2. Establish Secret Prisons
Chapter Summary
Wolf defines a secret prison as one that is unaccountable and above the law. The secret isn't that they exist, but rather the things they do within those walls with impunity. Often, they're widely publicized and even accepted because people feel safer believing that dangerous radicals are locked up. She describes a system where the judicial system is bypassed by a "people's court", and the prisoner count is expanded to include so-called enemies of the state like journalists and political opposition. Guantanamo is her main example under the Bush administration, where the Geneva Conventions were violated with no accountability. The detention center in Cuba jailed people the Bush administration suspected of materially supporting terrorists. Most of the inmates who were held there were never charged with crimes and fewer still received their day in court. Habeas corpus was undermined during these years, and Bush worked to apply vague definitions to "enemy combatants" and "torture" so that he could determine who fit the mold and thus didn't qualify for habeas corpus.
What's Happened Since?
Obama signed an Executive Order in January of 2009 ordering the closure of Guantanamo Bay within 1 year; it was one of the first Executive Orders he signed. But it's still open, 16 years later (although no new detainees have been sent there since 2008). Part of the challenge to fulfilling this EO was the need for Congressional approval. While Obama was president, he faced resistance on many issues from Republicans in the legislature and many were in favor of keeping the facility open. They argued that the people held there were dangerous terrorists with no business being released either to the U.S. for trial, or anywhere else in the world—despite the lack of convictions or even charges for some. As of September, fifteen people were still being detained at Guantanamo, some without evidence against them.
I thought Obama did something to end the torture of prisoners, but it appears not. He didn't take a particularly hard stance on torture at all, actually. He was astonishingly vague. While he did make a statement to forbid torture, his actions didn't much align. He sent people to countries notorious for torture tactics, and didn't specify whether it was U.S. law or International Law that banned the use of torture—which unsettled the international community as they watched to see if the U.S. would bring itself back from the previous administration's disregard for postwar human rights treaties. In 2014 Brennan Center specifically said:
By not taking a firm stance, Obama leaves the door open for future presidents — as well as other countries — to claim the authority to abuse people who are held in foreign territory or to use proxies to do so.
So that's great... Not only did Obama not commit the U.S. to a full and complete hard-line stance against torture, he didn't do anything to hold anyone from the previous administration accountable for the atrocities they committed.
Today's Comparison
So, the U.S. still has secret prisons, by Wolf's definition. ICE detention centers meet the threshold and those have grown under every administration since Bush. As recently as 2023, Guantanamo prisoners have continued to face inhuman treatment; immigrants in ICE detention are experiencing abhorrent treatment and conditions, and that's not exclusive to Trump. They were bad under Biden, too. Of course, they're worse than ever now. Deaths in detention are skyrocketing, even as numbers are likely suppressed.
Something Wolf talks about is the ability for innocent people to be swept up when the threshold for detention is so low. Some journalists were detained illegally at Guantanamo after covering the war unfavorably. Most immigrants being detained by ICE are not criminals. Some Americans are being detained. Trump is going after people who speak out against his administration, claiming they have "materially supported" terrorists—a phrase Bush used ad nauseam.
This chapter is what made me think about starting this project. I thought I remembered Obama doing something to stop torture and close Guantanamo, and it made me wonder what had been done to reverse the damage Bush did to our democracy. If the pattern holds, Obama gave lip service to the protection of American democracy. I expected that to be the case in some ways; I didn't expect to be 0 for 2. It doesn't bode well for the next 8 tactics.