Guantanamo Bay Prison

Terrorism is one of the challenges that are facing the world today. As a super power, the United States of America has been a target of many terrorist activities. This prompted the Pentagon to establish a separate prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to handle suspected terrorists. Many people, who are aware of the turbulent ties between Cuba and the USA, do not understand how this happened. Although I am not a historian, the little I know is that the USA got hold of this island in 1903, shortly after helping Cuba to attain its independence from Spain. Later, the agreement was reviewed in 1934, when the island was to be secured with an annual rent of 4,000 dollars. Nowadays, Guantanamo Bay is under the sovereignty of Cuba.

Despite the earlier intensions of using the island as a naval base, the government decided to build there a prison to assist in accomplishing some of its goals. Precisely, the prison was meant for the prisoners of war. One of the major questions, which have been disturbing Americans, is the justifications for this location. The establishment of this prison is a project, which took a lot of time to decide. Since the government wanted to demonstrate its commitments to securing its people, a lot of possible measures were taken to ensure that security is instilled. It should be clarified that Guantanamo Bay Prison was exclusively established to handle military cases. As it was highlighted above, such cases involve terrorists, the prisoners of war, and suspected enemies of the country.

It was decided that Guantanamo Bay would offer a suitable location for handling the cases connected with terrorism. As you understand, terrorism is one of the greatest offences that are highly condemned in this country. Besides, they involve lots of logistical challenges, which require great care. Therefore, it is better if they are given to a separate facility which will try and oversee them. In this regard, such a specific location was chosen because of the following reasons.

First, Guantanamo is situated in an isolated island. Thus, it was a wise decision to locate the prison there because it would minimize the chances of escaping. Any attempt to flee from this facility would be futile, since a suspect or a criminal cannot survive for a long time without being caught up with. Although some of the prisoners manage to leave the facility, they can only go to Cuba, where they will face lots of challenges (Gladys n.pag.). The Cuban authorities will handle them therewith. Besides, the prisoners can find it extremely difficult to survive in this country since they are not familiar with its language, culture, religion and geography. This implies that the prisoners will not get any opportunity to come back to the USA and kill more people. It is generally accepted that most of them are people whose aim is to kill.

In addition, this location of the prison is advantageous to the prison authorities and the government. It is a very good step in ensuring that there is no external interference in the prison whatsoever. Since it is situated in an isolated place, there are no chances for the prisoners to be rescued by their allies. These people are very dangerous and have widespread networks. Despite this, no single person can access and break into the facility in order to free the detainees. It is almost impossible to penetrate the island and do this. However, the prisoners can use any opportunity to wreak havoc. Since their main goal is to kill, they can end up killing more people should they be allowed back into society. Some of the released terrorists have killed many people upon their return. The matter is they are not ready to reform because they have nothing worthy to live for.

Eventually, Guantanamo Bay Prison was located in the island, because the prisoners deserve to be secluded from the rest of the Americans. Since their offences are military in nature, their cases should be handled correspondingly. It is unlawfully and unethically to mix such dangerous prisoners with regular offenders. Although they are also guaranteed the due process during the hearing of their cases, their cases are still very complicated. Namely, the numerous complications make the evidence gathering extremely hard. The prosecuting teams often find it difficult to acquire valid and relevant evidences to submit against the offenders in the court of law during the determination of their cases. Thus, it becomes clear why most of the prisoners end up being detained without trial. Their trial processes cannot be done in a similar way to non-military criminal suspects.  

The existence of Guantanamo Bay Prison sparked off a huge controversy in the country. The attempts made by President Obama to close the prison up were met with sharp reactions. While some people did not support such a decision, others argued for his favor. Many claimed that it does not meet the international standards, violates fundamental human rights and exerts unnecessary expenses to the taxpayers. Besides, it is a clear indication of America’s hatred towards the Muslim community. Apart from injuring US reputation in the international scene, it has spoilt its international relations with countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and Great Britain. In conclusion, I would like you to give the right answer to the following query. Would you feel safe, if this prison was situated in your neighborhood?

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