Close Guantanamo Bay

Published: Tuesday, April 05, 2011, 8:05 PM

By Letters to the editor OregonLive.com Guantanamo Bay detention center was created to skirt domestic and international law in order to detain civilians without the bother of due process, or even basic human rights. It is a cowardly approach that demeans our country in its cruelty and superficial legal maneuvering.

Along the way it has ensnared, isolated, tortured and ruined the lives of innocents and the lives of their families - by the dozens. Collateral damage in a time of war? - except we haven't bothered even to declare war.

Due process is designed to protect innocents and to ensure dignity and humaneness in the pursuit of justice. Guantanamo Bay does none of these things. What does that say about us as a country, as a people?

The internment of US citizens with Japanese descent during WWII was a sad, shameful time in our history. It lasted four years. The imprisonment of human beings in Guantanamo Bay without trial or resolution has now gone on for eight.