WHY SHOULD GUANTANAMO BE CLOSED

JUAN CARLOS MIGUEL CUELLAR SERRANO CS05005 ENGLISH VII GROUP 01

THEACHER: JULIO RAMIREZ JUNE 19, 2009

Let there be no mistake from Guantanamo to Abu Ghraib our country has approved behavior that has destroyed our moral standing in the world. The words of Robert Wexler, a Congress man from the US, are just recognition on what worldwide it is known. The Bush Administration as a result of the War against Terror needed to keep an eye on the prisoners capture during the Invasion in Afghanistan and Iraq many of them ended up in Camp Delta Detention Center, also known as Guantanamos prison that is still working as prison facility. There have been several allegations that torture was taking place in there, a leek of an International Red Cross Report, Amnesty International (AI) and a special Commission from the United Nations found out what was really going on. This essay shows that there are two legal supports by one testimonial reasons of why this detention center should be closed.

The first legally questionable situation that was pointed out by AI about the Center is the uncertainty in how the detention system worked. A special Justice Application System was elaborated and is considered as a parallel structure to the United States Constitution and the International treaties; such system is contained in the Military Commissions Law, that does not allow detainees to address a Court to obtain protection but admits proofs acquired through torture. Since Camp Delta started working as a prison, there was a debate between the United States Supreme Court and its Government; the Court ruled against the Administration three times, but the Congress adopted measures that kept cases out of the Court, who eventually consented to the decisions. The term combatant enemy was configured; According to the American thesis, human rights wouldnt be recognized to this prisoners category, and they would be under military jurisdiction. The legal system that was used in the detention center was unclear and imprecise making it a perfect place to commit torture against prisoners.

The second legal situation pointed by AI was the detention regime that presented an unfair treatment for prisoners. The third article of the Geneva Convention is being omitted since the torture concept was redefined by the Assistant General Attorney of the US as acts that fall short of provoking excruciating and agonizing pain and thus may include mere physical suffering or lasting mental anguish. Between 2002 and 2003 the International Red Cross submitted a document denouncing the application of methods equivalent to torture in Camp Delta; the Defense Secretariat Donald Rumsfeld authorized new interrogatory techniques that he

named: lowering ego-pride, environmental manipulation and sleep adjustments; which are forbidden, because they were actually humiliations, sleep deprivation and rough environments. A year after Camp Delta started working over 100 people were tortured and 12 died because of that. The Manipulation of concepts such as torture made the regime lack of justice for prisoners, using new names for old techniques. United Nations role on the Detention Center was undermined by the Pentagon politics, since its investigation are based on testimonies. The UN assigned a special Commission to investigate the Center but Washington established two Conditions: the inspectors could not have access to the detainees and access to two members of them was already denied. The pentagon argued that a war is on course and the Commissions work would be confidential and the UN could not be informed on what was going on inside the prison. The Commission interviewed former prisoners that had gotten out and they found out that, before arriving to Guantanamo the detainees traveled through different countries such as Afghanistan, Bosnia, Romany, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Gambia, Indonesia, Thailand, etc; and that they were had been for 4 years in a regime with no access to communication plus the different torture techniques that were described before. The secret surrounding Camp Delta affected the investigations made by the United Nations special commission.

No President has ever done more for human rights than I have (George W. Bush) Human rights violations characterized the Bush administration policy towards war prisoners after the invasions in Central Asia; the system and regime of detention, as Amnesty International has established, constitute the key elements to understand how Guantanamos Detention Center works towards the people who are there. The United Nations Special Commission manage its way to get to know what was happening inside the Center but the pentagon still manages the information monopoly towards what happens in the Bay. Nowadays President Barack Obama has committed to close Guantanamos prison but, what will happen to prisoners? And what will be done about the people who violated human rights?