The detention and interrogation facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which I
have visited, has served and continues to serve an important role in
the war against terrorists since it opened 10 years ago. It houses
high-value terrorist detainees, like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the
architect of September 11.

The military commissions' courthouse,
called the Expeditionary Legal Compound, is a world-class,
state-of-the-art facility specifically designed to accommodate the needs
of both defense and prosecutors dealing with classified information.
The detainees there are represented by civilian and military counsel,
and the Supreme Court has ruled that they enjoy the constitutional right
of habeas corpus. The conditions of detention there are safe, secure
and humane and comply with national and international standards,
including Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions.

It is
important to remember that the United States of America is engaged in
armed conflict and has been since September 11, 2001. The September 18,
2001, Authorization for Use of Military Force, relied upon by both the
Bush and Obama administrations, gives our military the legal authority
to engage the enemy under appropriate circumstances.

Under the
law of armed conflict, also called the law of war, engaging the enemy
includes killing or capturing the enemy. This age-old principle --
detention of the enemy during wartime for the duration of hostilities --
is just as applicable to al Qaeda as it was to Nazi POWs in World War
II or other enemies in previous wars. This principle has been upheld by
our courts, including the United States Supreme Court.

Shortly
after September 11, it became evident that this war would be different
from all previous wars in the sense that we would need to rely more on
tactical and strategic intelligence to thwart and defeat the enemy than
traditional military might. To defeat al Qaeda and its affiliates, we
needed to know what they knew; one of the obvious ways to learn their
intentions was through lawful interrogation at a safe detention
facility. Guantanamo, used as a detention facility since the Clinton
administration, was just such a place.
Former detainee recalls time at Gitmo Guantanamo Bay's past and future

There
have been 779 detainees at Guantanamo. Today, there are only 171. But
over the past decade, we have not only kept dangerous terrorists at
Guantanamo and thus away from the battlefield, we have learned a great
deal from them during long-term, lawful interrogations. Without a safe,
secure detention and interrogation facility, we would not have gained
the tactical and strategic intelligence needed to degrade and ultimately
defeat the enemy.

It has been said that the mere existence of
Guantanamo is a recruiting tool for the enemy. However, recall that
there was no Guantanamo detention facility when al Qaeda bombed the
World Trade Center in the 1990s or blew up the U.S. embassies in East
Africa in 1998 or attacked the USS Cole in 2000. And I suspect that if
the Bush administration had brought the Guantanamo detainees not to Cuba
but to a detention facility in the United States, that facility would
have been the object of their scorn and derision.

All things
considered, the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay has played an
invaluable role in the war against terrorists by keeping them off the
battlefield and allowing for lawful interrogations.

Neither the
Bush nor Obama administrations has offered a reasonable and feasible
alternative to Guantanamo. Unless and until a safe, reasonable
alternative facility is proposed, the United States should continue to
use Guantanamo as a detention, interrogation and military commissions'
facility.