Guantanamo Bay. Of the roughly four hundred and sixty prisoners held there, only ten have ever been charged with crimes. The rest are considred international criminals, and are held (often for months or years at a time) with no charges being leveled against them and no chance to legally pursue their release. In the past year over seventy five prisoners have gone on hunger strikes, forty one have attempted suicide and three have succeeded. International humans rights organizations, such as Amnesty International' have decried the treatment that prisoners recieve at the hands of US soldiers and European leaders have pressured the US govornment to provide the prisoners with some legal recourse. Yet now when the US supreme court seems on the verge of making a ruling regarding Guantanamo, Bush comes out with a statement saying he'd like to close the prison.
Since 9/11 the White House has maintained that Guantanamo Bay has been a necessary tool in fighting the rising tide of evil that the terrorists represent. Without immediate action on the part of the US, United States citizens would 'not be safe'. And so two wars were started and hundreds of individuals have been arrested, both within and outside of the US, to be held in secret prisons and at Guantanamo Bay where the methos used during 'interviews' to extract information were often considered by many to be torture, or borderline torture. The justification? They are terrorists and they must be held indefinately to 'protect' the American people. The argument against it, American's allow rapists to ave fair trials, even Timothy McVeigh was given legal process--if these people really are guilty, they will be found guilty and then incarcerated.
Whatever the argumentation, things are coming to a head as the supreme court prepares to make a ruling on the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdin, a driver for Osama Bin Laden who was charged with a crime and provided a lawyer. He is no challenging the constitutionality of Guantanamo Bay and Bush now says he hopes the supreme court provides some sort of process for giving detainees hearings, because he would like to 'empty' the notorious prison. The question begs itself, Bush did not need supreme court permisison to imprison these peolple, why does he need supreme court permission to try them?
Whatever the supreme court decision is, it is expected before the end of this month--and that decision may shape America's international image.
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