Should the US close the military prison on Guantanamo Bay?

Yes

10 of 25

by Nikolaus Federmann

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The U.S. government needs to close the Guantnamo Bay Detention Camp because of the damage its existence has caused to foreign policy, which outweighs any benefits. The world is well aware of the fact that the U.S. is dead serious about the "war on terror". Granted, the camp may prolong related public argument, riding on the waves of media coverage, but 250 detainees does not adequately represent the combined total number of enemy combatants who have been captured in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001. In many respects, the camp is obsolete. And with the November 2008 orchestrated attacks in Mumbai, the world witnessed a new terrible reminder of the serious problem of Islamic terrorism.

The Obama administration has made it clear that it plans to shut down Guantnamo Bay Detention Camp. Now the big question is how will this be accomplished.[1] Since telling all of the prisoners they are "free to go", handing back their clothes and providing each with a couple hundred US dollars in spending money is not how a international controversy is solved. The processes of litigation and incarceration associated with the detention camp have been covered by a gray shroud, and like a decayed legal corpse, the controversy is awaiting burial.

The story of detainee Salim Hamdan allows a glimpse into the anatomy of the questionable due course of law - as it relates to the treatment of prisoners of war outside of constitutional law. Hamdan is a Yemeni who was nabbed in Afghanistan during the invasion, and admitted to being one of Osama bin Laden's personal bodyguards and drivers.[2]

Jump to 2007, Hamdan testified that previously, while he was imprisoned in Afghanistan, he received death threats, was physically assaulted, tortured in painful positions and exposed to extreme cold. He also described how he was held in extensive isolation while in Guantnamo Bay, to the point that he strongly considered "pleading guilty in order to get out of" solitary confinement.[3] Those kinds of treatment should have evoked the Third Geneva Convention which holds governments to the agreement that prisoners of war "shall in all circumstances be treated humanely." Hamdan's charges were dropped, along with charges held against Toronto-born detainee Omar Khadr, who had taken up arms against American forces in Afghanistan.[5] This member of the conspicuous Khadr family[6], living in Canada, was accused of throwing a hand grenade that killed a U.S. soldier. But Canadian lobbying seems to have gained Omar more comfortable conditions than Hamdan since the trial. When Khadr was transferred to a minimum security facility on the base, where he is allowed to mix among other prisoners for up 20 hours per day. In addition, Canadian officials have checked on Khadr seven times since 2002. In turn, Hamdan's lawyers had worked to gain their client better conditions as well.[7]

With a prison system operating outside of the constraints of a constitution, the door was left wide open for many forms of injustice to enter. The "war on terror" is by no means an excuse for a government to violate the Geneva Conventions that were enacted to enforce the fair treatment of every prisoner of war on earth. But when the most powerful country on earth violates an international treaty, how should the world respond? Guantnamo Bay Detention Camp was an example of the United States shooting itself in the foot via foreign policy.

sources:
1. http://www.washingto npost.com/wp-dyn/con tent/article/2008/11 /18/AR2008111803423. html
2. http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Salim_Ahmed _Hamdan
3. http://www.guardian. co.uk/world/2007/jun /05/guantanamo.usa
4. http://www.icrc.org/ ihl.nsf/FULL/375?Ope nDocument
5. http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Omar_Khadr
6 . http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Khadr_famil y
7. http://www.canada.co m/topics/news/world/ story.html?id=4797df ae-aba0-449f-9371-ba fc22b3f6c4&k=126 31

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