Guantanamo Bay: Bush vs. the World
by Francesca Basile
Since the United States started sending suspected terrorists to their Guantanamo Bay detention camp in 2001, many skeptics, including myself, suspected that the prison would not accomplish its intended goals. Based on other extreme actions taken by the government in the wake of the 9-11 terrorist attacks and wars with Afghanistan and Iraq, it seemed as if Guantanamo would turn into yet another failed US attempt at exercising their self-righteous power to save the world. As time went on, the skeptics’ beliefs proved true and Guantanamo became just that.
So imagine my surprise when President George Bush announced his plans to close down the prison. “What?” I thought. “This can’t be. I agree with the President?” I quickly turned on CNN, just to make sure that there wasn’t breaking news about hell freezing over. Bush hasn’t officially admitted that he was wrong about the entire concept of Guantanamo Bay, but his simple verbalization of wanting to see the prison shut down shows that even the camp’s most obstinate supporter is realizing that Guantanamo has caused more trouble than help.
Perhaps the President’s change of heart was spurred by the suicides of three prisoners alleged to be terrorists associated with al-Qaeda. The prisoners, two Saudis and a Yemeni, left suicide notes in their cells, the contents of which were not released. It is unknown what the true motives were behind these deaths. Some, including US officials, believe it to be an act of protest, “a good PR move.” Others cite a mythical belief that if three people at the prison were to die at the same time, the rest of the prisoners would be released. But with all bias and religiosity aside, it is easy to see that these suicides were acts of desperation by three men who could no longer stand the conditions they were living in. All three of the prisoners had been held at Guantanamo for four years, with no charges or hearing. It is unknown whether the three prisoners were tortured, but the US government has admitted to implementing torture at the prison in the past. It would not be surprising to learn that torture was one of the intolerable conditions that drove the three men to hang themselves in their cells.
Over 400 prisoners are currently being held at Guantanamo as ‘enemy combatants.’ Only ten have been given formal charges in the past four years. All others have been held indefinitely, in states of depression and hopelessness without being given any information concerning a trial, charges, or a prospective release date. This may seem contrary to the terms of justice outlined in American and international law, but the US government manages to get around those legal obstacles by not labeling the prisoners as prisoners of war, thereby exempting themselves of all responsibilities under the Geneva Conventions.
In fact, many of the goings-on at Guantanamo are kept under a shroud of secrecy. Media access is severely restricted. The need to keep information that may harm the well-being of the country out of the media’s hands is understandable, but if the work being done at the prison is supposedly so beneficial to global safety, these restrictions seem like nothing short of a way to keep probing journalists from seeing the chaos that really goes on behind the detention camp’s walls.
It is for these reasons that the entire world has been involved in persuading the President to shut down Guantanamo. The European Union has been against it for quite some time. They were a little quicker than the US to realize the detriment that the prison posed to human rights. Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik calls the camp “a legal vacuum with no legal rules.” U.K. Attorney General Peter Goldsmith and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have also expressed their hopes that Guantanamo will soon be closed. Leaders around the world hope to see Guantanamo in the near future as nothing more than a short chapter in the history of the war on terror. The EU plans on discussing this issue in more depth at conferences this summer.
Guantanamo’s most prominent accomplishment has been its addition to the list of hypocritical actions the US has accumulated to further negatively affect how its international policies are seen from a foreign point of view. So with all this opposition, why has it taken this long for the President to even consider shutting down this highly illegal operation? Between efforts by European prime ministers and Middle Eastern countries, whose citizens are being held indefinitely with little more than vague accusations of terrorism, what has given the President the right to continue these actions? In the president’s mind there is only one clear answer: because the prisoners being held in Guantanamo are just so “darned dangerous.” And if that is the President’s only reasoning behind deferring the processes involved in the closing of Guantanamo, we should probably start worrying about other national issues.
In the wake of the Saudi and Yemeni suicides and pressure from the EU, it is becoming apparent that the entire world is against the United States concerning the issue of Guantanamo Bay. The question is how long will Bush continue his persistence in the face of global pressure?
Sources:
Reynolds, Paul. "Pressure Grows on Guantanamo Bay." BBC.co.uk. 12 June 2006.
Rainey, James. "Newspapers decry reporters' removal from Guantanamo." www.baltimoresun.com. 15 June 2006.
"EU Puts Closing of Guantanamo Bay on Agena for Talks with Bush." www.bloomberg.com. 16 June 2006.
