GITMO, the CIA and Osama bin Laden

America loves to make fun of the CIA - the spooks as they’re called. But, last Sunday, they proved that they are worth every penny spent on them and that CIA spooking may be the best terrorist tactic available to the world. It was their work, along with GITMO information, over four years that finally led to finding and eliminating Osama bin Laden.

More troublesome for many will be the role played by GITMO in the tracking down and killing of bin Laden.

Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba, GITMO, is a leftover from the pre-Castro days, never abandoned by the United States, as is its right under the US-Cuba treaties signed by Castro’s predecessors. Its use for the retention and interrogation of terrorists caught in the Afghan and Iraqi wars after 911 made it a sort of black hole for the world, and for Americans who are used to transparency in their legal system.  

The criticism of GITMO was never louder than during the 2008 US presidential campaign, when Barak Obama vowed to close it if elected, and to put the detainees on trial in US courts in America. Early in his administration there was even talk of criminal investigations of the Bush presidency members responsible for GITMO’s existence.

Reality caught up with President Obama after his election, and GITMO still exists and probably will for as long as terrorism is a fact of life.

The irony is that, while taking credit for the bin Laden killing, President Obama has not mentioned the fact that information gathered at GITMO (and also by the CIA in black houses outside the USA using GITMO methods) led to the discovery of the Abbottabad house and bin Laden.

It will not go unnoticed by Republicans during the 2012 presidential race that Obama was severely critical of President Bush for allowing GITMO to exist and for suggesting that President Bush's action could be considered criminal.

The tables have turned and now it is time for Mr. Obama to pay the piper. He cannot continue to take credit for the result of clandestine work done by the CIA and GITMO, who use waterboarding and other questionable interrogation methods, without being part and parcel of their methods.

His Democrat liberal wing will have some hard swallowing to do if they are to help him to be re-elected.