Honorable President Barack Obama

ID: LFG-2016-WH-0015

The White House,

1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW,
Washington, DC 20500
Sent via: Mail
May 17th, 2016
Re: Your proposal for the United States of America to close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp
Honorable President Barack Obama,
My name is Isaiah X. Smith and I am sending you this letter that is in regards to your proposal for the
United States of America to close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp. I urge you to read this letter
and to respond appropriately to this letter.
I.

General Information
The Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp is a military prison that is owned and operated by the
United States of America in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Guantanamo Bay in Cuba is an area of
land that is leased to the United States of America by the government of Cuba.
The Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp used to be a secret government prison facility that
the United States Department of Defense did not publically talking about. However when
the Associated Press won a Freedom of Information lawsuit against the U.S Department of
Defense in Associated Press v. Department of Defense, the Untied States of America then
officially recognizing having the possession of detained individuals.
The Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp is owned and operated by the United States of
America. Some officials that were with the Bush administrations legal department have
argued that the detention camp was outside of jurisdiction of the United States of America.
That argument does not make sense and individuals who make that type of statement are
extremely wrong. The United States Supreme Court ruled in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 548 U.S.
557 (2006) that the incarcerated individuals were entitled to minimal protections listed
under Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions.
The detainment of individuals has to be justified and all have a right to have due process in
regards to the violations that they have been accused of committing
Honorable President George W. Bush claimed that his administration had a legal authority
to detain individuals on the basis of the presidents role as the commander-in-chief. Part of
that view was the reason why the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp became in operation.
However the views of President Bush on his power of the detainment of individuals was
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absolutely rejected by the United States Supreme Court. See Boumediene v. Bush, 553 U.S.
723 (2008).
II.

Torture is a violation of international law and cannot be tolerated

As I have stated before torture was a very common thing that occurred among detainees by
officials of the United States of America. Some of the torture methods have included the
following:
1. Sleep Deprivation
2. Using animals to scare inmates
3. Mock executions
4. Temperature extremes
5. Sexual assault and sexual humiliation
6. Other types of psychological techniques
The United States of America is better than torture and as a county we cannot let ourselves
violate international law. Especially if we want our own people who fall in the hands of our
enemies to be treated with dignity and respect.

III.

Conclusion
In conclusion I would like to respectfully thank you and your administration for attempting
to close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp. As you may already know, a federal judge
has recently ruled that the detainees will be able to sue psychologists who helped establish
the torture program for the Central Intelligence Agency. I absolutely agree with that ruling
due to the fact that it is absolutely ethically wrong for psychologists to be involved in the
torture of individuals.
As I have stated before, torture is not and should not be an American value. As a citizen of
the United States of America, I strongly believe that we have to be leaders in our world. It is
and would be very hypocritical for ourselves to condemn a foreign nation at the United
Nations Human Rights Council for violating the domestic constitutional and the international
rights of their citizens while we ourselves cannot even stop torturing detainees at the
Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp.
If Congress refuses to accept your proposal to close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp, I
urge your administration to stop paying the government of Cuba for the leasing of
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. That would theoretically be one way that the Guantanamo
Detention Camp would be closed for failure to abide by the lease agreement. That is
something that I believe that you have the power to do for the purpose as to closing the
Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp.

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Your administration has been on the right side of history in regards to a lot of different
things. I urge you and your administration to be also on the right side of history that is in
regards to closing the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp.
IV.

Acknowledgement Letter
An acknowledgement letter would be greatly appreciated to my letter to you. My email
address is at: iscampaign@usa.com. You can also send me a letter at the following mailing
address:
Isaiah X. Smith
Isaiah Smith Campaign
P.O Box 163411
Fort Worth, Texas, 76161

Respectfully,
Isaiah X. Smith
Isaiah Smith Campaign
P.O Box 163411
Fort Worth, Texas, 76161
www.isaiahxsmith.com

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