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Guantanamo Bay And National Security

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Guantanamo Bay and National Security

Chapter One: Introduction
Introduction to the Chapter National security in the United States is more significant than ever before. With recent terrorist attacks in Europe, the Middle East, and within the United States, politicians as well as citizens have questioned how safe the country is compared to prior to the events of September 11th, 2001. The opening of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base as a detention facility in 2002, serve the purpose of housing suspected terrorists and criminals that were responsible for the 9/11 attacks. These criminals included suspected member of the Islamic fundamentalist faction, the Taliban, and those thought to be responsible, members of al-Qaeda. However, throughout the nine years that it served as a detention facility, it was under extreme scrutiny, controversy, and ethical and legal dilemmas over the treatment of the prisoners.
When President Obama announced the Guantanamo Bay would close on January 22nd, 2009 and issued the executive order to promptly close the facility, it was met with mixed emotion and criticism. While, the closure of the detention facility has yet to be fulfilled, there have been hundreds of prisoners released, or transferred to their countries, and presently less than one hundred remain in the detention facility. What this research chooses to explore is, if the Guantanamo Bay (GTMO) detention facilities are closed entirely how it will impact the United States national security?

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