Obama Shuts Down Guantanamo Bay Prison

President Barack Obama issues his first executive orders to shut down Guantanamo Bay prison. It is a bad idea to close down such prisons without alternative solutions. President Obama an educated man and a lawyer, should know very well that terrorists caught in battlefields for shooting at soldiers or planning terrorist attacks can easily be freed in a US court system due to the nature of their crimes. Let me explain.

Now it's great news that Obama wants to help America's reputation by closing down a prison that has now been known to have committed abuses against prisoners and rather disgusting abuses that have really hurt the military as well; however, that doesn't mean these prisoners should not be taken to another prisoner of war camp where they can be judged by military tribunal which can examine the sensitive and classified evidence as well as understand the nature of their crimes.

The nature of these prisoners' crimes are not easily provable in court. Dick Morris, a Fox News contributor and writer of NYTimes bestseller Fleeced, talks about how difficult it is to prove some of these peoples' crimes. Many terrorists make plans for terrorist attacks, propose them to leaders or foreign investors, and then perfect the plan and finally execute it.

The FBI or other agencies find out about these attacks and they arrest these terrorists before they can actually do something. You cannot wait for these terrorists to actually commit their terrorist attack before you arrest them--this would be a case of utter stupidity.

These are the kinds of prisoners that are sometimes sent to Guantanamo. Other kinds include terrorists caught in the battlefield. And of course, like in every prison in the world, there are innocent people caught up in the wrong time and wrong place. However, that's why they get lawyers in Gauntanamo as well; and indeed many are released. Some are even found to have been attacking US troops overseas once again--or worse planning another attack.

Now, of course the people who abuse prisoners, should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Of course, prison guards should be trained to uphold justice.

However, that doesn't mean they should be given the same rights as petty criminals in the United States justice system who do not plan massive attacks to destroy large amounts of people.

Criminals go to normal jails where they are prosecuted for their crimes through evidence and motive. They have specific purposes to their crime. They are not ideologically and religious motivated to kill as many people as they want.

Such ideological crimes are almost impossible to prove and prosecute. This is why they should be treated as enemy combatants, because they believe and know that they are in a war against the US, usually misidentified as Jihad.

If Guantanamo is closed, that's fine I accept it; however, the prisoners there should be transferred to another prison specifically for war criminals and prisoners of war. They should have military tribunals for their crimes; intelligence officers should have access to interrogate them (not to torture) but to find out information.

The evidence most of the time, is simply informants who know of their crimes and activities. Mistakes can happen but it is worth the trouble if it prevents another terrorist attack.

Of course every case should be reviewed in order to have fair prosecution of these terrorists.

Torture

Torture is always wrong, but it is a necessary evil if you want to win a war. The Geneva Convention applies to those countries that signed the agreement, not war-mongers who personally declare war on the United States without a country representing them. These are terrorists; they have no mercy for human life and they shouldn't be treated like people who have rights.

What rights do they give to US soldiers or Turkish truck drivers in Iraq? They simply cut their heads off. Of course, we don't want to sink to their level--that is why we give them lawyers and tribunals in a fair court.

Of course we don't torture them with swords, knives, and acid. Instead we make psychological interrogations to push them to a panic state in which by fear they are forced to tell us valuable sensitive information.

This type of information has helped the US catch many other terrorists, some of whom were actually building weapons to attack the US with. Some of them had plans and worked out the means to inflict massive casualties in US cities.

Water boarding has been debated constantly, but it was made for the purpose of not causing long term or short term damaging effects while still providing the same fear that makes the person believe they are going to die; this causes them to confess the intelligence they know. When it proves useful, the terrorist is rewarded. It is made sure that the terrorist doesn't die or receive terrible injuries. These procedures are done by experts who understand interrogation a lot more than anyone. In fact, in most cases torture or any other aggressive interrogation won't even be required.

In fact, there has only been a few cases of water boarding at the beginning of 2003.

Of course, these are always last resort procedures; however, in times of crisis or in order to prevent time sensitive events they are a necessary evil for a nation to defend itself.

Trust me, if a terrorist organization's plans are foiled in a place where your family members work at--you would approve of even worse interrogation techniques yourself.

Our image in the world is already hurt. This is no different than what it was in the 90s and in the 80s--there will always be people criticizing the world's only superpower. People love the criticize whoever is at the top for whatever reason or excuse they find next.