INTRODUCTION
The events of 9/11 dramatically changed foreign policy and the treatment of national security in America. Given the organized and terror-based nature of the attacks, it was decided that a unique facility had to be created, isolated from the rest of the world, that would detain people of interest and enemy combatants. That place became the facility at Guantanamo Bay, where the United States maintains territorial control and has complete jurisdiction, despite the territory not being part of the United States.
Since its creation and occupation by enemy combatants, questions have been raised as to the ethical treatment of prisoners there. Some claim that many of the prisoners there are either being mistreated or do not deserve to be there in the first place, to others, it is a necessary evil, a facility where we can gain intelligence on new potential terrorist threats and the location of terrorist cells. However, despite the dubious nature of some detainees’ incarceration and questions regarding potential torture, the facility must remain open to gain this valuable intelligence. The naval base at Guantanamo Bay must be kept open for the following reasons: the preservation and protection of national security, the recent improvement of prisoner treatment there, and the proper maintenance of combatant rights.
ARGUMENTS OPPOSED TO THE MAINTENANCE OF GUANTANAMO BAY
Quite a few people wish to make sure that the Guantanamo Bay facility is closing. They see it as a danger to American foreign policy, our reputation around the world, and a danger to those who are being detained there. The combination of torture controversies and their being held without trial leads many to wish the facility disbanded (Richey, 2011). According to opponents, the maintenance of Guantanamo Bay would not increase national security, and the combatants are being unfairly treated and stripped of their human rights whilst being incarcerated there.
According to opponents of the base, national security is not being protected sufficiently while there. Too many of the prisoners have been detained there under dubious circumstances, and have not been appropriately given trials to prove their guilt. There are many questions being raised as to the guilt of many of the Guantanamo Bay prisoners. Many of them “were no more than low-level fighters,” and would likely not give American intelligence sufficient data to justify their incarceration. These prisoners were not thought to be detained in order to form cases against their individual actions, but in order to gather information on higher level operatives in terrorist cells (Davis, 2010).
Some argue that Guantanamo Bay’s intelligence-gathering methods are not effective or at all ethical, and that the combatants are being abused during their stay. There have been instances where prisoners have been left without sleep for days on end, sexually and physically tortured, and a plethora of other punishments. In one instance, a high-level detainee named Mohammad al Qahtani named about 30 other detainees in connection with Osama bin Laden, later recanting those accusations, they were mere lies to stop the torture. Therefore, not only is torture of prisoners unethical, it is ineffective – prisoners undergoing torture will merely say whatever the torturers want them to say to make the pain stop. As a result, there is far too much doubt in the intelligence gathered from these detainees to provide a measured improvement in national security.
The treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay violates their basic human rights. At the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, U.S. soldiers forced the inmates to perform degrading acts including emotional and sexual abuse. In light of the Abu Ghraib controversy, it is feared that this has depicted the abuse of prisoners anywhere else, including Guantanamo, as the actions of a select few. However, there are those who argue that it is part of a pervasive system that leads the military to abuse prisoners’ rights on a consistent scale.
The existence of Guantanamo Bay sends the wrong message to the world, fostering more and more animosity from foreign countries and fomenting more terrorism. According to many, the unclear detention of hundreds of men without charge on United States territory causes quite a controversy around the world (Chaffee 2010, p. 187). Many people already equate the detaining of many domestic prisoners of Middle Eastern descent in Guantanamo as tantamount to the Japanese internment camps of World War II; that 9/11 is our Pearl Harbor, an earth-shattering event that allowed us to detain people against their will, with no real intention of finding out whether or not they are guilty of anything, in order to find information on those who were responsible (Irons, 2009).
The prisoners of Guantanamo Bay are being held without due process, a problem that must be remedied by its closing. At this time, there remain 173 prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, all of whom are being held without due process, not being sent home or elevated to prisoner of war status, granting them a trial (Hanley, 2011). There are already options being taken to find a new home for the prisoners of Guantanamo Bay; the Thomson Correctional Center in Thomson, Illinois, has been selected as a possible replacement or transfer point for Guantanamo prisoners after the facility would close (Obama, 2009). This would place them in a federal penitentiary as opposed to a military prison, affording them greater rights, as well as the right to a public trial. As it stands currently, however, the detainees are being given unsatisfactory treatment, and are not being sufficiently protected under the law.
Despite efforts to lighten up on torture methods, and the use of clean teams to build a rapport and wean accurate information out of terrorists, it can be argued that many of their previous tortures cannot be undone. The mere fact that they were tortured irrevocably damages any sort of chance that could be had to gather reliable information on them; therefore, they are no use to American intelligence officials. Even the high-level detainees have been tortured to the point where any sense of rapport or cooperation is forever lost, and we will not gain real data from them (Davis, 2010). This diminishes any sort of assistance they could render in terms of national security; what’s more, the low level status of many of the prisoners prevents them from posing much of a threat if they were out. Even if they had been given Miranda rights, it is argued that they would have been much more amenable to talk and discuss sensitive information; however, with that chance gone, it is likely there is no real tactical advantage to having a dedicated facility with which to interrogate these detainees.
ARGUMENTS IN FAVOR OF THE MAINTENANCE OF GUANTANAMO BAY
National security is of paramount importance, especially in a time when terrorist groups seek to hurt and kill Americans any way they can. As a result, we need a facility where we can detain enemy combatants and get information from them.
The location of Guantanamo Bay is perfect for this goal – they are completely isolated from US soil; in the event they were to escape, they would at least do so on foreign soil. What’s more, it is located on an island, making it incredibly difficult to get anywhere they could hurt a substantial number of people. It also falls outside the jurisdiction of US courts, being outside American soil and merely being a naval base.
One thing to consider is that the people who are being imprisoned there are far from “white collar criminals” who commit tax fraud or minor, nonviolent crimes; the people being detained are enemy combatants, members of known terrorist cells, and have been determined to be actively or inactively involved with attempts to commit violence against American citizens. As a result, they should not be given the same kinds of amenities as those who merely commit crimes against individuals or corporations. These are known terrorists who present a danger to American citizens as long as they are on American soil, the “worst of the worst” – even in the normal prison system, they carry the potential to communicate with cells on the outside.
There are few other places to securely store the Guantanamo Bay detainees, leaving little choice but to keep them there.. We cannot extradite them to other countries because they do not have the same type of facility they can easily dedicate to the sheer number of enemy combatants currently held at Guantanamo. They also cannot return home, due to the risk of torture or abuse once they were released, and their home countries might not monitor them to a sufficient extent. If we were to close Guantanamo Bay, there would simply be no place to reasonably relocate them. As a result, there is no choice but for the American facility at Guantanamo Bay to remain open.
Because of its isolated nature, Guantanamo Bay remains the perfect place to hold these enemy combatants. When we capture members of terrorist organizations on foreign battlefields and in domestic situations, we need a secure place to hold them. Guantanamo’s nature as a foreign island makes it perfect for this purpose.
While there have been some controversies about torture and the treatment of prisoners, there have been substantial improvements on that front that now abide by International Law (Chaffee 2010, p. 187). For example, detainees are now allowed to practice their religion within their cells, as well as have recreation and exercise. Medical treatment is promptly administered, they can correspond with people from home, and their diets are adequately regulated. The guards, officials and others who performed torturous actions upon the detainees, such as waterboarding, have been identified and released. There is now in place a new staff who are treating the detainees much more humanely than before, allowing them the human rights that they were denied in previous occasions at Guantanamo.
Great care has been taken to obey the tenets of the Geneva Convention regarding the treatment of prisoners, and the Red Cross and the United Nations have inspected the facility and found it to be appropriately managed. The detainees are merely treated as enemy combatants, not prisoners of war; they are afforded much better treatment than they would be if they were regarded as the latter. They are merely held there to prevent them from being returned to enemy forces to continue their work against American citizens. The detainees are being treated like military members, said military being terrorist groups like al-Qaida, in order to grant them unlawful combatant status.
These enemy combatants have been afforded substantial rights as a result of these changes. Lawyers have been assigned to the detainees, who have access to them at any time. This way, their rights are being protected, and they can ensure fair treatment for themselves. New “clean teams” have been created, consisting of FBI agents who would interview high level detainees in a way of questioning them without requiring criminal prosecution, but without the need for the same torture methods (Davis, 2010).
At the same time, it must be noted that many of these enemy combatants are not American citizens, and as such, they are not protected under the Constitution. They have no rights that are afforded to them by that document, therefore they must be considered only through international law. Therefore, the Geneva Convention is followed as much as possible, while still not granting them POW status in order to permit needed interrogation methods.
According to international Legal standards, they can and must be given a military tribunal (Flowers, 2011). The conditions that led to that include the fact they are on an American Naval Base, and they were captured through military conflict, often through many of the skirmishes that take place in Afghanistan and Iraq. Despite these circumstances, they cannot be held without trial, and this would take place in the form of a military tribunal (Alexander and Vicini, 2011). These military tribunals are the necessary option, as many details of the cases are classified information, and as such cannot be revealed to the American people in a public trial. One important distinction to make is that the Supreme Court granted habeas corpus rights to prisoners of Guantanamo Bay in 2004; therefore, they are granted these basic human rights as a condition of their imprisonment (de Londras, 2008). If they are unlawfully imprisoned, they may be released; as a result, we can make sure that we only have those who are truly responsible for terrorist actions and enemy collusion confined in Guantanamo. What’s more, they are given the right to question the legality of their imprisonment, despite their internationally held status.
Many high-ranking officials have opposed the closing of Guantanamo Bay. President George W. Bush, in his administration, created the prison in the first place, and has asserted that the detainees are afforded the tenets of the Geneva Convention. Political officials like former vice president Dick Cheney (2000-2008), former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (2003-2007), and former mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani (1994-2001) have also argued for the continued questioning of prisoners at Guantanamo, as it could reveal important information that may lead to events such as the recent defeat of Osama bin Laden.
In conclusion, there are many strong opinions that exist regarding the closing of Guantanamo Bay. In the past, it can be admitted that many human rights abuses were perpetrated there, including torture and the holding of prisoners without trial. However, these are necessary to the security of America, as the presence of an isolated prison where detainees can be held and questioned without being considered prisoners of war is integral to our efforts against terrorism. The future of our national security depends on the retaining of a secure facility to keep enemy combatants, and Guantanamo is the perfect place for that purpose.
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