As detentions in the US Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay enter their ninth year, and the 22 January 2010 deadline for the detention facility’s closure approaches only to be missed, the administration has registered “wins” in two recent court decisions on the detentions. This paper looks at the two decisions and places them in the context of the USA’s failure to end the Guantánamo detentions. It argues that the missed deadline is a symptom of the failure of the US government to properly confront the detentions as an international human rights issue.
