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Guantanamo Bay Essay

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Under the Bush Administration, beginning with the election of President Bush in 2000 and running until early 2009, Guantanamo Bay was filled with suspected 9/11 terrorists from the Taliban and al Qaeda due to the relatively recent outbreak of the war on terror. Large steps were taken by the Bush Administration toward near guarantees of containing those responsible for the War, which can be summed up in a human rights article by Martin Flaherty, “[…] the Bush Administration adopted what it asserted were three ‘necessary and appropriate’ means that would serve as principal ways to pursue the ‘Global War on Terror,’” (36). These three means were indefinite detention, harsh interrogation methods, and military trials. Focusing on military trials, …show more content…

By including this vision of closing Guantanamo as a part of his presidential campaign, Obama gained great support from the public. Once elected, Obama acted on his promise to close Guantanamo on his second day as President, shown by Scott Horton in his article on Guantanamo, “He (Obama) created an inter-agency task force to advise him on the specifics of this process and to create future guidelines for the detention of terrorism suspects captured abroad,” (1). The overall shift in opinion on Guantanamo in both citizens and high-up leaders of the country, however, was a result of many factors occurring around the time of Obama’s election. First, while Guantanamo processes and descriptions were long held from the public under war time confidentiality, more information leaked out as the war settled down, including a basic description of Camp X-ray, which was, “consisting of small cages with chain-link sides, concrete floors and metal roofs, offering scant shelter from the elements, and with very basic sanitary facilities,” (Living Conditions). Methods of torture also became more nationally known, reinforcing the shifting opinion against Guantanamo. Finally, one of the largest reasons for Obama’s push to close Guantanamo was due to the lack of empirical evidence proving detainees guilty (Horton 12). Holding these

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