The release of five Taliban members from Guantanamo in exchange for a US soldier who went AWOL five years ago has generated heated debate on the worthiness (or otherwise) of the deal that was facilitated by Qatari officials. The bulk of the commentary in mainstream Western media focuses on whether Obama and his Congressional, Republican opponents are justified in supporting or challenging the release of the Gitmo Five.
The five former detainees who were held in captivity for more than a decade were never charged, prosecuted or allowed their day in court in order to challenge their incarceration. Their extra-judicial and prolonged imprisonment as 'unlawful combatants' (or some version of this designation) persisted, notwithstanding Obama's declared intent to close Guantanamo before he became President, and his subsequent 2009 executive order to close the facility. He also vowed to close an assortment of 'black sites' linked to night raids and other CIA activities in Afghanistan. Obama, who has played fast and loose with the law, did not repudiate 'extraordinary rendition' – a practice which involved the abduction and transfer of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives to countries not adverse to the use of 'enhanced interrogation' techniques, otherwise known as torture.
Guantanamo is infamous for different reasons, including the use of questionable legal analysis to justify the denial of habeas corpus – due process rights – or the non-application of Prisoner of War status to detainees. But part of the untold story that is fuelling competing narratives in Washington, concerning the Taliban's release of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, is the dramatic increase of the prison population in Bagram while Obama maneuvers to close Guantanamo.
The prison industrial complex
The Obama Administration has been eager to end its association with Bush-era policies and the related damage to the reputation of the Unites States. When Obama moved into the White House in January 2009, there were about 240 prisoners in Guantanamo and 600, in somewhat similar conditions, in Bagram. The prison is co-located with the largest US military base in Afghanistan. Towards the end of 2012, when the initial agreement to transfer the control and management of the Bagram facility to the Afghan government was concluded, the prison population had soared to more than 3000. This surge in the number of imprisonments, without trial, in a US controlled detention facility in Afghanistan, has paralleled Obama's efforts to reduce the number of inmates in the US-run Guantanamo facility in Cuba.