The first dispute will be colonel morris davis. He retired in 2007 and now teaches at harvard law school. And then we have andrew worthington, he went to new college in oxford, and we have known each other for a very long time. He has been at the forefront of investigating who was at Guantanamo Bay. He wrote a book called the guantanamo files. It talked about the stories and he has codedirected a film about it as well. Also we have tom wilner and he has established the right of habeas corpus for prisoners at guantanamo. Its an incredibly important case. So we are going to start with mr. Morris davis. Thank you. I would start off by saying that it is a pleasure to see you. But i would be lying to you. I know a number of you, as i look around the room, were here last year and the year before that. And i keep hoping that we will take a historical look back at this regrettable but not in our nations history rather than an ongoing chapter in our nations history. I do appreciate you coming out again this year. You know, we keep coming back here and replaying the same story over and over again. Not much happens in between. But i would like to say thanks to peter and the new America Foundation for having me. A lot of people find it convenient to focus on the card ashy and family and whatever is popular at the moment and years of working diligently to try to right this wrong. Going in and sitting down with a group of young people that are fired up, theyre going to go out and change the world. Our member thinking of my generation is going to make a difference and change the world. I kind of grew up in the postwatergate vietnam era. I knew that my generation would make a difference and make the world better. And here we are today. So it gives me hope, seeing this new generation come up. They have the same sense of optimism and determination to make a difference. As i look at them, it occurred to me that we have raised a generation now that is a post 9 11 world. And what it has become is the new normal. Now, ive tried to explain that 20 years ago, someone it was called a sexual assault. It became an everyday fact of life, things that we just accept now. It changes public perception. During the Bush Administration, polls showed that a majority of americans were opposed torturing, but now the majority of americans are okay with torture. So lets talk about what is happening and why this has become the picture of america. As we go into the second term of the Obama Administration, perhaps there is some room for optimism on the National Security front. It portrays a better picture of Guantanamo Bay and this is one problem. There is the drone program, the military program and a cia program. Impunity, torture, secrecy. Wiretapping and all pieces in the puzzle as it presents a bad picture of america. Im hoping we can pull those pieces apart and put them back together. The closing of guantanamo, in my view, creates a new guantanamo someone else must address the underlying issue of indefinite detention. On the 10th anniversary there was a lot of Media Attention and coverage about the 10th anniversary of Guantanamo Bay. You wont see it on google news and once you what to look for it. There is an oped in the New York Times. It talks about an evil that the military commissions were. So its been very interesting over time watching this process and frustrating. I think closing guantanamo is the right step to take, but we also need to take a look at how we got guantanamo together. I dont know the bigger fiscal waste in guantanamo. As peter mentioned, 166 detainees were at guantanamo. Almost 850,000 per person per year. Maximum security confinement in a federal prison had to be about 30,000 dollars. We are spending 27 or 28 more times to keep people in Guantanamo Bay. If you consider the 166 people, the cia has concluded that we dont have this and they dont present a significant risk and we dont want to keep them. But it is because of their citizenship. You know, they give its consent to kill people, but they are not trustworthy when it comes to detainees. So there are things that are very critical in our view of yemen. I think that guantanamo remains part of this information. Congress passed a bill that refused Human Rights Violations and president obama sign it. In retaliation, the russians signed a bill that prevents American Families from adopting russian children. Vladimir putin was quite angry about this bill that was passed regarding guantanamo. So we wasted an awful lot of money and credibility. It seems like at thistime, letting your sentiment, it has become more of it making sense or not. We have people that have been talking about how guantanamo will remain open. There was a pool out last week saying that 97 of the American Public approves guantanamo, but also which did you have a more favorable opinion of, congress or a number of choices . Congress reined behind a root canal and headlights that ahead of gonorrhea and also the kardashians. [laughter] there has been a lot going on for the last 11 years. The senate was deferred because Khalid Sheikh mohammed cooperated with the government. So it has failed time and time and time again. We have recently had the dc circuit, which is terrible at times. The same court on that service, saying that it is not in international events. Looking at general martin, general martin is the first chief prosecutor. He is, the department of defense has concluded that it is a legitimate appeal and they have dropped this against Khalid Sheikh mohammed and the other 9 11 detainees. The government has a podcast yesterday on that. Number one is no other options which is true because Congress Said you cannot bring them and prosecute them in the United States. So we have created the obstacles that make military commissions. We create our own justifications. It is because of the abusive treatment and detentions and if you peel it back, its not about what they did to us, its about what we did to them that makes military commissions seem like an attractive option. And you cant have trained police. I think the public knows that that is the case. Every person that was apprehended on the battlefield i cant think of any but Khalid Sheikh mohammed and abu zubaydah were arrested while in pakistan. There were others arrested in dubai and somalia. We have to have this special forum about the battlefield conditions is a great part of this second rate process that is more about less will go what we are bringing to court. Another part of the issue is the Senate Select committee who has completed their report. And also john mccain and Dianne Feinstein concluded that torture does not work. And its a stain on our reputation. I think that its important that this information is declassified , especially after the premiere of the movie zero dark thirty. It will do for torture what the movie jaws did for sharks. You know, on the 25th of january, john kerry revealed the name of someone who was allegedly involved. Talking about torture versus committing torture sometimes it seems to make you a hero. They are heroes in the eyes of those who believe that torture works. We are often sending someone to prison and no one has gone to prison for their actions. I mentioned the program where it is a mistake to talk about it and we have a military program that is governed by the laws of war. And we have distinction and all laws and rules that regulate the armed forces. By following those rules, military personnel have been killed in combat. You have immunity as a combatant. If you kill the people around them, and you apply the laws of war, that that is Collateral Damage and immunity. That the cia has a program and is a civilian agency of contractors and they are not part of the military and the laws dont apply. And Collateral Damage doesnt apply. So im not sure where we get the authority today and around the world to commit what i believe is murder. And we finally have a kill list. President obama campaigned in 2008 and we turn our back on our values. And we are going to restore our reputation and i dont recall president bush having unilateral authority to not have a trial. So hopefully these pieces of the puzzle get reexamined during a second term. Ambassador stevens body came back from benghazi and obama met it at Andrews Air Force base. They said that they were not going to be deterred. He said that america will shine as a light to the world and i think we have done over the last few years and we have been warning light and instead of a guiding light. So im hoping in the second term to represent. Thank you and hello everybody. I wish we were here to assure the closing of guantanamo. That was absolutely the right thing to do [inaudible] that sadly is the truth. When you look at what that means, what does it mean to the people of guantanamo, the most important is that we all need to be aware of. Over half of the prisoners in guantanamo have been poorly cared for in that prison cared for by officials in the prison and the intelligence agency. And yet they have not been released. The United States has a highlevel protest. In half of these cases, these numbers were under military review. In some cases, we may not know this. But it is as long ago as 2004. Some of them happened in 2006 and others in 2007. In september, there was paperwork and the United States government that was recommended to. With nearly six years after he was officially told that you should be released from prison. United States Government has decided that there will be a terrorist threat, even the kids themselves. The point i want to make is that just thinking about what it means to be released from guantanamo and compare that to some dreadful regime that put people in prison. Putting him in prison and throwing away the key. Thats what happens. So then they say they are going to be released but then they dont release you. That is so cool. Until those men are released, that will be the situation. I dont understand why that is. We were saying we were going to detain these guys, it would be a different point of view. Now, we know that one of the stumbling blocks is absolutely clear that there has been a major stumbling block with the president and congress and onerous picture. Owner is depictions on the release of prisoners. Refusing to allow them to be in [inaudible] refusing them when a single prisoner has engaged in cynicism. There has been propaganda over the years and continued claims have done a lot of research over the years. But i think if you do a google search, youll find one in 415 prisoners have returned to the battlefield and actively engaged. People who normally like the fact that guantanamo is a place of indefinite detention, but there are many people in this country who would like to hold people for the rest of their lives. So its a terrible situation we are in. But if we are to believe that the president of the United States is somehow powerless, i think we have underestimated the role. There are ways that he can argue with congress. That is on the longstanding basis of broad. It is so deeply insulting and we need to persuade president obama [inaudible] it is proving very difficult. The thing is you dont let someone have more than two terms as president. By the end of two terms, people have had enough already. He has an eye on his legacy, obama does. And how he is viewed by history. These guys and these people are in important positions. Bush and cheney and rumsfeld want them to take as a robust approach as necessary. And people like Katherine Bigelow went to rewrite the rules. The president obama knows he will be judged for that. And i dont think fundamentally he wants to be known in that way. He didnt want to do it because it was politically inconvenient. So there are people who know that this is more of a legacy and this is an administration that has dealt with what has been created. So whatever ways we can, we need to say that this is a difficult issue. But its not something that we cant all deal with. In whatever way we are doing this, conversations with friends and family, those of us keep saying that this is not a position that the United States can maintain that 11 years after this dreadful experiment opened, we are still in a position where all three branches are held and holding wrenches branches that we said we wanted to release. We have to release these people. A problem is also the yemenis. The underwear bomber on Christmas Day 2009. As though all yemenis are terrorist suspects. It has been too easy. So we have had this exaggeration before. [inaudible] its a horrible message to be sending out to people and completely upsetting. The other issue there are prisoners in countries where there are still a few prisoners in guantanamo and some from the chinese government. They were all opponents of the dictator that has been deposed. The United States government has says they clearly want to talk about this. The first time that the United States and publicly said the names and identities of these prisoners, and the United States government doesnt want to hold back. Now, we have been studying this and it appears that he knows too much. He knows the dark stories of guantanamo and afghanistan and he would be an embarrassment to the government of release. He is part of this whole situation and is a really good example of how neither Government Office issue. They can delay it because no one cares. Yes, again, if we can push on this one and make that perhaps our biggest message that we send to congress, maybe we will at least have had some progress. Thank you. Im actually going to stand up and talk because it makes me feel taller than the consumer people. You know, i had no idea what i was going to say when i came in. And i thought, oh, nothing happens and its so depressing. Id actually have to tell you that guantanamo is off the map. Now you cant even get a story in the newspaper about guantanamo. This is an opportunity to talk about it again. And i see cspan talking and its really going to be what you all said. I think it should be clear to everyone that guantanamo is wrong. Started out wrong and taking those out of context, the government still argues that are most rights in the right to habeas corpus. That has been governed by the interpretations of the dc circuit. Most conservative circuit in the country. Including interpretation of what he means. Of the hundred and 60 people there, 80 of them have been cleared by an Interagency Task force and we are Holding People that we say we shouldnt hold, and that is crazy. We say we should hold them because its politically inconvenient to let them go, but its just absolutely wrong. Over christmas i was away and i happen to be at a dinner and a young girl was there and it was her 13th birthday. And her mother introduced her and said well, tom was the lead lawyer in the Supreme Court on the guantanamo case. And the girl didnt know what it was, she asked what was and she also didnt know who i was. It was more important that began the new normal. That it was not something on her radar screen. She knew about gun violence. She knew about other issues. She even knew some things about the fiscal cliff and the economy, but she didnt know about one combo. Im not going to say anything much more relevant, but when you have something, you know, guantanamo continues to hurt us around the world. I was asking if there was still an issue in the great debate after the arab spring between moderates and extremists make a difference and not in the way people think of the United States. That is not u. S. Policy. This is u. S. Policy. This defines who we are and stands on our reputation. I want to finish what andy said. I dont know if people have watched a movie called lincoln. But lincoln really is a story about how Abraham Lincoln and when you look at it, there were a lot of other issues around in it that issue could have been avoided for economic reasons, a lot of other issues and people are saying, its a moral issue. Talking about yemen or other things and closing guantanamo, these are things that can be done. The president has a commitment to close guantanamo. With this it is a priority. Mr. President , this is your legacy. It will be on your historic watch and you have to get this place closed. [applause] thank you all for your persuasive and interesting presentations. Before we go forward, i would like to ask you some questions. In a sense, this has been very much a part of your lives. What prompted you, sir, you as a chief military prosecutor, you know how that position since 2007 and andy, how did you get it involved in this issue, this was by no means a popular cause with your fellow partners. If you could also give us a sense of the timing. My first involvement was back in 2005 and i came into the job believing what most of the public debt. We were going to guantanamo just to kill americans, and i believe that and i got there and began to look into some of these cases. I dont want to make light of it, there were others that were the worst of the worst. There was some factor of others. So it is less than 5 of the people that are the worst of the worst. I thought that the government was really committed trying to have a romanticized version of number. That was a significant accomplishment of that time. And i hope that what we did we look at nurnberg as having been in achievement and not a detriment. Towards the end of my tenure, my policy had been enhanced interrogation techniques and people said president bush said that we dont torture and if he says that we dont, who are you to say that we do. I believe very strongly in our country and constitutio