Camp X-ray “˜detainees’ deserve rights

  Shirin Vossoughi Vossoughi is a
fourth-year history and international development studies student
who encourages you to speak your mind at [email protected].

Click Here for more articles by Shirin Vossoughi

Hooded, sedated and taken halfway across the world. Beard and
head, shaved. Guarded by soldiers with machine guns and grenade
launchers.

Caged.

Welcome to Camp X-ray, a U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba, where hundreds of so-called terrorists are being held.
It’s a place designed to keep “unlawful
combatants” in and the law out. A 71-square-mile piece of
land where Hobbes’ worst nightmare may soon come true.

The men here have no names. We don’t know if they are
high-ranking Taliban officials or conscripted youth. The pentagon
calls them “detainees,” a label that avoids the pesky
legal rights afforded to prisoners of war. These include the most
basic tenets of our justice system like the right to an interpreter
and to call witnesses in civilian, not military, court.

Illustration by ED OYAMA/Daily Bruin

POWs cannot be executed, imprisoned or otherwise penalized
without first determining what acts they are guilty of and what
penalty should be imposed. So far, none of the detainees have been
charged with a specific offense. And, under the definition of
Amnesty International, denying POWs a fair trial is a war
crime.

Ah, what a difference a name makes. For those the Pentagon
suspects of aiding al-Qaeda and the Taliban, it could mean the
difference between life and death. Literally.

But we’re talking about dangerous terrorists, right? Who
gives a damn if they’re bathed in halogen floodlights while
confined to wire cages open to the elements? Why should we
care?

Because Guantanamo Bay does not exist in a vacuum. Because the
image of the American military imprisoning hundreds of men
indefinitely (the majority of which are the age of those who walk
this campus) is directly connected to you and I, and the shape our
world is taking.

If you read any foreign press or talk to young people anywhere
else in the world, you know that the United States is under a
microscope. People both inside and outside the country are
increasingly questioning the foreign policy decisions of the
world’s lone superpower. Yet despite the need to back up
righteous intentions, Cuba’s eastern bay reeks of arrogant
hypocrisy:

If it is a “War on Terrorism,” then those who are
caught within that war are POWs, not detainees.

Also, POWs are taken in conflicts between nation-states. If the
U.S. government justifies bombing Afghanistan because of the
al-Qaeda/Taliban connection, this would also classify those in Cuba
as POWs.

The Pentagon can’t have it both ways.

If we recognize John Walker’s fundamental right to a fair
trial in civilian court, then equal rights must be awarded to other
prisoners. Just treatment must not depend on citizenship.

Last week, the pursuit for “terrorists” spread
beyond Afghanistan to Bosnia. Six men released by Bosnian
officials, due to lack of evidence, were immediately swooped up and
taken to Guantanamo by the U.S.

“This is nothing short of a kidnapping,” says M.
Cherif Bassiouni, a professor at DePaul University Law School.
“This is a return to the Wild West and is surely likely to
affect the credibility of the U.S. as a country that adheres to the
rule of law. Worse yet, it will give great support to the claims of
terrorists that the U.S. lacks legitimacy in what it does”
(Los Angeles Times, Jan. 19).

If we want to avoid future acts of terrorism, then validating
the claims of those who deplore American arrogance is not the path
to take.

As the Bosnian case demonstrates, Guantanamo has the potential
to become a trash can in the U.S.’s backyard, where people
from all over the world are conveniently disposed of. Suspected of
the loosely defined crime of terrorism, they can be tried without
due process and even executed.

Former U.S. Naval Reserve Officer Thomas Baer was asked if the
lack of rules governing the treatment of these “bad
boys” meant the possibility of torture. His response:
“We can assume not.” (CNN, Jan 14).

Are we to trust that torture will be avoided despite the absence
of laws that make it illegal? As pictures of manacled prisoners
with goggles and ear cups imply, the captors at Camp X-ray have
already crossed the line.

One of my friends suggested that it is too hard for people to
care for both those that died on Sept. 11 and for the rights of
prisoners. I think not. If we seek a more peaceful world, then the
two must go hand in hand.

Ultimately, the same laws that protect our human rights protect
theirs. Supporting human rights groups and vocalizing concern is
essential to enact laws and put pressure on the government to
abide. But allowing the powers that be to get by with inhumane
treatment and the denial of legal rights is to ensure a future full
of Guantanamos.