The colossal mistake of Guantanamo Bay has been revealed to the world since it was set up. The most evident sign that the US administration's efforts to try and wish it away — thereby purging themselves from the shame of it all — stood out when President Barack Obama issued an executive order providing for "periodic review of individuals detained at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station pursuant to the Authorisation for Use of military Force" in March this year.
Simply put, the Obama administration has failed to achieve its goal of closing down Guantanamo anytime soon despite the US president signing an executive order to shut it down within a year of his assuming office. Guantanamo is the most visible modern day example of the violation of human rights and now the leaking of approximately 750 classified documents by WikiLeaks has endorsed this allegation against the US administration. It suggests vividly that the CIA and its global allies have randomly used patchy and often contradictory evidence to detain and imprison suspects. These machinations could never have been offered for scrutiny in an appropriate court of law.
The recent leaks provide a certification of all that is wrong with Guantanamo but it does give a leading statistic of how many oversights the CIA and its allies may have made since this crumbling edifice of justice was first set up. This is because the CIA polices itself for mistakes and very little is therefore made public. The files provided by WikiLeaks, however, should serve to severely embarrass the US administration at home and with the international community. It should also humiliate those who stood by them blindly despite the numerous transgressions on human rights. The recent leaks should now be closely scrutinised and the US made to provide clear answers. Guantanamo should be closed down immediately and the innocents that are imprisoned, without trial, should be rehabilitated into society.