Nicholas Kamra, 3, http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/11/opinion/guantanamo-inmate-naji/

 

1.

The editorial that I researched, Gitmo Inmate: My Treatment Shames American Flag, was written by Samir Naji, an accused al-Qaeda accomplice. He was sent to Guantanamo Bay without charge. As an inmate, interrogators would abuse and torture him in order to gain information of Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts. Naji claims that this treatment shames the American flag. However, the American flag not only represented the literal flag that he was forced to salute to, but the country’s constitutionality and morals.

2.

    Samir Naji still has a keen sense of what happened in Guantanamo Bay. There wasn’t just one piece of evidence to support his claim. His whole editorial describes poor treatment towards prisoners, and how he was sent to Guantanamo Bay. In one instance, two teams of interrogators would question him “day and night”. He was told to identify certain individuals, when in fact the majority of them he had never seen in his life. When he didn’t answer they would hit him “on the face and back”, and then would be injected with a substance to knock him out. Another time, he describes one instance where he was “in a sort of cinema room” where he had to “watch videos of other prisoners being abused.”. Naji then wrote, “Then they tell me that I have to dance for them, and run in circles whilst they pull on my chains. Every time I try and refuse, they touch me in my most private areas.” The most shocking piece of evidence was his trial and sentence to his awful incarceration into Guantanamo Bay. Naji was sent there without charge. Then in 2009 he was cleared for released, however, he was never set free. With all these factors, he was then forced to salute the American flag.

3.

    I believe what happened to not only Naji, but all prisoners, in Guantanamo Bay is a wake-up call to Americans. In our constitution not only are American citizens entitled to a fair trial, but are protected from cruel and unusual punishment. The CIA, responsible for Guantanamo Bay imprisonments, claim that not only are the accused “al-Qaeda prisoners” not American citizens, but are not on American soil where they are placed in “coercive interrogation” (however, Guantanamo Bay is actually owned by the American government so it is technically American soil). But, if our morals go along the lines of our constitution, shouldn’t we still treat foreigners with the same humility we treat our neighbors and other American citizen with. Naji’s case is just one more reason for me to take his side in the argument, that his treatment does shame the American flag.