Admiral of the US Navy, John Ring, head of the Guantanamo base, was dismissed due to "loss of confidence." This was reported in the headquarters of the US Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM), in the introduction of which is a prison.

"On April 27, the US Navy Admiral Craig Fuller, commander of the US Southern Command, removed the US Navy Rear Admiral John Ring from the post of commander of the joint operations group Guantanamo due to a loss of confidence," the ABC News spokesman said. US Colonel Amanda Azubuike.

To lead the base, and therefore the eponymous prison, will temporarily be Ring's deputy - Brigadier General John Hussey.

“The change of leadership will not affect the humane treatment of Guantanamo detainees, ensuring their protection and their lawful detention,” the command representative added.

She also said that the disciplinary investigation against Rear Admiral Ring was launched in March and was completed by mid-April, after which his results were passed on to the head of USSOUTHCOM, Admiral Fuller. What was the reason for the investigation and what misdeeds Admiral Ring committed was not specified.

Go into the shadows

John Ring began his career as a naval flight officer in 1988. At various times, he commanded the Black Eagles VAW-113 Aircraft Squadron, the large USS Comstock amphibious assault ship and the USS Nimitz flagship aircraft carrier.

  • Fencing of Camp 5, United States of America, Cuba on January 26, 2017
  • © Thomas WATKINS / AFP

He took the post of commander of the joint operational group "Guantanamo" in April last year and, according to the planned rotation, had to leave him in June of this year. A Pentagon spokeswoman announced that Ring would be temporarily assigned to another position in the ranks of the command.

It is worth noting that for a commander of this level, the removal from office of a “loss of confidence” is a serious blow to a career - in the US, the generally accepted wording at the end of a mission or dismissal for senior officers is “coped with honors”.

“The overwhelming majority of commanders complete their missions with honors. When they fail, we hold our leaders responsible for the failure, which reflects the importance that we attach public confidence in our military leaders, ”said command spokeswoman Amanda Azubuike.

The wording “loss of trust” in the US Armed Forces is imposed on the officer in connection with a serious act. Thus, in 2018, in connection with the “loss of confidence,” the commander of the air force base of the US Marine Corps in Okinawa, Colonel Mark Coppess, was dismissed. Under his command, there was a series of incidents with the tweeter V-22 Osprey, in one of which three marines were killed. In addition, Coppess himself violated the flight rules and abused his official position.

In 2017, with the same wording, the commander of the US Air Force aerobatic team Thunderbirds Lieutenant Colonel Jason Hurd was dismissed. His dismissal was also preceded by two incidents with the group's aircraft, during one of which the plane was destroyed costing $ 29 million. Later it turned out that Hurd was involved in a bar fight, during which he attacked another officer.

According to political analyst Alexander Asafov, the wording “loss of confidence” in relation to the commander of the Guantanamo base may also hide a major violation of statutory discipline.

“It should be noted that the perpetrators of such violations, especially on a regime object, are not subject to condemnation, they simply go into the shadows under various pretexts. In this case, the commander of the base Guantanamo was sent to another position. And the Pentagon’s wording is a kind of censure, not the punishment that Admiral Ring and others like him deserve, ”Asafov said in a conversation with RT.

Torture at Guantanamo

The prison for those suspected of involvement in terrorism and participation in hostilities on the side of the enemy, was established in 2002 at the indefinitely leased US naval base in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. It mainly contains terrorists and militants captured by the US military in Afghanistan and Iraq.

  • The X-Ray of the Naval Base has been detached in this area on January 11, 2002 file photograph.
  • Reuters

The prison at Guantanamo received scandalous fame in 2004, when the press got information that prisoners were tortured there.

At the end of 2014, the United States Intelligence Committee, in its report, announced the abuses of the CIA during the presidency of George W. Bush. Then the authorities confirmed the information that intelligence agents used torture on suspects in terrorism.

According to published documents, after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the CIA began to use interrogation techniques such as sleep deprivation, which once reached 180 hours, dramatization of drowning, the threat of murder and sexual violence, and some others, against alleged terrorists.

The prison of Guantanamo is needed by the American special services and other law enforcement agencies, since it is a place of forceful inquiry: from people who are being tortured, they knock out information, Alexander Asafov said in a conversation with RT.

“We know about Guantanamo Prison due to information leakage in the media, but in fact there are much more similar places: they are part of the American intelligence community system, many of which have the right to conduct extraterritorial justice. If “inquiry centers” like Guantanamo are located in the United States, then it will be necessary to explain to American citizens their meaning. Therefore, such prisons are located outside the United States, and the American intelligence services will keep and protect them so that information does not get into the press from there, ”said the political scientist.

According to Asafov, Guantanamo and similar institutions are an important tool for the functioning of American intelligence services.

“Therefore, this institution will continue to work. Its closure or relocation is possible only as a last resort, if the media attention is attracted by something completely out of the ordinary, ”the expert noted.

"Sensitive" object

Barack Obama promised to close Guantanamo back in 2008 during his first presidential campaign. However, the US Congress did not ratify his order, and the prison continued its work. The Obama administration has also been active in reducing the number of prisoners held in prisons in Cuba.

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Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized his predecessor for being too lenient to the enemies of the United States.

“122 fierce prisoners released by the Obama administration from Guantanamo are back on the battlefield. Another nightmare decision! ”- Trump wrote on Twitter in 2017.

Trump himself during his election campaign promised supporters "to fill the prison with the bad guys," and after becoming president, he said that the release of Guantanamo prisoners must be stopped.

“You no longer need to release from Guantanamo. They are extremely dangerous people, and they should not be allowed to return to the battlefield, ”Trump said.

In May 2017, Trump signed a decree banning the transfer of Guantanamo prisoners to other high-security prisons in the United States, effectively extending the work of the prison in Cuba for an indefinite period. Now in prison, according to various sources, there are about 40 prisoners.

Trump will in every way try to place all responsibility for the actions of the United States in illegal prisons on the previous administration and change disagreeable leaders, the expert of the International Institute for Humanitarian and Political Studies Vladimir Bruter said.

“When justice operates in the United States, one has to answer questions from journalists. Everything that happens in such prisons as Guantanamo should not be publicized in the media so that the American population knows nothing about the crimes committed there. Therefore, the dismissal of the base commander was made without details, and the public may not even know about its true causes, ”the expert concluded.