David Cole is a professor at Georgetown University Law Center and the author of numerous books, including "Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional Freedom in the War on Terrorism."

“The existence of Guantánamo likely created more terrorists around the world than it ever detained.” So said President Barack Obama in 2009, defending his promise to close the prison camp there. He is hardly the only one to hold the view that Guantánamo undermines our security and should be shuttered. Former President George W. Bush, former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, former secretaries of state Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, and Senator John McCain, all agreed that the United States would be better off without Guantánamo. Few images do more to serve Al Qaeda’s interests.

Congress has effectively frozen in place one of the most counterproductive aspects of our national security policy – and given Al Qaeda just what it wants.



Yet three years after Obama promised to close the most infamous prison in the world today, and 10 years after the first detainee was brought there, Guantánamo remains open, with no foreseeable shelf life date. Why? The principal culprit is Congress. Adopting a short-sighted “not in my backyard” attitude, Congress has barred Obama from transferring any detainees to the United States, not even to stand trial in a criminal court, and has put onerous conditions on their being transferred to any other country. These measures have effectively frozen in place one of the most counterproductive aspects of our national security policy – and given Al Qaeda just what it wants.

As long as some of the men at Guantánamo remain lawfully detained as enemy fighters in an ongoing armed conflict, they have to be held somewhere, so realistically Guantánamo can be closed only if we can transfer them here or to a third country. But few members of Congress have the courage to stand up to fear-mongering about holding the men here, or are willing to risk the possibility that a detainee transferred abroad might take action against us in the future. They don’t seem troubled at all about keeping men locked up who the military has said could be released, or about keeping open an institution that jeopardizes our security. In the meantime, Congress has assured that the United States will continue to be better known around the world for Guantánamo Bay than for the Statue of Liberty.