Located at the southeastern end of Cuba, Guantanamo Bay is the site of a U.S. Naval base that covers approximately 45 square miles. This base was established in 1898 when the United States assumed control of Cuba from Spain following the Spanish-American War. Since early 2002, a portion of the base has housed a small group of detainment camps for militant al Qaeda and Taliban combatants captured by the American military during its post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. These camps are named Camp Delta, Camp Echo, and Camp Iguana. A fourth detention center, Camp X-Ray, ceased operations in April 2002. As of November 2005, a total of 505 detainees were being held at Guantanamo. Of these, more than 100 hailed from Saudi Arabia, approximately 80 from Yemen, about 65 from Pakistan, and 50 from Afghanistan.

As Gordon Cucullu writes in The American Enterprise: "These 'detainees' are not innocent foot soldiers ... They are Islamic fundamentalists from across the Middle East, rabid jihadists who have dedicated their lives to the destruction of America and Western civilization. Among the residents are al-Qaeda organizers, bomb makers, financial specialists, recruiters of suicide attackers, and just plain killers. Many of these men met frequently with Osama bin Laden. The terrorist Maad Al Qahtani, a Saudi who is a self-confessed collaborator with the September 11 hijackers, is one of many infamous captives."

Adds Cucullu: "In the opening salvos of the global war on terror, [American] forces took a lot of prisoners from the battlefield. Estimates are that more than 70,000 Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters were captured and screened. Of that number, approximately 800 were deemed of such high value for intelligence purposes, or such a severe threat in their own person, that they needed to be interrogated and confined in a secure locale from which they could not easily escape or be rescued."

These were sent to Guantanamo.

Sometimes abbreviated as GTMO or "Gitmo," the Guantanamo military prison camps have drawn the ire of many leftwing human rights organizations which allege that the prisoners are being mistreated or tortured. In late 2001, a campaign began in earnest to permanently shut down Guantanamo. The individual most responsible for launching this campaign was Michael Ratner, President of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Ratner details how he first got involved in the Guantanamo issue as follows: “I became involved back in November 2001. The President [George W. Bush] had just issued a military order saying he had the power to indefinitely detain any non-citizen who he believed was involved in international terrorism. The idea that you could pick up people anywhere in the world and hold them forever without a trial is outrageous. We at [CCR] decided that we would represent the first people who were detained under that military order. In early January 2002, we got authority to represent David Hicks. … I started personally representing the [Guantanamo detainees] in the Supreme Court … Once we won in the Supreme Court case [see Rasul v. Bush, below], we got authorizations from family members to represent about 100 detainees.”

In 2002, Ratner and CCR filed habeas corpus petitions on behalf of a number of suspected Islamic terrorists. These petitions included, most notably, Habib v. Bush and Rasul v. Bush, both of which challenged the Bush administration’s contention that because the Guantanamo prison camp was located outside of U.S. jurisdiction, its inhabitants were not entitled to access American courts. CCR later combined both cases under Rasul v. Bush, which was heard by the Supreme Court in April 2004, and won an important ruling in that case on June 28, 2004. This victory ultimately paved the way for CCR to gain direct access to the Guantanamo detainees. It also sparked the assistance of numerous law firms across the U.S. which were now emboldened to help Ratner’s cause.

Two months prior to the Rasul ruling, Ratner (on March 10, 2004) had gone to the United Nations with Corin Redgrave, who chairs the Guantanamo Human Rights Commission, and demanded the immediate closure of Guantanamo prison.

Other leftist organizations followed the lead of Ratner and CCR in condemning the Guantanamo prison. These critics objected to America's use of an offshore prison, and to the unclear legal status of its detainees (who are classified as "illegal combatants" not entitled to Geneva Convention protections, rather than as prisoners-of-war or common criminals). The critics also claimed that the detainees were entitled to the protection of the constitutionally guaranteed civil rights given to prisoners incarcerated within the United States.

On May 25, 2005, Amnesty International characterized Guantanamo as "the gulag our times," lamenting that it evoked "images of Soviet repression" and the practices of "Latin American dictators in the past."

Other organizations involved in the coordinated attack on the Guantanamo detention center include the Guantanamo Human Rights Commission; the American Civil Liberties Union; the National Lawyers Guild; the Bill of Rights Defense Committee; Human Rights Watch; Human Rights First; the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers; the National Council of Churches; the National Religious Campaign Against Torture; Solidarity USA; Not In Our Name; Code Pink for Peace; United For Peace and Justice; Global Exchange; International ANSWER; and Refuse & Resist!

Prominent members of the Democratic Party have also been among the leading critics of Guantanamo. For example, in April 2007 Senator Hillary Clinton called for the closure of the detention center, stating: “Guantanamo has become associated in the eyes of the world with a discredited administration policy of abuse, secrecy, and contempt for the rule of law. Rather than keeping us more secure, keeping Guantanamo open is harming our national interests. It compromises our long term military and strategic interests, and it impairs our standing overseas. I have certainly concluded that we should address any security issues on what to do with the remaining detainees, and then close it once and for all.”

Similarly, on June 14, 2005, Senator Richard Durbin went to the floor of the Senate and compared American interrogation techniques vis a vis the Guantanamo detainees to methods used by the Nazis, the Soviet Union, and the Khmer Rouge. Specifically, after reading an account which claimed that detainees were being held in rooms that were either too cold or too hot, and where loud rap music was being played, Durbin said: "If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime -- Pol Pot or others -- that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of their prisoners."

A number of the Guantanamo detainees alleging abuse have gone on hunger strikes. Their complaints include claims that they are kept in mesh-sided cells with little privacy; that lights are left on around the clock, making it difficult for them to sleep; that they are kept in isolation most of the time; that they are blindfolded when being relocated within the camps; that they are not permitted to talk in groups of more than three; that camp authorities disrespect Islam; and that they (the prisoners) are beaten, required to maintain uncomfortable postures for extended time periods, and forced to ingest so-called "truth drugs."

The American government counters that while the prisoners are subjected to intensive interrogation procedures, they are not tortured or treated cruelly. Rather, say U.S. authorities: the detainees are supplied with Islamic religious items including a Koran, prayer mat, and cap; loudspeakers in the camps broadcast the Muslims' call to prayer five times each day; all prisoners' meals are certified halal (adhering to Islamic law) by Guantanamo's Muslim chaplain; religious services are held for the prisoners; every cell has a stenciled arrow pointing toward Mecca, so that prisoners may face the correct direction while saying their prayers; Guantanamo's library is well stocked with Islamic literature; many of the detainees' complaints are known to have been either exaggerated or fabricated; and between April 2002 and March 2003, the detainees had by no means suffered any effects of alleged malnutrition, but in fact had gained an average of 13 pounds apiece. All of these assertions have been verified by independent observers.

As of January 2009, approximately 520 Guantanamo prisoners had been released by the U.S. -- a figure representing more than two-thirds of all those who had ever been incarcerated there. According to Pentagon spokesman Commander Jeffrey Gorden, all detainees who are released from Guantanamo go through a comprehensive series of reviews before being set free -- because of the inherent risk involved in releasing them. Nonetheless, a January 2009 Pentagon report stated that at least 61 former detainees had returned to terrorist activities after being released. One of those had become al Qaeda's number-two man in Yemen.

On January 22, 2009, President Barack Obama issued an executive order calling for the Guantanamo Bay detention center to be closed permanently within one year. At the time of this directive, there were 245 detainees still in custody.

In this section of DiscoverTheNetworks, the category titled Leaders of the Anti-Guantanamo Movement looks at the leading critics of the Guantanamo Bay detention center -- individuals and organizations that generally call for the immediate closure of the center.

The category titled Prison Conditions and Prisoners' Rights examines the charges of critics who claim that the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are routinely denied their basic human and civil rights, and that they are abused and/or tortured by American authorities.

The category titled Nature of the Prisoners examines the mindset, worldview, temperament, behaviors, and life experiences of the Guantanamo Bay detainees. Contrary to the claims of their apologists, these prisoners are invariably raging, hateful individuals with long histories of extremism and violence.

The category titled Prisoners Who Are Released from Guantanamo looks at Guantanamo detainees who have been released from custody. Some of these have not been heard from again, while others have resumed their terrorist activities against the United States.

The category titled Espionage at Guantanamo examines allegations that a number of Islamic spies have infiltrated the Guantanamo Bay detention center in an effort to gather classified information about the facility, and to interfere with U.S. interrogation of the prisoners.

The category titled Closure of Guantanamo Bay Detention Center starts with President Barack Obama's January 22, 2009 executive order calling for the Guantanamo Bay detention center to be closed permanently within one year. At the time of this directive, there were 245 detainees still in custody. Moreover, this category traces the Obama administration's efforts to actually shut down Guantanamo in the aftermath of the executive order.