US President Barack Obama seemed confident of himself as he ordered, in his first decree on January 22, 2009, the closure of the notorious Guantanamo prison for a maximum period of one year, but his signature remained a dead letter.
The 44th US President placed the issue of closing the Guantanamo Bay prison center at the core of his electoral platform in 2008, and after the success of the elections in 2009, the US President addressed Congress, saying: “I have ordered the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison center and will seek a quick and fair trial for the captured terrorists.”
The American "aclu" portal described this detention facility as a shameful episode in American history, noting that it is "the longest war prison in the history of the United States. Nearly 800 men have passed through Guantanamo. Today 40 men remain there. Guantanamo was designed to be (an outgoing island) (about the law) whereby terrorist suspects could be detained without judicial procedures and interrogated without restraint, and it was a miserable failure on all fronts, and this shameful episode in American history should have been put to an end a long time ago.”
Barack Obama, who was at the height of his enthusiasm when he took office in early 2009, ordered the speedy closure of this “outlaw” prison, and he added to it a decision requiring an urgent search into the file of every prisoner in this prison. However, he completed his two terms in 2017, and remained Guantanamo prison as it is.
The position on closing the Guantanamo prison camp showed that the American president may sometimes be completely unable to decide on some matters. Obama himself, after many repeated promises and pledges in this regard, signed a decree in 2011 imposing additional restrictions on the transfer of prisoners from Guantanamo, which delayed the process of getting rid of it after the spread of scandals about the various methods of torture used within its walls. US Secretary of Defense in the Obama administration at the time, Robert Fitts, stated that the opposition of lawmakers in Congress did not allow the detention to be closed, while in December 2015 the White House rejected a Pentagon plan to close the detention facility, due to its very high cost.
The US naval base at Guantanamo, on Cuban territory and leased for 100 years, was transformed in 2002 into a “concentration camp” for people suspected or convicted of terrorist activities, with the aim of avoiding any US legal restrictions in dealing with these people.
Simply because Guantanamo is located in the Gulf of Cuba, which means that US laws do not apply to this area, and the American state is not responsible for respecting the rights of prisoners.
Detainees at Guantanamo were subjected to various types of torture, including waterboarding, exposure to long hours of loud music, and sleep deprivation, while detainees who were released say that they were “regularly beaten, threatened with rape, chased by dogs, and forced to kneel for several hours in a row.”
Among the most common forms at Guantanamo is a type of torture using certain pieces of music, which are broadcast for several hours in a row at deafening sounds. Initially, loud songs were "broadcast", and since 2010 the detainee began using the music of the popular children's television show, "Sesame Street," for between 15-18 hours a day.
When Chris Cerf, the composer of that music, learned about this, he was horrified. He was amazed and in disbelief that his pieces of music would be turned into a means of humiliating a group of people, noting that “no matter what brutal crimes a person is accused of, mocking him without a trial is the most barbaric.” "Realistic."
All of Barack Obama's attempts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center failed, and he left the White House while the prison continued to operate, and as of December 2023, it still houses 30 detainees within its walls.
The US Department of Justice had refused to try prisoners in accordance with American laws, and the US security services stood against transferring prisoners to American prisons, while Congress passed a law prohibiting the transfer of prisoners to the United States, while the Pentagon, from the beginning, denied that there was any reason to close this “out-of-control” detention facility. the law". The argument that some judges are making is that foreigners accused or convicted of terrorism crimes are classified as “enemy soldiers” but not “prisoners of war.”
Ron DeSantis withdraws from the 2024 US presidential race
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced on Sunday evening that he was withdrawing from the US presidential race, two days before the primary elections in New Hampshire, and gave his support to former President Donald Trump.
The American media considered this announcement a huge collapse for a candidate who was seen as having the best chance of ousting Donald Trump in the 2024 elections.
DeSantis' announcement came via a video clip he posted on the social media platform "X", the same platform where he announced his intention to try to become president of the White House.
DeSantis sought to present himself as an alternative to Trump, trying to portray himself as a politically successful heir to the “MAGA” (Make America Great Again) movement and its preferred policies, but without Trump.
But in trying to court Trump supporters, DeSantis has been slow to meaningfully criticize the former president and has been unable to draw enough support from him, and his embrace of far-right politics has led moderate Republicans and independents to look elsewhere for a candidate to steer the GOP in a non-Trump direction. .
"I am suspending my campaign today," DeSantis said in the video. "Trump is superior to the current incumbent, Joe Biden. That much is clear. I have signed a pledge to support the Republican nominee, and I will honor that pledge. He has our support because we cannot return to the old Republican guard that It was there last year."
After announcing his presidential candidacy in May, DeSantis' campaign proved a dismal failure, spending tens of millions of dollars in coordination with well-funded outside groups to little effect.
Two days ago, US Senator Tim Scott, who withdrew from the presidential race, announced his support for Donald Trump in the former president's attempt to obtain the Republican Party's nomination for him to win a new term in the White House.
Scott and DeSantis' announcement of Trump's support would further strengthen the former president's efforts against his opponent, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, to obtain the Republican party's nomination for the presidential elections.
On January 16, the candidate for president in the United States of America, Vivek Ramaswamy, announced the suspension of his campaign for the 2024 elections , after a disappointing end to the Republican Party caucuses in Iowa.
On the same day, the Governor of the US state of Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson, announced that in light of his rival Donald Trump’s victory in the Republican Party primary elections in Iowa, he had decided to withdraw from the presidential race.
Trump received the support of about 51% of voters in Iowa, according to American media estimates, ahead of his main rivals - former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
This result consolidates Trump's position at the forefront of the Republican race for the White House elections scheduled for November of this year.
Trump leads by a wide margin the other potential GOP candidates in terms of voter support, according to a CBS News survey.
According to the survey, 69% of Republicans intend to vote for Trump in the primaries.
The US presidential elections are scheduled to be held on November 5, 2024. Opinion polls show that Donald Trump is the most likely candidate in the Republican Party primaries, and he is expected to face current President Joe Biden.