Jess Bravin does a really well job of articulating the situation surrounding Guantanamo Bay. From the onset there was controversy surrounding Guantanamo Bay, but Jess Bravin exposes some horrible events in his book. From controversial incarcerations with very little evidence to inhumane torture methods, everything is explained in depth.
Many of the prisoners in Guantanamo are material witnesses. Material witnesses are basically individuals who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Person's classified as material witnesses are not directly involved with the horrible terrorist acts but are present in the vicinity with the wrong guys. Jess Bravin does a good job of expanding on the concept of a material witness with the captured Salim Hamdann. Salim Hamdan was Osama Bin Laden's driver but was never directly involved in carrying out any terrorist activities. Jess Bravin discusses Salim Hamden's situation in depth from his capture to his release after the famous Supreme Court case named after him, United States of America v. Salim Hamden.
Individuals such as George Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfield were ready to protect America by any means necessary. With John Yoo's legal mind, inmates at Guantanamo Bay were able to avoid trials and other rights until the Supreme Court got involved.
The methods used at Guantanamo were very skeptical and harsh. Because of these harsh and inhuman methods many prosecutors such as Lt. Couch, refused to carry on with the cases. Individuals such as Lt. Couch were not able to allow security take over morality.
I found your summary very interesting, especially since I knew nothing about the topic of "material witnesses," however I'm curious with such a broad topic like Guantanamo bay what aspect will you really be concentrating on your paper? Another factor that kept bothering me reading your summary was how has no one in the past ever seem to think or evaluate the methods used at Guantanamo Bay before such a recent attention was brought to it? Regardless of these questions, I really did find this book interesting.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you expanded on what material witnesses were. Although I do not quite agree with necessarily keeping material witnesses out of jail. Parallels can be made to Bin Laden's chauffeur and the Nuremberg trials for instance. Just because a confidant of Hitler did not carry out heinous crimes against humanity does not mean he was unaware. All in all, I do agree with you that the methods used at Guantanamo were harsh and unjust, seeing as not all cases can be made out to be like the one I alluded to. Great review!
ReplyDeleteI noticed you said individuals such as George Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfield were ready to protect the US by any means necessary, do you think there are different ways these individuals could have utilized to help protect the US? Do you also think that Guantanamo will continue to exist or that sometime within the near future it will be shut down?
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