Why is gitmo in cuba

The Platt Amendment was repealed in , which is why Cuba currently considers the U. It was reopened after the United States suffered from the terrorist attack on September 11, as a response to increase international anti-terrorist initiatives.

However, it has come under international condemnation due to the human rights violations that have occurred, including the indefinite detention of prisoners without trial. Throughout the existence of the detention camp, there have been several cases of suicide and hunger strikes among the population is common. At one point, detainees were on a hunger strike, with 41 of those being forced fed CNN Library It is important to note that torture is illegal internationally as well as in the United States.

The US military has used enhanced interrogation practices that are not acceptable practices in other detention centers. The United States was able to justify the harsh detainment policies because the center was not located in the U. This argument was highly contended in the international community.

It also begs the question, would the United States treat its own terrorist-citizens like this? The mistreatment of detainees caused the international community to call upon the United States to change its methods and abide by the Geneva Conventions. In , the Supreme Court ruled granted detainees the right to challenge their detention in a federal court. When Barack Obama came into office, he swore on his second day to close the detention center that his predecessor created.

However, his goal was hard to attain due to a strong opposition in Congress. Without a place to relocate the prisoners, Obama had a hard time closing the detention center.

Obama was still able to make progress, moving 70 to detainees to a prison in Illinois CNN Library Since Obama's time in office, the United States government position has changed on the detention center. In , Donald Trump signed an executive order to keep the prison camp open. Though the detention camp remains open, the number of detainees has decreased as prisoners have either been released or relocated, leaving the camp open with 40 detainees as of May CNN Library Even though progress has been made, these prisoners are still subject to brutal conditions.

He spoke specifically about the culture around the detention center and t he pressure the United States Central Intelligence Agency placed on interrogators. He continued describing torture tactics, including stress positions and mock burials that were used for extended periods of time in order to extract potential information from prisoners.

In the United States, prisoners have called out prisons in the South that do not provide air conditioning, that have caused extreme effects on prisoners, including fatal head stroke McCullough The vehicle accidents from the faulty road, along with minor discipline problems, and other necessary administrative issues ate plenty of time on their own. Of the two platoons at my command, one platoon manned the fenceline, while the other conducted training and enjoyed some down time.

The base supported live fire to a degree not available at other locations, and I encouraged my platoon commanders to take full advantage of the opportunities — aggressive training not only honed their skills, it provided an additional deterrent to potential attackers. We regularly exercised as a group at first light to avoid the tropical heat and humidity. Life was not all work, and my family and I enjoyed the tight community and warm ocean waters to the fullest -- my young sons loved the beaches.

He had originally intended to film at the base itself, but the script portrayed a negative view of the Marine characters, and Reiner was unwilling to modify the script to include positive Marine character portrayals. There are significant differences between the movie and the real-life events it was based on.

In the movie, a Marine dies as a result of efforts by his fellow Marines to administer some peer discipline—discipline in fact ordered by the commanding officer, famously played by Jack Nicholson.

The real event involved Marines severely beating—but not killing—a fellow Marine who had alleged that Marine sentries were shooting across the fenceline separating the base from Communist Cuba. It was a classic case of hazing — the unfortunate dark side of fraternal organizations like the military, law enforcement, fire service, sports teams, and college fraternities. Though the beaten Marine survived, and though the official investigation found no evidence of a negative command climate advocating hazing or unauthorized extra-legal discipline, the Marine colonel in command was relieved of his command — a clear indication of censure.

Colonel Nathan Jessup is meant to be a parody, inflexible, intolerant, megalomaniacal, and impatient with substandard performance; to Marines, he comes across almost as a role model. The Guantanamo I had come to know in the early s, and which I found taking command in mid, was to change dramatically starting in January of By November of , ongoing military operations in Afghanistan in support of the War on Terror had resulted in a number of captives -- enough to force decision-makers to look for someplace to hold them.

Many of these terrorists and combatants were collected and temporarily detained at the forward operating base at Khandahar, Afghanistan. Detainees were evaluated to determine their status as lawful combatants, which required specific treatment by international law, and their value for intelligence purposes to counter future terrorist operations.

The need for a more robust facility quickly became apparent. The biggest question: where to locate such a facility? Some of the critical conditions necessary for the establishment of a detention facility were security and safety of the detainees, control, a certain freedom from legal review, timeliness, security, established supporting infrastructure, and cost managements.

One of the principal advantages to placing the detainees in Guantanamo Bay or a similar location was the legal status that non-U. Some of these included the right to legal representation, rights of prisoners, and rights to the American legal system.

One government official referred to the base as the "legal equivalent of outer space. Guantanamo was central to the Bush Administration's prevention of the judicial review of the legal status of prisoners, a position invalidated by the Supreme Court in Boumediene v.

On January 4, , U. Southern Command was directed to take custody of designated detainees within the United States Central Command area of responsibility, and to escort and hold the detainees at Guantanamo Bay for further disposition. The advance party of JTF arrived with lots of requirements and no resources. We scrambled to loan staff and money from our own budget, providing Marines to prepare office spaces, move furniture, and other tasks required to get the JTF headquarters up and running.

Without funding lines, the JTF could not even purchase cleaning supplies to re-condition the facilities for the staff. Residents used to the slow pace of a small town lamented some of the changes: long lines for everything, shortages at the base store, errant tenants with a short-term mentality.

On the other hand, several thousand service members justified making significant improvements to the recreation services aboard the base; the Morale, Welfare, and Recreation MWR Division flourished. Regular athletic events—an adventure race, a triathlon, a cycling road race, and a golf tournament—were quickly organized.

An incidental advantage to choosing Guantanamo, at least to some decision-makers back home, had been the proximity of the base to Washington, D. The closeness to the seat of the U. Paradoxically, perhaps, yet another perceived advantage was the ability to control media access.

There had been limited media access in the past, and it required rigorous prior approval. This perception of control proved false, however, in practice. Throughout the initial stages of standing up the base for the detainee mission, media attention presented considerable challenges. For some, the easy answer was to just keep all reporters out. After all, GTMO was a closed base; no unofficial visitors residents are allowed to have friends and family members visit, within very strictly defined limits were allowed aboard the base.

In the week prior to the arrival of first batch of detainees, the Department of Defense allowed the media aboard the base, with their movements strictly controlled and for the visit limited to a few days.

The visit went reasonably well, until one of the reporters got word from his network that a military transport plane carrying a number of detainees had departed Afghanistan. What to do about these uncooperative journalists? Some advocated forcibly ejecting the reporters, bound and gagged if necessary. Eventually, a small number were allowed to remain and observe the arrival of the detainees from a distance. While the command remained apprehensive about the media, and potentially negative reporting, a steady flow of reporters passed through the base during my tenure.

New book by Washington Post reporters claims Trump asked if detainment camp could be used to house infected. Moroccan prisoner Abdul Latif Nasser had been held by the US since without being charged with a crime. By Mohammed Haddad. Published On 7 Sep Where is Guantanamo Bay? Detainees by nationality Since January 11, , at least detainees from 48 countries have been held in Guantanamo Bay. What happened to the detainees?

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