The story from our short study of Guantánamo Bay’s history that I found the most compelling is Janet Miller’s narrative in Memories of Guantánamo Bay, 1960-1962. What I find so striking is how incongruent her experience at the base is with my prior understanding of Guantánamo. How can a place that has witnessed so…

  “If we know Saddam Hussein has dangerous weapons today – and we do – does it make any sense for the world to wait to confront him as he grows even stronger and develops even more dangerous weapons?”   “America is a friend to the people of Iraq. Our demands are directed only at…

  While learning the history of the Guantánamo Naval base (GTMO), time and time again I’ve been struck by a sense of collective confusion and misinformation that has reappeared in the stories of people stationed at the base, as well as detainees and non-American workers who have lived there. The base has often been used…

2012: This week, the Pentagon set Khalid Sheik Mohammed’s long awaited trial in motion. He and four other Guantánamo Bay detainees, accused of orchestrating the September 11, 2001 attacks, will be tried at a military tribunal instead of a civilian court. They face the death penalty if convicted. These five men are charged with organizing…

Given a choice, I would choose to meet Bisher al-Rawi, who was detained at Guantánamo for four and a half years without charge and later released. Listening to his story, the statement that “Guantánamo is a place that makes people lose their minds” really struck me. Detainees, who are held indefinitely and without charge, must…

2012: Despite a recent plea deal, Omar Khadr – a former Al Qaeda “child soldier” – has not been returned to his native Canada. Khadr, now 25, was imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay naval base in 2002 after he was captured in Afghanistan. He was accused of throwing a hand grenade during a firefight, which killed…

  On October 22, 1962, Janet Miller received this one-page set of typewritten instructions for the evacuation of military dependents from Guantánamo Bay naval base (GTMO) in the midst of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Janet and her children, along with the other dependents living at GTMO at the time, were told by an unspecified “higher…

This photograph was captured on June 12, 1898, the moment when U.S. Marines deployed to Guantánamo Bay and hoisted an American flag sent over to their encampment by compatriots on the U.S.S. Marblehead. The brief, formal Spanish-American War moment illustrated here, with soldiers and sailors gathered in rank and file off to the right, has…

2012: This week, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta refused to transfer five Taliban detainees at Guantánamo Bay to Qatar. This announcement comes after weeks of talks, with many U.S. legislators strongly opposing the transfer. The Taliban says it is suspending talks because the U.S. has failed to move forward on its promises. Taliban officials say the…

Bisher al-Rawi’s story absolutely struck me most through the first days of this course. Al-Rawi, an Iraqi citizen who had been living in Great Britain, was detained by the United States for five years starting in 2002 without being charged with a crime, and for four of those years he was imprisoned at Gitmo. While…