Remember Guantanamo!
We Americans believe that we have a lot to worry about these
days. Whether we are bothered by the threat of terrorism or the
aggressive response to it or both, there is no doubt that many do
not sleep as soundly as they did only a few years ago. It is,
unfortunately, all too easy in such a situation to think about
ourselves to the extent that we all but forget those in the world
who have been harmed severely, and possibly unnecessarily, in the
crossfire of the War on Terror.
In this category of victims, the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay
rank highly. The military prison at Guantanamo is a thing many have
heard of and read about in passing, but the details are hazy. Who
are these prisoners? Why were they arrested? When will they be
released? The answers to these questions may not be at all what we
think they are.
The Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba is “home” to approximately
700 prisoners, most of them rounded up within months after the
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. They come from Afghanistan and Pakistan
primarily, but together the prisoners have claimed heritage to over
40 different nations; characteristically, this is one of many
unclear details about those in the complex. President Bush’s
executive administration, on it’s own accord and against enormous
international and internal criticism, has kept the prisoners in
Guantanamo for nearly two years without bringing forward any
charges, while also denying them access to lawyers, visits with
their families or friends, information about their incarceration,
news about the outside world and the ability to challenge their
detentions in U.S. courts.
How has the administration been able to do this? The short
answer is that these prisoners have been officially designated
“enemy combatants” and thus are entitled – supposedly – to no
rights whatsoever, not even the rights of Prisoners of War. Taking
advantage of the broad lenience of the judicial and legislative
branches in the post- Sept. 11, 2001, world, Bush, Attorney General
John Ashcroft and others in the executive branch (including
military leaders) were able to arrest a wide variety of suspicious
characters at will. Even if those arrested had only loose or
circumstantial links to terrorism (a wide-ranging category in
itself) or none at all, the administration has claimed the
unprecedented right to indefinitely detain the “combatants” for the
duration of the “War on Terror.”
For those readers who wonder why the indefinite detainment of
terrorists is such a problem, let me make this point very clear:
these men may not be terrorists. It is possible, of course, that
some are. But that’s just the problem: there is no way for us to
know.
The administration has refused to release any detailed
information whatsoever on these men, even to their families. Only
the International Red Cross and select journalists have been
allowed to visit the facility, though very few have spoken to the
prisoners themselves. Thus, a wall has been created: the prisoners
cannot speak to the world, and the world has no access to the
prisoners. Despite the fact that proving these men to actually be
guilty of crimes would help the government’s case, they have
instead gone to great legal and practical lengths to withhold
information. This should be suspicious, to say the least.
These prisons, furthermore, are not the relatively humane places
Americans are used to. The prisoners live in small mesh cages and
are exercised rarely and without any sort of consistency. They have
no access to libraries – not to mention newspapers or television –
or human beings besides their fellow prisoners and the military
guards. Depression and ill health is the rule rather than the
exception. Numerous suicide attempts have been documented. All of
this is relatively unsurprising when one considers that, as far as
any of those detained in Guantanamo know, they may be living in
these conditions for the rest of their lives. More observations
made by the International Committee of the Red Cross’s visit to the
camp can be found at www.icrc.org.
Challenges have been brought by some of the handful of released
prisoners, along with civil rights groups and legal organizations,
some including former attorneys working at Guantanamo. Thus far,
federal courts have issued mixed opinions on the legality of the
detainment. The Supreme Court (to the surprise of many) recently
rejected one legal appeal, but has agreed to rule on another in the
summer.
Liberals, conservatives, pro-war or antiwar, there is not a one
of us who favors the detainment of even one innocent man, much less
hundreds. We must not let ourselves be so concerned about our own
troubles that we forget to speak up for those who have no power to
do so for themselves. If evidence is given that these men are
indeed guilty of supporting or participating in terrorism, let
justice be done. But until at least this much is done, we must
adhere to that noble standard by which humans must be judged in a
just world: innocent until proven guilty.
Brent is a sophomore studying philosophy. His columns can be
read every Tuesday.
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