Progress Report #2 (cumulative)

Progress Report #1: Group # 6; Julia Mandehr, Grace Robinson, Kate Kenny, Dominique Bryant, Lilly Judge, Katie Hansen and Mick Pence; Guantanamo Bay and the War on Terror

Our topic focuses specifically on Guantanamo Bay Prison and the events that transpired there with relation to torture and the war on terror. We chose to focus on Guantanamo bay because it is one of the best-known examples of a challenge of human rights. Our plan for developing an action campaign is to spread awareness to the class, and try to gain support to have Guantanamo bay more heavily regulated, and ultimately shut down. We plan on asking the class to get together into discussion groups to go around and share what they really know about Guantanamo bay, and the torture that has gone on within its walls. It is our hope to really engage the class in our presentation and to educate them enough to hopefully have them join our campaign to shut Guantanamo down. We will use examples from the war on terror itself to show how torture has really affected people for the rest of their lives, and how experiencing it within these prison walls is detrimental to ones physical and mental health. There aren’t many specific accounts shared from prisoners within Guantanamo bay because the government has done a lot to keep it quiet. However, there are many stories told from war on terror victims that are similar to those that prisoners exposed to.

The questions we are going to try to answer are:

·      Real examples from prisoners and their stories

·      What are the specific violations of human rights

·      What steps need to be taken to shut it down

·      What is the history of Guantanamo bay

·      Why hasn’t it been shut down yet

·      What are the requirements for being sent to Guantanamo bay

We plan on using our class articles, library books, movie clips and internet sources to find sufficient information to back-up our arguments and build an affective campaign. We are going split up into pairs to research and focus on the different aspects of our presentation, and then combine all of our findings together to form one presentation.  Our topics are the History, the torture techniques and specific accounts of torture, and the steps necessary to close Guantanamo down.

The History: Dominique & Mick

Torture techniques: Grace & Julia

Steps to shut down: Lilly, Kate & Katie

Progress Report #2: Group # 6; Julia Mandehr, Grace Robinson, Kate Kenny, Dominique Bryant, Lilly Judge, Katie Hansen and Mick Pence; Guantanamo Bay and the War on Terror

So far our group has deepened our understanding of Guantanamo through our research. We have focused finding credible sources for our research, and weeding out all of the sources that have no proof or evidence of their claims. We have found a lot of great popular media sources like youtube videos. We also plan to have a group screening of Sicko (directed by Michael Moore) which we will follow up with a discussion. We are aiming to find as many current sources as possible to talk about the present-tense state of Guantanamo Bay. We believe that by putting the issues of Guantanamo Bay in a current context it will be presented as a more serious and relevant issue.  This will hopefully motivate the students to take action in this issue that we have seen begin and evolve within our own lifetimes.

Our presentation format has changed slightly since progress report #1. Instead of only advocating the closing of Guantanamo we are now going to present both sides of the argument and urge students to choose whichever side they support to get involved. Since Guantanamo is such a controversial issue we want to inform our class about both sides of the argument, instead of presenting a biased perspective. We believe this will be a more effective strategy in getting students involved because all opinions about the topic will be represented so students will have the option to get involved for whichever position they take on the issue.

               

Here are some more specific details about the progress of each of our members:

Grace & Julia have an extensive list of torture tactics and the effects they have on both the guards and prisoners of Guantanamo Bay.

Dominique & Mick are continuing research on the history of Guantanamo Bay.

Lilly & Kate are working to research the perspective of those who advocate closing Guantanamo Bay while also investigating different plans to make this happen.

Katie is researching the opposite perspective of keeping Guantanamo open and the reasons why many people believe that the procedures carried out at Guantanamo are justified.

In addition to the sources we have already acquired we plan to explore more media sources (particularly video clips) to determine the best sources to use in our presentation. We also want to find a few more articles to strengthen our framework and have a more detailed understanding of the issues surrounding Guantanamo Bay. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bellinger, John. Kadidal, Shayana, et al. Should Guantanamo Bay be closed? http://www.cfr.org/human-rights/should-guantanamo-bay-closed/p21247

Cratty, Carol. (2009) Sept. 11 families: Keep Guantanamo Bay Open. CNN Politics. http://articles.cnn.com/2009-07-17/politics/gitmo.families_1_guantanamo-detainees-military-commissions-terror-trials?_s=PM:POLITICS

Inside Guantanamo Bay (National Geographic Documentary) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY7UOil5W64&feature=fvwrel

Mazetti, Mark. (2009) Interrogation memos detail harsh tactics by CIA. New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/17/us/politics/17detain.html

Morgan, Melanie. (2008) Obama should keep GITMO open. http://wwwwakeupamericans-spree.blogspot.com/2008/12/obama-should-keep-gitmo-open.html#.UGjm6a6MKSo

Priest, Dana. Graham, Bradley. (2004) Guantanamo List Details Approved Interrogation Methods. Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29742-2004Jun9.html

Q&A Closing Guantanamo (2010) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11623753

Rogan, Tom. (2012) Why Guantanamo Bay should remain open. http://dailycaller.com/2012/09/24/why-guantanamo-bay-should-remain-open/

Savage, Charlie. (2012) Will the Election Decide what is considered Torture? New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/28/us/politics/election-will-decide-future-of-interrogation-methods-for-terrorism-suspects.html?_r=0

Senate Judiciary Committee with Alberto Gonzalez. (2007) http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vZFqjoVLjdQ

Torture Techniques used in Guantanamo. http://thejusticecampaign.org/?page_id=273

Welcome to Guantanamo Bay: A Rare Inside Look. http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=sLqKTh80q0o