U.S. has secret prisons, denies human rights

When President Barack Obama signed an order to close down the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, many Americans thought it was the first step toward some reconciliation between America and her dignity.

A large debate was held concerning what constituted torture, and some of the last administration’s villainous actions were illuminated. Unfortunately, as grand a spectacle as this was, it was a performance played for the public by a new administration looking for easy brownie points. Very little has actually changed with U.S. policy concerning how enemies of the state are treated.

By the time Guantanamo Bay was ordered to close, there were 240 prisoners being held there, and only about 800 prisoners had been interned for the duration of its use. What most people do not know is that for the seven years this “war on terror” has been waged, the United States has been reported to have “captured” tens of thousands of suspects from all around the world. Where are these suspects being held?

At least one location has been identified at the Bagram Theatre Internment Facility in Afghanistan, where there are at least 620 known prisoners currently being held indefinitely.

In the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Boumedine v. Bush, the court ruled 5-4 in favor of habeus corpus rights for “enemy combatants” at Guantanamo Bay. Basically the court ruled that inmates had the right to challenge the legality of their imprisonment, because they were being held in a facility, without due process of law, with no judicial framework of either national or international law.

Normally, prisoners are granted habeus corpus rights for their war crimes by international law set by the Fourth Geneva Convention. Unlike a traditional war, however, the “war on terror” has no geographical boundaries, so the term “enemy combatant” was created by President George W.

Bush’s administration to describe the treatment of any “suspect of terror” who was captured. Basically it provided a legal limbo whereby any person suspected of terror, in any country, could be imprisoned indefinitely as an enemy of the state.

There were 30 different nationalities represented of the 240 Guantanamo inmates, many of whom had no comparable legal system to contest U.S. policy until the U.S. Supreme Court decision was rendered in 2008.

While President Obama’s executive order effectively closed Guantanamo Bay, the Supreme Court’s decision only applied to facilities on domestic soil. This means the legal statutes of an “enemy combatant” are still valid in war zones, such as where Bagram detention center is located in Afghanistan.

Moreover, unlike at Guantanamo where some prisoners could obtain legal counsel, no such privilege is granted in a war-zone. Afghanistan’s government is rarely granted access to this facility, even though most of the prisoners are reported to be Afghani.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, the only organization granted access to the prison, has requested several times that conditions be improved in this facility. The American Civil Liberties Union has been repeatedly denied access to the names and nationalities of the prisoners held at Bagram.

As of now, only one prison in Michigan has drafted a proposal to accept Guantanamo’s prisoners, with virtually every public official refusing to accept them as if they have the plague. Meanwhile, the facility at Bagram is undergoing renovations to increase its capacity to more than 1,000; it is likely that at least some of the former Guantanamo inmates will be sent there.

While President Obama did a great job washing over the sloppy handiwork of the Bush administration, he has yet to remove the stain on our country ‘s integrity. Alexander Hamilton wrote,
“The practice of arbitrary imprisonments has been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instrument of tyranny.”

If America wishes to restore its name, its people must correct this foolish notion that their security is so important they have every excuse to trample on the universal liberties this nation was founded on. Failure to do so is placing oneself above the constitution out of fear, and people will do anything when they are afraid.

Unless President Obama and Congress open up all detention facilities to international human rights groups and take full responsibility for what is discovered, America’s reputation will still resemble a dirty rag.