Two hundred million dollars.
That’s the cost to U.S. taxpayers for detaining Malaysian national Nazir bin Lep over the past decade and a half. The math, unlike almost everything else involved in military commissions, is simple. Each detainee costs approximately $13 million a year to hold. Given bin Lep’s 16-year tenure at Guantanamo Bay and a string of secret “black sites,” the total bill runs in the ballpark of $200 million and counting.
You have likely never heard of bin Lep, and there’s a reason for that. He had no role in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He was never involved in any plots against the United States. And, while there’s certainly some wiggle room in the calculus to arrive at that $200 million figure — frankly, that estimate may be low given the lack of financial transparency in the global torture network — what cannot be disputed is that the sum of money is significant.
This leads to the question of why we’ve spent $200 million on the care, upkeep, torture, and now legal defense of bin Lep.
We do not mean to minimize the serious crimes allegedly connected to bin Lep’s financial activities, specifically, two Indonesian bombings in 2002 and 2003. These are serious allegations, and the victimized parties deserve justice.
But even if every allegation by government lawyers were true, bin Lep knew nothing about and did not participate in the attacks carried out by the group Jemaah Islamiyah, a radical Southeast Asian organization that sought to overturn secular governments in the region. By the government’s own reckoning, he was merely a money-changer.
Moreover, the U.S. is not a victim of the crimes in question. The U.S. is not the world’s prosecutor, nor does the world want us to be.
Bin Lep’s continued residence at Guantanamo Bay can be attributed solely to the rush to seize all individuals bearing any minor connection to global terrorism. That may have been understandable two decades ago, but what has happened to bin Lep since then is not understandable — 16 years of severe torture and detention, producing no known intelligence value, with no release date or trial verdict in sight.
The government also suggested that bin Lep met Osama bin Laden and agreed to be part of a future attack on the U.S. This alleged scheme apparently lasted for all of one month and, according to the government, was never acted upon nor planned by bin Lep.
To support this allegation, the government has only the statements of the alleged “cell leader” given after extensive torture. Following his torture, he spent a few years in a local jail and was released. Likewise, much of the leadership of Jemaah Islamiyah served brief tenures in prison and have returned to their civilian lives.
Not so for bin Lep, who remains in Guantanamo Bay, subject to the monotonous brutality of never-ending incarceration. For a brief period of time this year, the government finally looked ready to proceed in its case with a still-classified, secret process. But a federal judge in October found that their proposed actions would “irreparably taint” any future trial and ordered them to cease and desist. The government redacted most of that judge’s decision in order to keep the admonition hidden from public view.
As a result, bin Lep has been returned to the status quo, shackled in a cell without an end in sight.
The maltreatment of detainees is facing renewed questions, highlighted by the recent movie The Report. But the continued detention of bin Lep and others unrelated to Sept. 11 and attacks on the U.S. must also be questioned. Why are we paying to hold other nations’ criminals, especially when it comes at the cost of our moral authority around the world, which, incidentally, puts our military at greater risk of reprisal?
What good is further punishing low-level suspects when other countries would welcome the chance to hold them accountable for their crimes? Finally, why are we devoting resources to prosecuting cases for other nations when the military commissions court docket has proven too broken and overcapacity to effectively move forward even against those charged with planning Sept. 11 and other attacks on the U.S.?
Victims and families want justice in those cases. It is only delayed when we waste time and resources in this manner.
President Trump has a unique opportunity to succeed where his predecessors have not: by clearing Guantanamo of those who don’t need to be there and ensuring justice for those who do.
Neal Puckett, Major Jason Wareham, and Lt. Com. Aaron Shepard comprise the legal team representing Nazir bin Lep. The views expressed do not reflect the views of the Department of Defense, the U.S. government, or any agency or instrumentality thereof.
