Guantanamo: America's Foreign Supermax in the Fight Against Terrorism

Abstract

Much of what we know about the conditions at Guantanamo and the treatment of the detainees has been obtained through visits by US politicians, monitoring by representatives from international nongovernmental and human rights organizations, reports from individuals who have been released, statements by lawyers defending those who have been detained, books written by individuals who worked at this facility, and information from reporters. Not only the decision to detain enemy combatants but also the conditions to which they have been subjected have been vigorously debated.Many of the conditions of the detention facilities and processes at Guantanamo can also be found in a traditional American supermax prisons, where detainees are confined to their cells twenty-three out of twenty-tour hours a day, movement inside the facility is very limited, if not highly controlled, access to visitors is either nonexistent or severely curtailed, and access to typical amenities is sharply curtailed (Ross 2007b) . In fact, two of the camps were modeled on American supermax prisons. Moreover, supermax prisons typically house convicted gang leaders and political criminals such as spies and terrorists, and the enemy combatants at Guantanamo are suspected of committing and/or aiding in the commission of terrorism. To demonstrate the similarities, we begin by providing a brief history of Guantanamo. We then explain why the United States's choice to use Guantanamo provided the opportunity for state crime and how the classification of detainees as enemy combatants and the use of torture circumvent existing treaties to which the United States is a signatory. Finally. we provide an analysis of the US government's policies and sanctioned behaviors toward the detainees.