Guantanamo bay

Guantanamo Bay is the topic of much controversy. It was created in 2002 by the Bush Administration to hold detainees from Iraq and Afghanistan. Under the Bush Administration, the detainees at Gitmo grew tremendously to include more detainees from other countries. When current president Barack Obama was campaigning, one of his promises was to close GITMO.

In the Wikileaks, the Emir of Kuwait said "You know better than I that we cannot deal with these people (the Guantanamo detainees). I can't detain them. If I take their passports, they will sue to get them back. I can talk to you into next week about building a rehabilitation center, but it won't happen. We are not Saudi Arabia; we cannot isolate these people in desert camps or somewhere on an island. We cannot compel them to stay. If they are rotten, they are rotten and the best thing to do is get rid of them. You picked them up in Afghanistan; you should drop them off in Afghanistan, in the middle of the war zone."

The King of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah proposed using electronic chips and turning GITMO into an enclosed secure island where the detainees wear these devices. It would be like they are on house arrest but can move freely through the island with the use of the electronic monitoring devices. This idea actually isn't that bad in my opinion. The detainees would be allowed to live more like normal human beings rather than being confined in cells. They'd be monitored which allows the U.S. to keep an eye on them until a more permanent solution is worked out regarding their trial and prosecution. It also takes the responsibility away from extraditing them back to their home countries where they are not wanted.

Aside from the controversy of what to do with the detainees, there is controversy of how GITMO is run. Human Rights Groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are concerned with the detainees' safety and rights not being violated. Despite the fact that many of these detainees are allegedly criminals guilty of committing acts of terrorism, war crimes, treason among a range of other crimes, they are still human beings and they still have the right to be treated as such. Many of the detainees are actually innocent and have not officially been charged with any crimes. They are tortured and dehumanized. They are not treated as people with rights but merely a means to end. All the military personnel guarding GITMO detainees want is information. They are not ensured fair treatment or the rights to a fair trial. They were denied visitation rights at times.

GITMO has been described as a great failure in America's justice system. I do however have to agree with King Abdullah's idea. They should be placed on a type of house arrest where they can't leave the confines of the island but they would have to wear electronic monitoring bracelets. I do not think they should go back to their countries of origin because many of the detainees are from countries that have known ties to terrorist organizations and probably will not be properly rehabilitated back into society. Their governments will probably just harbor them until they fall back off radar and if they are in fact criminals they will just return to that life of crime.

In my opinion, GITMO is a lost cause.