Expert can discuss U.S. detention policy, future of Guantanamo prisoners

During a speech in Miami, Florida, later today, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld will defend the U.S. policy of open-ended detention for prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and will discuss plans for their indefinite future.

Mark Jacobson, a visiting scholar at The Ohio State University’s Mershon Center, is an expert on the detainees now being held at Guantanamo Bay as a result of the war on terrorism. Jacobson, formerly a special assistant at the Office of the Secretary of Defense, helped to develop the policy on detention of the people held at Guantanamo Bay as well as other related intelligence issues. Jacobson believes that the Bush Administration’s basic policy remains sound, but officials are continuing to make missteps that hurt U.S. efforts in the war on terror.

Jacobson, who now works in Ohio State’s International Security and Public Policy program, where he examines a range of national defense policy issues with emphasis on counterterrorism, psychological operations, public diplomacy and special operations. The Mershon Center focuses on the interdisciplinary study of international security and public policy.

Jacobson holds degrees from the University of Michigan, The Department of War Studies, King’s College, London, and The Ohio State University. He also has served in the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy Reserves for more than 10 years. He was part of the NATO Peace Implementation Force in Bosnia in 1996-97 and received the Association of the United States Army’s Soldier of the Year Award in 1998.