U.S.A.'s Concentration Camp?
Gitmo is a peculiar institution. Gitmo is a blight on the landscape of American values. While 'technically' one can make a case that Gitmo detainees are not entitled to the full constitutional rights of due process, the problem transcends the technical legalistic rationale for keeping them in the perpetual limbo of a Concentration Camp.
It's kinda like slavery in the 19th century in the sense one could then legally claim that slaves were not entitled to certain legal rights of due process...but the morality of that interpretation... is bankrupt. A 19th century slave could argueably be a noncitizen, kidnapped from a foreign land, who is now hostile to the United States - and in that sense the detainees at Gitmo have been in the same peculiar boat of slavery.
The U.S. might have had good intentions when it built Gitmo, but more and more there's been a disturbing pattern of uncovering facts that seem to indicate that the detainees are not all enemy combatants or 'terrorists' - and that some of these people could in fact be wrongfully detained.
I f you or I was captured by a foreign Army and misidentied as a terrorist - wouldn't you and I want the legal right to go to a legitimate court and prove to the world our innocence? Is the U.S.A. the sort of nation now that will allow such a person to prove their innocense, or is the U.S.A. now the sort of nation that will detain them/imprison them forever?
The recent Supreme Court Ruling is not a case of Judicial Activism. In fact, the problem of activism is in the Executive Branch of the Bush Administration. The Gitmo problem could have been avoided , if not for the
stubborn arrogant antics of the Bush Administration. In fact, one grows suspicious of what the Bush Administartion fears from the testimony of detainees. Have they kidnapped, detained and tortured a shocking number of innocent people? Is that the problem?
The U.S. Supreme Court has finally ruled, and what is sad - is that the Bush Administration allowed this problem to get so out of control and be forced upon the Supreme Court. Gitmo has damaged the U.S.A.'s international reputation, and Gitmo will go down in history alongside Dachau, Devil's Island and Cool Hand Luke.