ANALYSIS - Trump Breathes New Life Into Gitmo Detention Center To Intimidate Foes, Revive Torture

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 06th September, 2018) US President Donald Trump without a sound legal basis is trying to revive the full-scale operation of the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba prison facility and related torture techniques to terrify America's enemies, experts told Sputnik.

Media reported last week that the Trump administration is considering a plan to transfer high-profile members of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group (banned in Russia) that were captured in Iraq to the Guantanamo detention center.

In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Washington opened the Guantanamo detention center where terror suspects deemed dangerous may be subjected to indefinite detention without charges or a trial. Former US President Barack Obama had promised to close the prison but failed to fulfill his pledge.

In January, during his first State of the Union address, Trump announced that he had signed an order that directed US Defense Secretary James Mattis to keep Guantanamo open.

Washington has been challenged with dealing with terror suspects captured in the middle East by coalition and allied forces, especially in determining where they should be imprisoned long-term.

The US government earlier this year sent letters to a number of countries informing them that the Syrian Democratic Forces have captured and held a number of their citizens who are fighters. Initially, no country responded to the US government's letter, but later in 2018 some countries - like Macedonia and Lebanon - took custody of their citizens.

Now the Trump administration is considering transferring several Islamic State fighters to a prison in Iraq given that other states have rejected requests to take them, as NBC reported last week, citing US officials.

The US military, specifically, however, would like to send two IS fighters to Guantanamo who were involved in the murder of Americans and other Western hostages, the report added.

University of Illinois Professor of International Law Francis Boyle told Sputnik that the report indicates that Trump is willing to revert to the abuses carried out under his predecessors, Obama and President George W. Bush.

"Trump wants to revivify the Bush/Obama Gitmo gulag and their related kangaroo courts, torture and threatened executions in order to terrorize and intimidate America's opponents around the world into submission," Boyle said.

UN experts have been calling for the closure of the detention center for several years now, citing rights abuses, but little progress has been made towards that end.

When Trump signed his order in January to keep the prison open, the White House in a statement said the US detention operations at Guantanamo Bay were safe, legal, humane and consistent with international law.

However, Ohio State University Emeritus Professor of Law John Quigley told Sputnik, that the US government had no legitimate grounds for holding such terror suspects indefinitely at Guantanamo if their own countries declined to press charges against them.

"There is no legal basis for holding persons in indefinite detention, as is done at Guantanamo," he said.

According to reports, the alleged plan has raised other concerns from analysts who have warned that such a measure could boost the Islamic State's recruiting efforts.

In May, Mattis submitted to Trump guidelines for picking candidates to send to the notorious detention center on the island of Cuba.

A week later, the head of US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), Admiral Kurt Tidd, told reporters that Guantanamo can handle a couple dozen more inmates without the need for additional resources.

Russia imposed a travel ban on several former US officials who were involved in torture and human rights abuses, including at Guantanamo Bay and in Iraq's Abu Ghraib in response to the Magnitsky Act.