Home pagePress CenterIn the Media Ashley Deeks, a visiting fellow with the CSIS International Security Program, had a commentary published on the University of Pittsburgh School of Law’s blog, “Guantanamo Detainee Transfers Put U.S. in Tight Spot.�
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Ashley Deeks, a visiting fellow with the CSIS International Security Program, had a commentary published on the University of Pittsburgh School of Law’s blog, “Guantanamo Detainee Transfers Put U.S. in Tight Spot.�
Last week the Department of Defense confirmed that Abdullah Saleh Ali al Ajmi, a former Guantanamo detainee, was one of the people responsible for three suicide bombings in Mosul in April, which reportedly killed seven members of the Iraqi security forces. While this event is, for several reasons, unlikely to cause significant changes to the U.S. government’s policies on transferring detainees out of Guantanamo, it may prompt debate about how best to address the real risks involved in those decisions.
The al-Ajmi case highlights just how tightly the U.S. government is wedged between a rock and a hard place when it comes to closing Guantanamo, whether one believes that the U.S. government finds itself in this situation for the right reasons or the wrong ones. On the one hand, the government faces huge pressure not to detain people at Guantanamo indefinitely; on the other, it must grapple with proven concerns about releasing people who will take up arms and possibly injure U.S. and allied forces and innocent civilians. The government must look for a balance that’s neither too restrictive nor too lenient -- an exercise that will be impossible to get right every time.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is a private, tax-exempt institution focusing on international public policy issues. Its research is nonpartisan and nonproprietary. CSIS does not take specific policy positions; accordingly, all views, positions, and conclusions expressed in these publications should be understood to be solely those of the authors.
