Guantanamo Bay: Writ of Habeas Corpus


Today, Guantanamo Bay has faced much controversy among Americans. Guantanamo Bay is a military base and detention camp in Cuba, which currently remains the only American base in a Communist country. Guantanoma Bay is mainly used for detaining terrorist suspects who are being held pending for trial or relocation. Guantanoma Bay is under a storm of controversy due to the conditions the detainees are held in, alleged torture tactics, and the writ of habeas corpus to prisoners.

One main controversy of Guantanamo Bay is the living conditions of the prisoners. Prisoners are in concentrated in indefinite detention. They are kept in complete isolation for the most part, and if they are ever allowed to roam free within a designated area, they must be blindfolded and they cannot unionize or communicate in more than groups of threes. The government construes this as a technique to break down any reluctance to interrogation. To some this doesn’t seem to be that big of a deal, however, consider this. Since the beginning of the War in Afghanistan, there has been 775 detainees have entered the detention base and 420 have been released. The remaining 355 detainees have waited years for a trial or relocation to another prison. This has raised much controversy, particularly among organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The government is frowned upon for denying the prisoners writ of habeas corpus, which requires a trial to justify the prisoner’s detention. Another main controversy of Guatanamo Bay is that torture techniques are used to extract information from the prisoners.

It is quite evident that action must be taken to improve human rights that these prisoners have. They have been deprived of everything that they deserve. People must take the initiative to protest the improvement of living conditions, and more importantly, the prisoners must be given a fair trial as soon as possible. Even though these prisoners are a threat to our society, they must not be denied their human rights. Justice must be served!