Background:
Guantanamo Bay, also known as Gitmo, was turned into a prison for "enemy combatents" after the attacks of September 11, 2001 by President Bush. One of the first acts of President Obama was to sign an executive order to close the Guantanamo prison camp within a year. Currently the prison camp holds an estimated 245 men captured abroad as part of the War on Terror.
The Guantanamo Prison Is An Embarrassment
Main References: Wikipedia; Politico; ACLU
  • Closing Guantanamo sends a signal to the world that U.S. can confront terrorism without sacrificing our values and our ideals.
  • Since Guantanamo is not part of the United States, prisoners held there did not have the protections afforded by U.S. civilian courts or our civilian legal system.
  • Most of the prisoners were being held without charges and when they were formally charged, they were being tried in military courts rather than real courts of law.
  • The Guantanamo prison currently force feeds about 24 prisoners. This inhumane treatment is a violation of their right to protest.
  • Over half of the prisoners are being held in some form of solitary confinement. Solitary confinement is also considered a form of torture.
  • The prisoners of Guantanamo are not being given the treatment and rights due them by the Geneva Convention. This sets a bad example for how our enemies will treat our captured solders in the future.
  • Guantanamo is a great recruiting tool used by al Qaeda.
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We Need to Keep Guantanamo Open.
Main References: NY Post; Wikipedia
  • The prisoners being held a Guantanamo are really evil people and Guantanamo provides the safest place to hold these people where they can not return to their past behavior of harming Americans.
  • It is not very smart to commit to closing Guantanamo without having a plan as to what will happen to the current inmates.
  •  Many of the prisoners being held at Guantanamo were captured by our military forces. Consequently, it is normal to hold these prisoners until hostilities are over.
  • Holding these prisoners at Guantanamo reduces the influence of civilian judges over the prisoners trying to apply civilian criminal law to military matters.
  • The Geneva Convention does not apply to many of the "illegal combatants" since they were not wearing uniforms or insignias that would identify them as solders, bear arms openly or abide by the rules of war.
  • The closing of Guantanamo is will encourage the terrorist. It sends a chilling message to people who are trying to fight the war on terror.
  •  Release of prisoners to their home country has not not worked real well. Recently three former Guantanamo prisoners, that were released to their home country, were found to be current leaders in al Qaeda cells.