Government policy issues and current developments

¶ … blanket media coverage of U.S.-Iraq war has forced many other important national and international issues in the background. One of these is the controversial policy of the U.S. government regarding the prisoners kept in the Guantanamo Bay camps without trial. In this paper about the Guantanamo bay prisoners we shall explore the conditions under which they are kept, their rights under international and U.S. law, the possibility that some of them may be innocent, the U.S. administration's view point about the issue, and what options are being considered for their future.

Hooded and Shackled

After the Taliban regime was defeated in Afghanistan, prisoners suspected of having links to the Al-Qaeda organization were brought, hooded and shackled, to the prison camps at Guantanamo Bay. More than a year later, the U.S. government is still holding some 650 prisoners there without any bringing any charges against them. (Kay, "No Fast track...")

No Rights

Guantanamo Bay is the site of a U.S. Naval base in the southeastern part of Cuba, which was leased to the United States under a 1934 treaty with Cuba. Technically it is not a part of the U.S.A. And the U.S. laws do not apply there; the prisoners being kept there, therefore, do not have the rights that apply to prisoners in the territories of the United States.

A recent ruling of a U.S. federal appeals court has upheld a ruling that the Guantanamo Bay prisoners have no right to hearings in American courts since the inmates are aliens held outside U.S. sovereign territory. ("Guantanamo Bay prisoners lose appeal") This ruling has given the excuse to the U.S. administration to continue to hold the prisoners in the Guantanamo camp indefinitely without trial and without being charged. What is more, there are no immediate plans for these 'forgotten' prisoners who are likely to be kept in the present camps indefinitely -- perhaps for several more years. (Kay, "No Fast track...")

No Prisoner of War Status

These prisoners have not been granted the status of prisoners of war, despite criticism by various governments as well as the Amnesty International (AI). ("the Wire" Amnesty International) The AI believes that prisoners captured during the conflict in Afghanistan should be considered prisoners of war. If there is any dispute about their status, the U.S. authorities must allow a "competent tribunal" to decide, as required by the Third Geneva Convention. (Ibid.)

Conditions at the Guantanamo Bay Camps

Conditions at the Guantanamo bay prison are, by all accounts, grim. In the past one-year, the detainees were shifted from the makeshift 'X-ray' camps to newly constructed 'Camp Delta' where isolation is even more rigorous. The jail was constructed from shipping containers, each housing five prisoners in separate 6.8 by 8 feet cells -- smaller than most death row facilities in the U.S. The detainees have no access to families or lawyers and they are only allowed out of their tiny cells for two 15-minute exercise breaks every week. Even the so-called exercise yards consist of 25 x 18-foot cages, with prisoners only allowed to exercise alone, wearing manacles. (Philips) Many of the inmates are reported to be suffering from mental health problems and there have been an unusually high number of suicide attempts among the prisoners. Amnesty International has described the conditions at Camp Delta as "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in violation of international law." (Quoted by Philips)

Some may be Innocent

The circumstances in which the prisoners now detained at Guantanamo were captured in Afghanistan and Pakistan makes it quite possible that many of them may well be innocent. It is reported that the Afghan warlords and some Pakistani soldiers rounded up some of these 'suspected Taliban and Al-Qaeda' operatives only for the sake of collecting substantial bounties offered by the U.S. authorities. (Philips) Others may have been the victims of personal enmity and vendetta.

The U.S. Administration's Point-of-View

According to the Bush administration, the detainees at the Guantanamo bay are "worst of the worst." (Quoted by Kay) They are classified as "unlawful combatants" since most of them are not considered to be part of regular armies. ("Guantanamo Bay")

The U.S. defense department says it is treating the prisoners humanely and that the main reason for the ongoing detention is to glean information. It says intelligence gained from repeated interrogation has helped prevent terrorist attacks. ("Amnesty Plea for Cuba detainees") It has been reported that an al-Qaeda plot to blow up warships in the Straits of Gibraltar was foiled after information was obtained from a detainee in Guantanamo Bay. Most of all, the U.S. simply cannot afford to release the prisoners -- no one wants to be responsible for letting out someone who later turns out to have played a role in terror attacks. (Kay)