially due to the letter I wrote to him. But I have remained steadfast in calling out the truth.

Then by the 2016 election cycle, I was released. My release marked the final push by Obama to free as many cleared prisoners as possible, although he ultimately failed to close Guantanamo. Even after my release, I kept following the election while struggling with life after Guantanamo. As the race between Clinton and Trump tightened, we all grew more concerned about the outcome. I stayed up late, watching the results, hoping Trump would lose. When he won, I fell into a deep depression.

I had been wrong about Trump. He wasn’t the clown I once thought him to be. He is a dangerous man, and I now see the harm he has caused.

With 2024, we find ourselves in the same position as we were in 2016. The future of Guantánamo looms large, especially with Trump returning to the White House. Lawyers, former prisoners, their families, and human rights advocates are all concerned about the continued suffering of those still trapped in Guantanamo. The U.S. government’s longstanding refusal to close the prison is a clear statement of its priorities. Guantánamo has become a symbol of unchecked power, a place where detainees are held without charge, stripped of their humanity, and tortured in the name of “national security.” Each year Guantánamo remains open, it becomes more evident that the government values control over justice, cruelty over compassion. [And now a former Guantanamo tower/perimeter guard, Pete Hegseth, is Trump's pick to lead the Pentagon.—Spencer]

In 2019, Trump’s proposal to treat undocumented migrants as “enemy combatants” and detain them at Guantánamo highlighted his disregard for international law. This idea opens the door for the systematic abuse of migrants and refugees, criminalizing vulnerable people rather than offering them protection. [I pause here to note that under Biden, the U.S. continues to detain migrants inside a part of Guantanamo Bay separate from the wartime detention complex where Mansoor was caged.—Spencer]  I’ve long warned that the U.S. government might create a new Guantánamo on its soil, and with Trump’s policies, this threat has grown closer. Trump’s deportation policies will only lead to more places like Guantanamo, more torture, and more abuse. And now he has a second administration to enact even more violent policies.

Despite calls from human rights organizations and parts of the American public, Guantánamo endures. The message is painfully clear: the U.S. has chosen to ignore the horror inflicted on detainees, clinging to a narrative that justifies its actions at the expense of human rights and international law.

Today, 30 men remain in the U.S.’s most notorious military prison, with 16 cleared for release, 3 classified as "forever prisoners," and 10 trapped in military commissions.

The U.S. government’s unwillingness to close Guantánamo speaks volumes about its priorities—priorities that disregard the human cost of its actions.

A Message to the American Public

To the American people, I urge you to reconsider Guantanamo—not as a prison, but as a symbol of what America has become and of values we must confront. Guantánamo is not just a national security issue; it is a test of this nation’s commitment to justice and its core values. The continued existence of Guantanamo, and the treatment of its detainees, challenge the foundational ideals the U.S. claims to stand for. Closing Guantánamo and ensuring justice and accountability for its detainees is about restoring the moral compass of a nation, not just righting the wrongs done to us. The question is not just whether Guantánamo should be closed, but whether America is willing to reclaim its sense of justice.

Mansoor Adayfi is a writer, advocate, and former Guantánamo prisoner. He is the author of Don't Forget Us Here and Letters from Guantánamo. Mansoor currently serves as the Guantánamo Project Coordinator for CAGE, where he continues to work on behalf of those affected by unjust detention and human rights abuses.

SPENCER HERE, with just some brief stuff before we sign off for Thanksgiving. In July, writing for Zeteo, I warned that the Democratic congressional leadership's enthusiasm for warrantless surveillance, as expressed through a breathtaking expansion of Section 702 instead of its final expiration, was astonishingly irresponsible with a retribution-minded Trump waiting in the wings. To be clear, it would have been irresponsible no matter who was president, because that's how institutional abuses of power work, but when a presidential candidate is explicitly running on a campaign of domestic revenge, there's no excuse for pretending that the expansion of 702 isn't a gift to that purpose. But that's exactly what Democrats like Senate intelligence committee chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.) did. 

Warner and others pledged that they would restrain the surveillance expansions—expansions that enlist "any other service provider who has access to equipment that is being or may be used to transmit or store wire or electronic communications" into the surveillance apparatus—after they voted to extend 702. But sure as the sun rises in the east, the Republicans are blocking 702 restraint. Who could have predicted this?!? I've read so many credulous takes insisting that in the age of Trump, Republicans are against FISA surveillance, each as foolish as treating the congressional Democratic leadership's assurances of post-passage surveillance restraint as genuine. 

This is what happens when Democrats identify more with the Security State than the people in its crosshairs. In an age of Democratic disinterest in the working class, you are not their constituent—their wealthy donors are, and their prerogatives align with institutions like the Security State that preserve the status quo benefiting those donors. You're just someone they expect to vote for them every even-numbered year. 

AND WHILE WE'RE ON THE SUBJECT OF THE ELECTION, our pal Derek Davison at Foreign Exchanges has put together a recriminations symposium. In it, Michael Brenes, another FOREVER WARS pal, has an incisive look at Bidenomics and how its (good) turn away from neoliberalism was undermined by its (bad) turn toward Cold War liberalism: 

Bidenomics failed as a long-term vision of economic recovery for working Americans—to fortify the working- and middle-class in the United States after decades of neoliberalism. First framed as a comprehensive post-neoliberal order, Bidenomics became an industrial strategy to out-compete China on climate and technology. If Bidenomics was subterfuge for “great-power competition” with China—which Van Jackson and I think it was, among others—it could never be a program for the working-class and would fail to remake the Democratic coalition, let alone win the presidency for Kamala Harris. …

To get aspects of Build Back Better (BBB) passed through the Senate, Biden discarded its welfarist elements and argued that federal spending on infrastructure and climate were investments in national security. The CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) emerged from this shift. “This is not designed to be stimulus,” said head of the Council of Economic Advisers, Cecilia Rouse, after the passage of the IRA. “It’s designed to be the most strategic, effective investments so that we can continue to compete against China and other countries that are making bigger investments in their infrastructure.” The result was a package of tax credits, corporate incentives—and, to be fair, some labor protections—that did not benefit the working-class directly or affect them in the short term, but were constraints to China’s global influence. Then Biden’s enthusiasm for BBB waned after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and in the face of opposition within his own party, and he rolled out climate and labor policies in piecemeal fashion rather than as a unitary, ambitious response to economic insecurity and inequality. High consumer prices overtook the news cycle and outweighed the proposed benefits of what Biden/Harris had to offer, even in a “full employment” economy.

THAT'S IT FROM FOREVER WARS UNTIL AFTER THANKSGIVING. Have a safe and meaningful holiday. Don't forget Gaza, don't forget Lebanon, don't forget Guantanamo. Don't forget each other. 

WALLER VS. WILDSTORM, the superhero spy thriller I co-wrote with my friend Evan Narcisse and which the masterful Jesús Merino illustrated, is available for purchase in a hardcover edition! If you don't have single issues of WVW and you want a four-issue set signed by me, they're going fast at Bulletproof Comics! 

No one is prouder of WVW than her older sibling, REIGN OF TERROR: HOW THE 9/11 ERA DESTABILIZED AMERICA AND PRODUCED TRUMP, which is available now in hardcover, softcover, audiobook and Kindle edition. And on the way is a new addition to the family: THE TORTURE AND DELIVERANCE OF MAJID KHAN.