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The closure of the US prison facility in Guantanamo, Cuba, was an election campaign promise made by both presidential candidates last year. The orange jump-suit-clad detainees at Guantanamo became a stark visual symbol of the most egregious of President Bush’s shame-inducing policies. In a high-profile move, the Obama administration ceremoniously announced the immediate closure of Guantanamo as he took office, ending one ugly chapter of Bush’s wars. But, strangely, the President has made a distinction between Guantanamo, and the prison at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, where many of the US’s captured prisoners are first brought. In fact Bagram was hardly mentioned during the Presidential campaign, and it appears that Obama may end up quietly continuing the Bush-era practice of indefinitely holding prisoners abroad without due process. But earlier this month, a District Court judge in DC ruled that some detainees at Bagram have the right to have a federal review of their cases. There are currently about 600 men, mostly from Afghanistan being held at the Bagram prison. Human rights groups are warning that Bagram may become the next Guantanamo. But, Marie Cocco, a writer for the Washington Post, says that in fact, Bagram is the Father of Guantanamo.

GUEST: Marie Cocco, Syndicated Columnist with the Washington Post Writers Group

Read Maria Cocco’s article on Truthdig.com here: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090408_the_father_of_guantanamo/