The Guantanamo Bay detention center has long been the target of numerous allegations and disputes. Here are some facts about one of the world’s most notorious prisons that everyone should be aware of.
Quick Fact
According to the Department of Defense, more than 80 percent of the 166 detainees presently imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay have been cleared for release in 2009. They are nevertheless incarcerated.
The province of Guantanamo is located at the southeastern extremity of Cuba, and the island prison known as Camp Delta is situated there. After the Cuban-American peace treaty was signed in 1903, the southern portion of the bay fell under US control. It has been a designated naval base for the United States since 1941.In January 2002, the first detention and interrogation center on Guantanamo Bay was established. It is managed by the Joint Task Force Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO), which is in turn controlled by the United States government. The detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, also known as Gitmo, has long been a source of contention worldwide.
The camp’s name has been synonymous with the word “torture” since it was built in 2002, when George W. Bush was president. Since then, eleven detainees have died within its walls. The facility is still operating today, despite criticism from local residents and human rights organizations across the world who consider it to be a symbol of our country’s unlawful imprisonment of men without charge or trial. In 2012, President Barack Obama issued an executive order to close Guantanamo Bay within a year as part of his plan to mitigate terrorism threats worldwide by continuing to use enhanced interrogation techniques on unwilling combatants for which there are currently no official regulations throughout the War on Terror era (specifically at CIA black sites). During this period, 9-11 happened and the United States government passed the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), which gives the president power to use “all necessary and appropriate force” against those responsible for the 9-11 attacks, as well as any affiliate organizations. Since then, the US has been involved in multiple armed conflicts, most notably in Afghanistan and Iraq.
