NPR : Taking Issue... Guantanamo Detainee Rights

Guantanamo Detainee Rights

NPR.org, July 12, 2005 · The United States military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has been holding prisoners since early 2002. Most of them were captured during the invasion of Afghanistan. The rights and treatment of these detainees are the subject of fierce debate. Taking Issue asks whether they have a right to due process?

Due Process Because We Are Americans

John Hutson

"The argument that [the detainees] aren’t protected at all is as fallacious as the argument that Guantanamo is a piece of land in which no law applies."

John Hutson is the president and dean of the Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, N.H. A retired rear admiral, Hutson served in a variety of roles in the U.S. Navy, including judge advocate general.

Terrorists Have Few Rights

John C. Yoo

"No treaty and no American practice in any previous war have ever extended rights of due process to captured enemy prisoners."

John Yoo teaches at the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley. Previously he was deputy assistant attorney general at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he was part of the group that wrote the 2002 memos concluding that detainees at Guantanamo were not subject to the Geneva Conventions.

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