A Real Life "24" Mission

Anyone who is a "24" fan is used to the anxiety-provoking, action packed series on Fox with Kiefer Sutherland. (If you're not, you need to go to this website: www.fox.com/24) Essentially, Kiefer Sutherland plays the role of Jack Bauer, a special agent. Jack is tasked with extreme terrorism cases and has to go above and beyond his call of duty to get the job done. Sometimes it means saving lives, sometimes it means taking them.

A lot of people (me included) watch shows like "24" for the racing, conspiracy-filled, political nightmares to see how they end. Well, if we're not careful, we (meaning the U.S. Government) will have a real life "24" mission on our hands...

During the presidential campaign, President-Elect Obama discussed his intentions to close the controversial prison at Guantanamo Bay. I remember hearing this promise and thinking, "Wow, that's a great step toward improving our international relations."

Since its operations transitioned to a military prison in 2002, the treatment of prisoners there has been questioned as the U.S. Government held that these prisoners were not protected under the Geneva Convention. Organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have facilitated regular communication with the detainees in order to connect them with friends and/or family, gain understanding of their treatment while detained and act as a liaison on their behalf.

Knowing that promises are often made during the campaign that are never fulfilled, I was even more pleased when I heard that President-elect Obama had requested the creation of a transition plan.

According to the Washington Post, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates instructed his staff to have a plan completed by the inauguration on Jan. 20th as it has been speculated that it will be one of the President's first orders of business.

There are at least 6 major areas that must be addressed in this plan:

• assured protection of American citizens that work at the prison
• a legal remedy that will still hold the detainees accountable
• negotiation of homes for up to 60 detainees who have been cleared for release but cannot return to their home countries for fear that they will be captured and tortured
• identification of resources to find or build detention facilities in the U.S.
• negotiation with authorities who are not willing to house terrorist suspects
• possible legislation to prevent detainees from seeking asylum in the U.S.

While admirable, it is so much easier said than done. Firstly, how do you develop legislation for detainees for whom we aren't even 100% sure why they were initially detained? Sixty detainees have been cleared for release; progressive, yes. However, if they can't return to their homes and they hold any animosity towards the U.S. for their initial capture and detention, I don't think we can expect them to forgive and forget so easily.

Given the varied disagreement on the use of government resources in military manners, from where will these resources come for new facilities? Knowing what we do about military budgets, there is a good chance that this plan may not bode so well in a suffering economy. How cooperative will authorities be in housing terrorist suspects and by doing so, are we increasing our vulnerabilities?

There are a litany of questions that can be asked and this is undoubtedly no small task. I believe that President Obama is bringing a fresh perspective based on strategic vision and humanitarianism to a segmented administration.

In the meantime, I guess we'll have to stay tuned to see what happens next but I don't think it's a bad idea to have Jack Bauer on call just in case...

P.S. Be sure to tune in to the Inauguration on Tuesday. Need ideas on where to watch, check out these suggestions on CNN!