Guantanamo Bay in Cuba houses some of the most dangerous people. The people being held have ranged in committing various crimes. What makes Guantanamo Bay well known is how the time period a detainee has spent in prison without a trial. While in prison for an extensive period of time, a detainee is bound to receive discipline for not following the guards. There are often a variety of different methods that the guards use to teach discipline to the detainees. All who follow Guantanamo Bay as institution often criticizes the measures taken. What makes Guantanamo Bay an ironic place to start this journey is because Guantanamo Bay is at the center of attention to a very important, controversial law passed in 2006. The controversial law was …show more content…
By passing the Military Commissions Act of 2006, the person in control of all decisions would be the President. “ They also gave the president absolute power to designate enemy combatants, and to set his own definitions for torture” (Military Commissions). If someone were to identify the players who were deemed responsible for this act to pass, that someone would most likely identify President Bush and Congress. These central figures wanted to take the extra step in keeping the United States protected from any additional acts of terrorism. With what is stated in the Military Commissions Act of 2006 and those who stressed for the passage of the act, mixed messages are sent. President Bush, at the time, believed in less harm and more protection for the United States due to the extenuating circumstances. By creating a law that gives the President absolute authority and leaving no room for improvement, how was the United States going to look like? What it going to be looked at as a weak country with no control of power? The other player involved, Congress, was weak on its part. By allowing this act to pass with authority give to the President, this law was interpreted as unconstitutional and violated the rights of the judicial branch and ultimately the supreme law of the land, The Constitution. How the judicial branch got involved in this matter was based upon its given rights of
Also, there isevidence that access to medical care by prisone! rs is intentionally withheldfrom prisoners of conscience, and other prisoners that criticized the Cubangovernment. Amnesty International reports that suspected critics of thegovernment are being harassed with threats, eviction, loss of employment, andeven short-term incarceration. Even more disturbing is that these violationsare merely a fraction of the true number of human rights breaches that theCuban government is guilty of committing (“Amnesty International 2002Report”). But the human rights violations are not the only reason actionneeded to be taken towards Cuba.
In August of 2002, without consulting Congress, the Bush administration changed the definition of torture by military standards to allow for previously illegal interrogation techniques. (Inside Guantanamo) Bush lost a lot of respect from American citizens for doing this on his own instead of consulting Congress because it added a lot of suspicion that he was trying to hide something. The Pentagon organized the interrogation techniques into three categories. The first one included yelling and deception techniques and the second included sensory deprivation, isolation, stress positions, extensive interrogation, hooding, clothing removal, and the use of phobias. The third and most severe category included waterboarding and even death threats. (Greenberg 221) Bush wanted justice to be served to the men who planned and carried out the deaths of thousands of innocent Americans in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He thought the families of the thousands killed that day deserved that justice. Soon after, President Bush sent 14 men to Guantanamo Bay so that justice could be served to them by the military commissions he had proposed. They were to be put under the custody of the CIA where they would get what Bush thought they deserved and thanks to the Bybee Memo, Bush had complete, unlimited power when it came to core war matters such as this. While constitutional, the actions of the Bush administration as he went behind Congress’s back and came up with a new definition for torture
Cuba, only 400 miles from Miami Fl, is an island in the Caribbean and is renowned for its excellent climate. There are beaches for swimming, scuba diving, snorkeling, fishing, and boating opportunities. The island has it’s dark secrets as well, there is Guantanamo Bay, a prison nearby, where the detainee’s right are stripped away and they are beaten daily. Closing Guantanamo Bay has been a big debate over the past few years. President Although what they are doing is technically legal, it is still unconstitutional on U.S. soil. Obama promised us that during his term he would close it. Obama has said that "Keeping this facility open is contrary to our values. It undermines our standing in the world. It is viewed as a stain on our broader record of upholding the highest standards of rule of law." Guantanamo Bay is an embarrassment to our country and has been since it opened. The camp was repeatedly criticized by human rights and humanitarian organizations all around—including Amnesty international, Human Rights Watch, and the International committee of the Red Cross—as well as by the European Union and the Organization of American States(OAS), for alleged human rights violations, including the use of various forms of torture during interrogations. We need to close Guantanamo Bay because it costs a lot of money to keep it open, it is unconstitutional, and we can contain the prisoners in the U.S.
Three weeks in solitary confinement. Confused, distressed and disorientated, only for tear gas to engulf your cell. —Despite what you may be imagining, these scenes described are not from the infamous torture detention camp Guantanamo Bay, but are in-fact only a few examples of the outrageous abuse of human rights encountered in the Northern Territory’s Don Dale Youth Detention Centre. You heard me right, this is occurring in our own country, to young, impressionable teenagers. Our own backyard, if you may. Yet only recently have such allegations reached the public eye. What’s worse, the government and head of child protection services have known about such claims, yet turned a blind eye on the cases, and ultimately turned a blind eye on the lives of the abused detainees.
The article “Why Guantanamo Bay must be closed for good” by Jonathan Russell denotes the existence of Guantanamo Bay, a maximum security prison off the coast of Cuba. Russell begins by saying that Guantanamo Bay is ineffective because it does not prevent terrorism in other parts of the world. In fact, the existence of Guantanamo Bay fuels terrorist to carry out more terrorist attacks as an act of defiance. Additionally, most people who go to the prison do not get the right to a fair trial as guaranteed by the fifth and sixth amendments. The prison is notorious for its torture of its prisoners. Prisoners face waterboarding, electric shocking, sexual humiliation and are even deprived of sleep. The torture is supposed to make prisoners reveal
The issues that have had cause a lot of controversy since 2002.The closing of Guantanamo Bay has led to be the most reported prison that’s held prisoners against their own will. Due to against war on terror, but has yet most detainees havn’t been charged. We wonder in the closing of Guantanamo Bay who will it affect, what will happen, when will the closing of Guantanamo Bay takes place, and how will this play a role in the world today.
Guantanamo Bay, also known as Gitmo, is a United States Detention Camp located in the Guantanamo Naval Base in South Eastern Cuba. The United States gained control of the Guantanamo Bay area in the 1903 Cuban-American treaty in which the United States gained the right to control the Cuban territory while at the same time recognizing the Cuban state sovereignty (Nofi, 112). In the year 1970, the United States began to use part of the Guantanamo Naval Base as a detention camp for Cubans and Haitians that were caught in the high sea trying to get into the United States illegally (Gott, 78). However, the detention camp later became a political tool, which politicians used for their selfish
The prison of Alcatraz displays its unique history of crime and punishment. The ways of Alcatraz were rather different from any other prisons. The worst criminals were not automatically sent to Alcatraz. The ones who couldn’t behave at their earlier prisons were sentenced to Alcatraz to learn how to follow rules and cooperate. Now sentenced to Alcatraz, these prisoners had fewer rights
When I looked for a general view of what Guantanamo prison looks on the inside, I found a video from 2014 where some guards give a small tour of the cells of the prisoners, the library which was the only form of entertainment, and the programs they have for the detainees. The guards made everything sound like a luxury where in actuality most things the prisoners are given is just a reminder of where they are, even shampoo bottles have MAXIMUM SECURITY written on them making it the only thing visible thing on the bottle. When they talk about the entertainment they offer, someone would think that they provide an escape for the prisoners but on the contrary. Shaker Aamer a prisoner that was arrested and just released but was held in there for
Guantanamo Bay is a detention camp located in the southern tip of Cuba operated by the U.S. military. The detention facility was created after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, when Americans felt threaten by the uncertainty of terrorism. President Bush established the detention facility to campaign the elimination of terrorism and their support networks. Guantanamo Bay was established to hold individuals’ captive during military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Ever since Guantanamo Bay has been under a storm of controversy whether it should be closed or stayed open. Whether it closes or stay open, it is evident that action must be taken to improve human right to the detainees. On his second day in office President
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.
Have you were thought about what it would be like to be in a prison that is heavily guarded? Should Guantanamo bay be closed? Guantanamo bay should absolutely be abolished because guantanamo bay is not beneficial because prisoners are degraded and abused, problems already, there is no reason to have it any more.
“It is now widely accepted that people sentenced to imprisonment are in prison as punishment: that the punishment is loss of liberty, and they are not to be further punished by harsh conditions, humiliation or violence” (Naylor, 2014). This statement describes what the balancing act between punishing the inmates for their behavior without impeding on their constitutional rights. There are guidelines that every prison guards, or staff member must fallow when restricting the rights of the inmates. This guideline is how the balancing act is ensured not to topple one way or the other. The guideline includes
In Cuba, there is a rising number of prisoners of conscience. “The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation documented a monthly average of 862 arbitrary detentions between January and November, an increase compared with the same period in 2015”(Cuba 2016/2017, amnesty.org) One of these is Alexander Palacio Reyes. Reyes is forty-two year old member of the Pro-Democracy Pedro Luis Boitel
The United States angers terrorists and other foreigners on a daily basis, but we find it hard to understand why. Examples abound and most often relate to ignorant decisions on behalf of the government concerning the welfare of these foreigners. The situation on the island of Cuba at the Naval Station of Guantánamo Bay has grown out of hand. Here, the U.S. holds the prisoners that it has captured as part of its war on terrorism in a camp. They hold ver 600 men there without contact with their home countries or families and without the legal consultation of a lawyer. President Bush classifies these prisoners as “enemy combatants” and the U.S. says that for this reason they can withhold their rights unlike a normal