Guantanamo at 10: What Do Americans Know About Camp?

The camp, which has had 779 detainees marched through its gates in its decade of existence -- ranging from 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to individuals like Mustafa Ait Idr, who appeared to be at the wrong place at the wrong time -- actually isn't the shame of the U.S., at least when judged by public opinion.

Although President Barack Obama pledged to close Guantanamo during his 2008 campaign, in March 2011 he signed an executive order to resume military trials for detainees, a move The Washington Post wrote "will create a formal system of indefinite detention for those held at the U.S. military camp" and "all but cements Guantanamo Bay's continuing role in the U.S. counterterrorism policy."

Still, despite the stories of indefinite detention, wrongful imprisonment and interrogation practices that are tantamount to torture, according to anACLU's analysis -- although that point is hard to prove, as evidenced by the federal court ruling in detainee Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif's lawsuit against the Obama administration, where his accusations of abuse at the hands of the U.S. military are redacted to the point of being incomprehensible -- Americans are not pushing for Guantanamo's closure.

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A January 2009 Gallup poll taken after Obama's inauguration found that only 32 percent of respondents said it was "very important" for Obama to follow through on his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison. Another Gallup poll conducted during the same period found that 35 percent of Americans thought the prison should be closed, but 45 percent who said it should remain open.  A CNN/ORC poll conducted in November 2011 reports that 52 percent of respondents believe the military prison should continue to operate, versus 33 percent who said the U.S. should close the prison and transfer the detainees to another location.

However, an analysis of the human and economic costs associated with maintaining the detention facility could make some Americans question the validity of keeping the controversial facility open.

The Human Cost: Only 6 Gitmo Detainees Convicted Since 2002

Of the almost 800 suspected terrorists who have been imprisoned in the detention camp since 2002, only six have been convicted by a military commission, while only six the 171 detainees currently being held have been charged by a military prosecutor. Roughly 600 prisoners were released with no charges after being imprisoned for years, most under Bush, raising the question of why they were detained in the first place.

Moreover, the U.S. government itself has admitted that 92 percent of the prisoners detained at Guantanamo were never al-Qaida fighters. 

In addition, Human Rights Watch reports that 89 of the 171 detainees currently housed have been approved for transfers to either their home countries or a third nation, but still remain at Guantanamo. In its decade of operation, the prison has held at least 15 children under the age of 18, the youngest of whom was 13 at the time of his arrest. Eight prisoners have died, six by suspected suicide.

The American Civil Liberties Union reports that documents it has secured demonstrate that Guantanamo was at one point a "perverse laboratory" for ruthless interrogation methods.

"Prisoners were subjected to beatings, sleep deprivation, stress positions, extreme temperatures and prolonged isolation. So inhumane was the interrogation regime that the FBI instructed agents not to participate," the ACLU wrote on its Web site.

Both HRW and the ACLU report that the recent passage of the National Defense Authorization Act, signed into law by Obama on New Year's Eve, makes it likely the detainees currently being held at the military prison will be imprisoned even longer.