An eyewitness account of the Guantanamo Bay prison
Eric Zillmer
Issue date: 1/26/07 Section: Ed-Op
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Something caught my eye in last week's edition of The Triangle (January 19, 2007) related to Zaller's commentary on Guantanamo Bay ("Guantanamo Bay: Five years of shame," Jan. 19). Zaller compared the detention facilities located at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to a "concentration camp." During my work on genocide, I have visited many former concentration camps, including Dachau (Germany), Mauthausen (Austria) and Auschwitz-Birkenau (Poland).
In contrast to Zaller's ramblings on Guantanamo Bay, I actually have been to the detention facilities in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; they are not a concentration camp!
In the interest of a scientific discourse, I want to share my viewpoint on Guantanamo Bay. There is no question that the care and interrogation techniques of the detainees at U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay (GTMO) have become a political hot button and a topic of worldwide concern. For critics of U.S. policy, GTMO has become a poster child for everything that has gone wrong with our nation's foreign policy. No other U.S. military base has caused such a flurry of controversy, with most of the criticism leveled directly at President Bush for his policies on dealing with detainees captured in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other locations related to the war on terror.
Critics have highlighted the Kafkaesque circumstances by which detainees are being kept at GTMO. There have been reports of alleged detainee abuse, including humiliation, abusive interrogation methods and incidents of forced feeding. This has led many to compare GTMO to the prison abuse that occurred at Abu Ghraib, located on the outskirts of Baghdad.
The military's policies on interrogations at GTMO have been questioned in view of allegations that psychologists, in their role as Behavioral Science Consultants (BSCs), are supposedly relying on confidential medical information to extract intelligence from detainees. This has led many to question the legality of the administration that governs the detainees, the perceived lack of due process, the alleged noncompliance of the Geneva Convention treaty, the resistance to label the detainees as prisoners of war, and the lack of access to legal counsel and judicial oversight.
In contrast to Zaller's ramblings on Guantanamo Bay, I actually have been to the detention facilities in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; they are not a concentration camp!
In the interest of a scientific discourse, I want to share my viewpoint on Guantanamo Bay. There is no question that the care and interrogation techniques of the detainees at U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay (GTMO) have become a political hot button and a topic of worldwide concern. For critics of U.S. policy, GTMO has become a poster child for everything that has gone wrong with our nation's foreign policy. No other U.S. military base has caused such a flurry of controversy, with most of the criticism leveled directly at President Bush for his policies on dealing with detainees captured in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other locations related to the war on terror.
Critics have highlighted the Kafkaesque circumstances by which detainees are being kept at GTMO. There have been reports of alleged detainee abuse, including humiliation, abusive interrogation methods and incidents of forced feeding. This has led many to compare GTMO to the prison abuse that occurred at Abu Ghraib, located on the outskirts of Baghdad.
The military's policies on interrogations at GTMO have been questioned in view of allegations that psychologists, in their role as Behavioral Science Consultants (BSCs), are supposedly relying on confidential medical information to extract intelligence from detainees. This has led many to question the legality of the administration that governs the detainees, the perceived lack of due process, the alleged noncompliance of the Geneva Convention treaty, the resistance to label the detainees as prisoners of war, and the lack of access to legal counsel and judicial oversight.
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