Consider This Washington: Less Talk, More Action

According to a New York Times news article from June 22, 2007, Bush advisors are 'considering closing the Guantánamo detention center sooner.' Sooner than when? Sooner than scientists discover a cure for cancer? Sooner than NASA demystifies the complex enigma of how to sustain human life on Mars? Guantanmo Bay was leased to United States in 1903. Hopefully the Bush Administration decide sooner than another innocent person's life is unjustly stolen in the name of justice and defense against terrorism.

Previously, the debate over whether or not keep the Guantánamo Bay facility was not up for debate because of various high ranking officials that were opposed to the idea. Such officials include Vice President Dick Cheney, former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Rumsfeld's previous secretary Stephen A. Cambone, and Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales- among probable others. But now that certain officials are either out of office or have lost their influence, the issue of whether or not to keep Guantánamo Bay open has finally been re-opened for debate.

Reporter David Stout claims that the alternative motives for the re-opening of this debate are as follows: 'the detention facility has been tainting the image of the United States, and because it has been hampering America's campaign against terrorism." Regarding the former statement: as if war, consistent deception of Americans and non-Americans, and corruption haven't already tainted the "image of the United States." Regarding the latter statement, as if indirectly supporting terrorist countries by supplying them with weapons of mass destruction has not already "hampered America's campaign against terrorism."

Stout also reports that "President Bush has said repeatedly that he wants to shut down the detention operation at Guantánamo...but that it is not possible to do so in the near future." This may sound cliché, but I believe that when there is a will, there is a way. And how near in the future does Georgy have in mind? Could he be more vague?

As to why Guantánamo was even chosen in the first place, Stout reports that, "While it is an America military installation, it is not on American soil, and thus not as ambiguously subject to American law as are prisons within the United States." Ahhhh- I see...so we can legally torture people without having to worry about those pesky things called...- oh yeah! Human rights. I mean- who cares about freedom and justice anymore anyway? It's so much more convenient (and easy) to not have deal with all of the work of actually charging people with crimes; locking people in an island jail (let's call it what it is) without a reason is completely justifiable.

As Noam Chomsky said in Propaganda and the Public Mind, "the United States government is perfectly rational, understandable, and consistent...they have nothing to do with law, morality, or human welfare. They have to do with maximizing certain interests." I don't know what's more unsettling: that the government of the U.S.A. is rational- or the fact that they're consistently deceptive...

If one were to take a few more steps back on the geopolitical timeline of atrocious and unjust actions of the United States, one might be able to recognize that the United States has definitely dealt with this type of situation before. According to Edward S. Herman of Z Magazine, "Amnesty International's 1978 Annual Report (let me stress- 1978- that's almost 30 years ago) noted that some '80%' of the 'urgent cases' of torture (as if torture cases are ever not urgent) were coming out of the National Security States of Latin America and in the Washington Connection and Third World Fascism (South End Press) Noam Chomsky and I showed that 26 / 35 (that's 74%) of states that were using torture on an administrative basis in the 1970's were U.S. clients, who had received military aid and police training from this country." So the United States backs 'justice'on it's own soil- but not when it crosses a border? Even in the United States injustices persist to exist without the attention and action they deserve. Look up how many people have been misidentified and done time in jail--without even committing a crime. Check out the innocence project's website for more information about this topic.

Furthermore, Stout reports that, "Administration hard-liners have opposed housing prisoners in the United States, at least in part because they would presumably have greater legal rights, and thus be able to challenge the conditions of their confinement and interrogations." Yeah- fuck fairness, equality, and all of the human rights in general! This kind of democratic thinking must be stopped! It's too....democratic for our...oh yeah- our democracy.

Aside from the plausible reporting that Stout has done, a few pieces of information have been reported incorrectly. Stout claims that the Guantánamo Bay detention center opened in 2002, but according to former Naval Intelligence Officer Martin J. Sheina United States Naval presence has been at Guantanamo Bay since the Spanish-American war. And in 1903, the United States was granted a lease of Guantánamo Bay. Who knows how long Guantánamo Bay has been an official detention facility if it has been under the United States' control for nearly 100 years. Reports of the detention center opening date back to 2001 and even earlier.

In addition to Sheina's remarks concerning the Cuban jail, Marjorie Cohn of CovertAction Quarterly also has a difference description of the unjust Guantánamo Bay situation: "the post 9/11 Guantánamo Bay is home to a veritable concentration camp...more than 600 (not 400 like Stout reports) prisoners have been incarcerated at the Guantánamo camp..." This number of 600 has also been reported by James R. Van de Velde, former Lieutenant Commander in the United States Naval Intelligence Reserves, in the International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence.

Cohn also reports that, "3 prisoners were released in October 2002 and that they had no contact with the outside world for 11 months..." So let's do the math: October is the 10^th month of the year, and 10-11= negative 1...meaning that in December of 2001, at least 3 prisoners were doing time at Guantánamo Bay. Additional sources have also noted the existence of Guantánamo Bay as a prison-like institution as well. And Yes- this most definitely contradicts the statement from the article by George W. Bush in which, he claimed that Guantánamo officially opened in 2002. How long has it been unofficially opened? Only a select number of people can answer that question accurately.

According to Stout's article, President Bush's response concerning the rights of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay went as follows: "Terrorist suspects do not deserve all the legal rights enjoyed by American citizens because that would hamper the search for intelligence that can help capture other terrorists..." Oh- is he referring to the terrorists that our country indirectly supported when we sold them weapons of mass destruction?

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has argued that, "the detention unit has acquired such a shabby image abroad that legal proceedings involving terrorist suspects would not be respected around the world. A 'shabby image'? Have concentration camps EVER been respected by anybody that's decent?

Despite not having the right to a trial, many prisoners still have lawyers working for them. Stout reports that, "Lawyers for some of the detainees have asserted that the military tribunals established at Guantánamo Bay are designed not to provide fair trails, but to reinforce the impression that the Americans rounded up the right people." Yeah- the expression 'rounded up' when referring to people isn't dehumanizing at all...Humans are rounded up like cattle all of the time, right?The main point of this article was to spread awareness of the atrocities occurring by the United States in the name of justice. Alan Dowd described the United State's geopolitical position the best in an article from The American Legion when he compared the U.S.A with the country from George Orwell's 1984; " 'War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength.' So wrote George Orwell in his description of a world turned upside-down, where language is used to confuse, rather than inform and the individual is the servant to the state instead of the master." Thomas Jefferson called for a revolution every ten years; I think we are due.