Anchorage Daily News

President-elect Obama has already begun to look at options for closing the black hole of injustice known to the world as Guantanamo Bay. That planning is welcome, because once in office, the sooner President Obama can close Guantanamo, the better.

The Bush administration has used the prison camp to hold hundreds of alleged "enemy combatants" without trial in the never-ending "war" on terrorism. If the Bush administration had its way, the U.S. government could hold those suspects without trial, without any due process, until the "war" is over -- which is to say, possibly forever. According to President Bush, Guantanamo is not on U.S. soil, and the inmates are not U.S. citizens, so they have no rights, not even the ones guaranteed around the world by the Geneva conventions.

U.S. courts have rejected the Bush administration's claim to that kind of totalitarian power. If the U.S. government is going to lock people up for years, the government must show some proof they are in fact guilty of something.

The Bush administration has already admitted that many of those at Guantanamo are not terrorists or "enemy combatants." As former Guantanamo commander Gen. Jay Hood told the Wall Street Journal, "Sometimes, we just didn't get the right folks."

Scores of Guantanamo suspects have been released. Some were swept up in the chaos of a war against an enemy that doesn't wear uniforms. Some were turned over to the U.S. by warlords and others who wanted to settle local scores and collect cash bounties. Without some independent review of their cases, the nation and the world can't have confidence that only legitimate suspects are still being locked up.

In fact, Guantanamo continues to hold 17 Uighurs, members of a persecuted Chinese Muslim minority, even though the U.S. admits they are not enemy combatants. The reason? No other country will take them. The Bush administration continues to fight a court mandate to release the 17 even though they could be taken in by Uighur families in the U.S.

In sorting out who at Guantanamo are actually terrorists, there's a basic problem: The Bush administration used extra-legal means to capture, transport and interrogate many suspects. To avoid trouble for those tactics, the Bush administration has sought to use military tribunals instead of civilian courts. However, the tribunals have been so one-sided they have not so far passed muster at the U.S. Supreme Court. At least four career military officers prosecuting military commission cases have resigned.

If the U.S. government can't use secret evidence or confessions extracted under torture or abuse, it often has no case. Presenting witnesses and discussing some evidence in open court may jeopardize future intelligence gathering against terrorists. For those reasons, Obama's team is looking at alternatives to civilian courts for Guantanamo inmates.

As the nation fights terrorism, foreign suspects don't need every constitutional protection accorded U.S. citizens in a criminal trial. But justice demands that our government use a review process that our nation and the world generally recognize as fair and impartial.

As president, Obama will lead a country that lost much of the world's sympathies after the 9/11 attacks. Our moral standing has been eroded by launching a pre-emptive war in Iraq, engaging in "torture-lite" at Abu Ghraib, outsourcing real torture to other countries, and holding suspects without trial for years at Guantanamo.

Closing that notorious prison camp is a way for the Obama administration to reaffirm our commitment to our nation's founding ideals. It would send an important message to the world: We still believe in basic human rights. We won't sink to the level of our enemies. We are determined as a nation to be both safe and free.

BOTTOM LINE: Guantanamo's prison camp is a powerful symbol of where this country has gone wrong in fighting terrorism.

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