Guantanamo Bay Leak Exposes Government Commitment to Secrecy Over Transparency

COMMENTARY | WikiLeaks sure has been a thorn in the side of the United States government. The controversial site deepened the wound by releasing documents on an already touchy subject: Guantanamo Bay. The details released aren't exactly flattering either: wrongfully suspected prisoners being held, elderly prisoners with physical/mental issues (as old as 89 in one case), and an extremely young (in one case a 14-year-old) boy. Let the debate begin.

I don't wish to infer that all those held at Guantanamo Bay were rounded up with the carelessness that the few mentioned in the newest WikiLeaks release were, but what it does do is bring back into the limelight the black eye that is Guantanamo Bay.

As with many programs and actions in the post-9/11 panic, Guantanamo Bay is a joke. Now, I'm not wearing rose-colored glasses and think that there aren't more people out there who would want to do something like 9/11 (or worse) to our country or to others, and I agree preventative measures need to be taken, but make them legal ones.

Holding prisoners without any kind of trial or explanation is abundantly unconstitutional, but that's old news. As has been said many times before, what the government has done in the name of "national security" has gotten well past the point of ridiculous.

Unfortunately, these actions at Guantanamo and other programs (airport security, Patriot Act, etc.) are the product of both of the last two administrations. One of President Obama's campaign promises was to shut down Guantanamo Bay. Not surprisingly, I guess, here we are in 2011, over halfway through the term, and it's still open. And as the article from ABC News mentions, it doesn't look like Guantanamo is closing anytime soon.

The new WikiLeaks documents also mention some new details concerning various terrorists and attempted plans. They continue to illustrate the determination of some of these radicals. But when questions are brought to the government (which is WikiLeaks hater number one, for obvious reasons), officials respond the same way they have since 9/11: "Both administrations have made the protection of American citizens the top priority and we are concerned that the disclosure of these documents could be damaging to those efforts." Never mind that what you're doing is damaging to the nation.

When you see another chapter of both the Guantanamo Bay saga as well as the battle with WikiLeaks, you can draw a few conclusions. One is that neither seems to be on the way out. Second, the War on Terror, unfortunately, becomes more and more like the War on Drugs with each passing day, with no end in sight, no tangible way of showing results.

Guantanamo Bay is a cancer on our country; something that is so inherently against what we stand for on a social level it's almost laughable. And lastly, President Obama (along with both parties in Congress) have championed "transparent government" during the last year, but I guess only they get to decide what parts are transparent and which are not. After all, national security is at risk.

Sources:

ABC News