The prison at Guantamo Bay, Cuba, which houses detainees captured in the early days of the military response to 9/11 highlights a difficult issue for American policymakers to deal with. In our imagination, perhaps, the power of the president is almost unbridled, but the inability for President Barack Obama to close the facility at Guantamo Bay underscores that there are limitations on power.

https://youtu.be/g1n8VJnvffE

You are being evaluated on four competencies: 

1. Personal Reponsibility

2. Social Responsibility

3. Critical Thinking

4. Communication

You have two options for dealing with the Guantanamo Bay issue: 

1. Leave it open perpetually. Deal with the detainees for the rest of their lives. Never release them or give them the full due process by law that America guarantees its own citizens. What this will entail for you is to resolve whether or not this marks a departure from past American tradition with regard to civil rights and civil liberties in a time of war. After you have determined whether or not it marks a break from historical precedent, you will need to present an argument for why perpetual detention is a logical and rational new precedent to set using the evidence you have been provided.

OR

2. Make the choice to close Guantanamo Bay, and open up the U.S. courts to try the detainees as they would be tried in a civilian court. The detainees would be given the "rights of the accused" that our Bill of Rights secures for American citizens, even though they are not American citizens. This means they will have the right to a defense attorney, and the burden of proof will resolutely lay on the shoulders of the federal prosecutors. They will have to use admissible evidence against the detainees in order to keep them imprisoned, or else, they will have to set them free.

This writing assignment needs to be done using the following as instructions: 

The rubric that will be used to evaluate and grade your response to the prompt you choose to answer is available for students to view.

Either Chicago Manual of Style or Turabian Style. 

Please keep your arguments concise and cogent, and limited to 500 words or less. 

Use at least 3 sources of evidence presented to you in the Library Guide Research Pool linked to this assignment. Please do not go outside of the Library Guide Research Pool, as no other documentation is necessary or will be accepted.

( please use this link for the 3 resources) https://actx.libguides.com/government