Cowboy Wisdom Radio

Montgomery Granger author of Saving Grace at Guantanamo Bay is my guest. Montgomery J. Granger was assigned as a medical service officer responsible for the care and treatment of detainees in both Iraq and in Guantanamo Bay. The Major will discuss the future of Guantanamo, currently in the news; he believes the time has come for Gitmo trials to take place, and for it to remain a detention facility. Granger is a three-time mobilized U.S. Army Reserve Major (Ret.) who wrote the book Saving Grace at Guantanamo Bay: A Memoir of a Citizen Warrior about his time at Gitmo.

President Obama has just signed an executive order creating a formal system to indefinitely detain prisoners without trial at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In addition, the White House said it will resume new military commission trials at the base. The announcements mark the latest sign that the military prison will not be closed.

Lawrence Korb, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, stated, “Basically it means that Guantanamo Bay is going to be open for as far as we can see, because if in fact you can transfer the prisoners, you do try them, then you’ll have to put them some place if you convict them.”

Granger said the Geneva Conventions and Law of Land Warfare do not require prosecution of detainees, as they may simply be held “until the end of hostilities.” They are not entitled to habeas corpus, and now, after Obama's announcement, if any of the unlawful combatant detainees are also facing war crimes, military commissions may be used.”