Guantanamo

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Guantanamo Bay History

Guantanamo Bay History

"Guantanamo Bay history." CBC. CBC News, 1 May 2009. Web. 27 Oct. 2010.<http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/01/22/f-gitmo.html>.

The U.S. has occupied the Guantanamo base since 1898, leasing it from Cuba for some $4,000 per year and maintaining it throughout the Cold War. Cuba has refused to cash the rent cheques, calling the 116-square-kilometre base "a dagger pointed at Cuba's heart." It is in Guantanamo where the detainees from what the U.S. calls the global war on terror have been kept.

Chandler Mandell

Background Information on Guantánamo Bay

"Obama preparing order to close Gitmo ." msnbc. msnbc.com, 12 Jan. 2009. Web. 27 Oct. 2010. <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28624679/>.

Guantanamo Bay is a United States Naval Base in southeastern Cuba. Since January 2002, thousands of detainees connected to the War on Terror have been housed at "Gitmo." The naval base, nicknamed "GTMO" or "Gitmo", covers 116 km² (about 45 square miles) on the western and eastern banks of the bay. It was established in 1898, when the United States took control of Cuba from Spain following the Spanish-American War.

Chandler Mandell

Incidents at Guantanamo Bay

The Torture of Prisoners

The Center for Constitutional Rights. Report on the Torture and Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment of Prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. New York: The Center for Constitutional Rights, July 2006. PDF. [1]

This report focuses on the experiences of prisoners inside Guantanamo Bay prison. Appearing in this report are specific accounts of torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment drawn directly from prisoners statements made to counsel during in-prison interviews conducted at Guantanamo Bay. The file addresses the psychological abuse, physical abuse, medical abuse, sexual provocation, rape and harassment, and religious and cultural abuse the prisoners have experienced. This source offers research information and constitutes a negative view towards the prison at Guantanamo Bay.

Lauren Hajnos

Justice Issues

Gutman, Roy, Christopher Dickey, Sami Yousafzai, and Ron Moreau. "Guantanamo Justice?" Newsweek 8 July 2002: 34. Military and Government Collection. Web. 26 Oct. 2010. [2]

This article discusses the detention of terrorism suspects at a United States facility in Cuba. It focuses on the issue of the rights of the prisoners and the idea that the prisoners have no access to lawyers. It includes comments from previous U.S. Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld concerning this issue. The outlook for trials and detention of the prisoners is discussed and there is a specific example mentioned about the prisoner, Abdullah Kamel. The article tries to address the issue that if someone is mistakenly accused they have no way to prove themselves innocent. This source offers research and specific examples of the issue addressed. Again, a negative view of the prison at Guantanamo Bay is portrayed.

Lauren Hajnos

The Cover Up

Leung, Rebecca. "Torture, Cover-Up At Gitmo?" 60 Minutes. CBS News, 1 May 2005. Web. 28 Oct. 2010. [3]

In an interview aired on the popular CBS show, 60 Minutes, Sgt. Erik Saar, a soldier who spent three months in the interrogation rooms at Guantanamo, recounts the bizarre and sadistic treatment of prisoners in the American prison camp. He talks about specific interrogations and the inappropriate actions of specific interrogators. Saar also addresses the fact that information about the treatment of Guantanamo detainees was kept secret for such a long period of time because when congressmen and senators would visit, prisoner interrogations were staged. This particular source would fall under the news category of information and also has a negative view on Guantanamo.

Lauren Hajnos

Who are the Experts

Leila N. Sadat

Martin, Jessica. "International law expert comments on status of Guantanamo Bay detainees ." Newsroom. Washington University in St.Louis, 2010. Web. 26 Oct. 2010. <http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/11935.aspx>.

Leila N. Sadat, expert on international law and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, is closely following the status of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Sadat, the director of the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute, is the author of the leading treatise on the international criminal court, "The International Criminal Court and the Transformation of International Law: Justice for the New Millennium," as well as a co-author of a casebook on international criminal law. Her comments on the Supreme Court's recent decision giving Guantanamo Bay detainees the rights of habeas corpus are on this site.

Hanley Caras

Manfred Nowak

"UN Experts welcome intention to close Guantanamo Bay detention center ." United Nations Radio:. United Nations, 2010. Web. 26 Oct. 2010. <http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/english/detail/ 65230.html>.

Four human rights experts have welcomed the announcement by President-elect Obama that he will make it a priority of his administration to close the illegal detention centre at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Among the experts is Manfred Nowak, who reports to the UN Human Rights Council on torture and other cruel and degrading treatment or punishment.Two years ago he contributed to a report on the situation of detainees at Guantanamo Bay that concluded that their treatment violated international human rights law. Mr. Nowak says this is still the case today. Nowak: If people are held there arbitrarily, then this is a violation of their right to personal liberty. And there are quite a number of people there who will not be accused - even the US government has said that they are innocent and have nothing to do with the attacks of 9/11 2001. So the treatment of the detainees certainly improved over the years, but the very fact that they are kept there is a violation of human rights.

Hanley Caras

Guantanamo Bay: Is it justified or should it be closed?

Debate: Guantanamo Bay detention center

"Debate: Guantanamo Bay detention center." Debatepedia . International Debate Education Association , 21 June 2006. Web. 7 Nov. 2010. <http://debatepedia.idebate.org/en/index.php/Debate:_Guantanamo_Bay_detention_center#Is_the_US_Guantanamo_Bay_detention_center_justified_or_should_it_be_closed.3F>.

"Questions over whether the detainees can bring forward a writ of Habeas Corpus to force a hearing on their state are also intrinsic to the debate. Additional questions include whether the detention of foreign nationals, on the basis that they are a threat to America, is sufficient justification for Guantanamo’s permanent presence. Similarly, it can be asked whether the human rights allegations are simply part of 21st Century politics or if Guantanamo truly does resemble the concentration camps the Americans condemned just 60 years before in Nuremburg."

Chandler Mandell

Gitmo Should be Kept Open

No Good Reason To Close Gitmo

Spencer, Jack, et al. "No Good Reason To Close Gitmo." The Heritage Foundation. The Heritage Foundation, 14 June 2009. Web. 7 Nov. 2010.<http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2005/06/No-Good-Reason-To-Close-Gitmo>.

"Not a single person has been killed at the facility since it opened, and yet the drumbeat of criticism grows by the day. Criticism and even calls to close the base have come not just from President Bush's critics, but also from members of his own party. But a rhetorical barrage is no reason to shut a base. Those who would close the detainment center have failed to articulate a reasonable rationale for doing so. They also overlook a major challenge: there are few options, right now, to replace the detainment center. There are, however, many reasons to keep it open."

Chandler Mandell

U.S. Detainment of Prisoners at Guantanamo is Necessary

Landsbaum, Mark. "Released to Kill." FrontPage Magazine 27 Oct. 2004. GaleNet. Web. 12 Nov. 2010. [4]

This article focuses on the devastating results of releasing prisoners from Guantanamo Bay. The author mentions ten prisoners who were released from Guantanamo have resumed terrorist activity and a number of others have plans to do so. One prisoner in particular used his freedom to mastermind the kidnapping of two Chinese who were involved in the building of Pakistan's Gomal Zam Dam project and held hostage. The article additionally focuses on the issues of safety if other prisoners are released and the fact that we are already in danger because some prisoners already have been. There is a positive view of the prison at Guantanamo Bay in this article and it is extremely right-wing politically.

Lauren Hajnos

Coercion at Guantánamo Is Not Torture and Is Necessary

Spero, Aryeh. "It's Not Torture and It Is Necessary." Human Events 16 Jan. 2007. GaleNet. Web. 12 Nov. 2010. [5]

This article explains that the coercion used at Guantanamo is not torture and it is used to save lives. The author explains that unlike other countries, the United States uses coercion on those who we believe have knowledge of impending terrorist attacks against our population. He further explains that "unlike what is happening in the Islamic and Palestinian world, we Americans do not torture for sheer barbaric enjoyment, or as a means of revenge, nor even as a way of frightening foes. We employ momentary and isolated acts of physical or psychological coercion for the exclusive purpose of eliciting information we are convinced will save lives, thousands of lives". The article goes on to explain why there is justified pain and how people have been misguided about what is really going on at Guantanamo. The article is more right-wing politically.

Lauren Hajnos

Gitmo Should be Closed

Close Guantanamo now

Feinstein, Dianne. "Close Guantanamo now." San Francisco Chronicle . San Francisco Chronicle , 30 July 2007. Web. 7 Nov. 2010.<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/30/ EDKVR992A1.DTL>.

This is profoundly damaging to the United States' reputation around the world. And it buttresses my belief that President Bush should close the facility within a year, and come up with a process for transferring detainees and ensuring that they face justice.

Chandler Mandell

Guantanamo Bay and The Geneva Convention

Detainees in Guantanamo Bay Should Not Have the Same Rights as POWs

Apostolou, Andrew, and Frederic Smoler. "The Geneva Convention Is Not a Suicide Pact." The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies 6 Nov. 2002. GaleNet. Web. 12 Nov. 2010. [6]

"The al Qaeda and Taliban fighters held at U.S. detention centers have broken the codes of war set forth in the Geneva Convention of 1949, and thus are not eligible to receive protection as prisoners of war (POWs). They have actively sought to kill civilians, disguised themselves as fighters by concealing their weapons, and feigned surrender and then attacked their captors. These dubious tactics are all outside the rules of warfare to which true soldiers must adhere. Seeking POW status for these detainees is a misguided effort that not only undermines America's commitment to international law but also endangers both soldiers and civilians. The United States best respects the Geneva Convention by applying it only to those fighters who truly deserve its protection."