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Case study on guantanamobay
Guantanamo Bay human rights abuses
Guantanamo Bay human rights abuses
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On May 9, 2005, Michael Isikoff and John Barry, two seasoned reporters for Newsweek, published a story about the interrogations and imprisonment of suspected terrorists in the aftermath of the Al Qaeda attacks on September 11, 2001 that left Americans in shock and mourning for the many lives that were lost. The suspected terrorists were detained in what became a controversial military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Isikoff and Barry described the culturally insensitive interrogation methods that were conducted at Guantanamo Bay by the American military. They described the soldiers desecrating the Koran, the Moslem holy book, which they placed on toilets and even one time flushed down the toilet. The information for this story was provided by a confidential informant, who in the past had been a very reliable source; however, this fact alone does not guarantee the story’s truth.
As a result of the story, Newsweek faced a lot of criticism. The American Joint Chiefs of Staff issued a statement on May 16, 2005, saying, “We can’t find anything to substantiate the allegations that appeared in Newsweek” (Jacquette, 2007, p. 15). On May 23, 2005, two weeks after publishing the Koran abuse story, Newsweek retracted the story. Mark Whitaker, the editor, commented, “Based on what we know ow, we are retracting our original story that an internal military investigation had uncovered Koran abuse at Guantanamo Bay” (Jacquette, 2007, p. 15). Though the story was retracted voluntarily, it came after a great deal of criticism from the American military and other governmental officials demanding that the story be withdrawn.
Investigators had reviewed 25,000 documents from the prison and only found one incident involving a copy of the K...
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...cy of the story. I would make sure that that I did not assume that my reporters did not take any short-cuts simply because they were experienced. As the editor, it would be my job to make sure that the story was done right before allowing it to be released to the public.
If the Koran abuse story had been true, I believe that it should be published. There may be bad reactions from the Muslim world, but as Jacquette wrote, “Commitment to truth and accuracy in news reporting is recognized as a fundamental obligation of journalistic ethics” (2007, p. 12). Publishing the story could cause riots, accusations, ruined reputation and lots of anger; but a journalist has a moral and professional obligation to report the abuses taking place in our society as well. They must inform the public because in a sense, journalists are a watchdog over the well-being of society.
In Rushworth Kidder’s book “How Good People Make Tough Choices,” Kidder provides a series of different methods, codes and examples of what being an ethical journalist could mean. He gives examples of different situations where a person’s ethics are tested and what would be a good way to deal with these situations. He starts by explaining the difference between things that are right-versus-right dilemmas, and those that are right-versus-wrong dilemmas.
terrorist acts of a more homegrown variety. Stern interviews American terrorists here in the United
This historical study will compare and contrast the depiction of the “War on Terror” in a pro-government and anti-government plot structures found in Zero Dark Thirty (2012) by Kathryn Bigelow and The Siege (1998) by Edward Zwick. The pro-government view of Zero Dark Thirty defines the use of CIA agents and military operatives to track down Osama Bin Laden in the 2000s. Bigelow appears to validate the use of torture and interrogation as a means in which to extract information in the hunt for Bin Laden. In contrast this depiction of terrorism, Zwick’s film The Siege exposes the damage that torture, kidnapping, and
Marianne Szegedy-Maszak, a senior writer at U.S. News and World, published her article, "The Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal: Sources of Sadism," in 2004. She uses the article to briefly overview the scandal as a whole before diving into what can trigger sadistic behavior. The Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal took place in 2004, wherein American troops humiliated and tortured Iraqi detainees (Szegedy-Maszak 75). The main objective of Szegedy-Maszak’s article is to investigate the causation behind sadistic behavior, exclusively in the Abu Ghraib Prison scandal. She effectively does so by gathering information and research from professional psychologists and professors of psychology, specifically Herbert Kelman and Robert Okin (Szegedy-Maszak 76). She finds
One year later, it was discovered that the Davidians didn't use drugs, own guns, nor had they ever been accused of sexual misconduct. In October of 1993, Report Of The Deputy Attorney General On The Events At Waco, Texas, February 28 to April 19, 1993 (the edited version) was released by the FBI. In September of 1993, Report Of The Department Of Treasury On The Bureau Of Alcohol, Tobacco, And Firearms Investigation Of Vernon Wayne Howell, A.K.A. David Koresh was released by the ATF.
Historical Significance: The September 11th, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, orchestrated by Al-Qaeda and Bin Laden, were the events that launched the U.S. War on Terrorism. Al-Qaeda’s attack on the United States was carried out by members of radicalized Islamic groups, whose objective was to spread jihad against the secular influence of the West. This tragic event provided the historical b...
In “The Case For Torture” an article written by Michael Levin, he attempts to justify the use of torture as a means of saving lives. Throughout the article, Levin gives the reader many hypothetical examples in which he believes torture is the only method of resolution. Though I agree with Levin, to some degree, his essay relies heavily on the fears of people and exploits them to convince people into thinking pain is the only way. In certain aspects, I could agree entirely with Levin, but when one reads deeper into the article, many fallacies become apparent. These fallacies detract from the articles academic standing and arguably renders the entire case futile. Levin’s strategy of playing with the fears of people is genius, but, with more creditable details of the issue the article would have sustained the scrutiny of more educated individuals. The addition of more concrete information, would have given people something to cling to, inherently improving the articles creditability.
In view of Guantanamo Bay, the existing population stands low. However, still open are the special military courts and camp. The Obama administration continues to retain broad programs on National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance, as well as formulating only modest reforms. On the same, the justice system shows great focus on cracking down on leakers of government secrets, while it clearly guards against court reviews of these secrets. For instance, the current administration has placed a ban on harsh interrogation, similarly to Bush administration. Conversely, the Obama administration under the arm of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) upheld the increase on drone strikes. Savage explores the process of policy continuation, with a broader insight into the underlying causes. The practical approach by the Obama administration on addressing threats, and resistance from congress and the Republican sides becomes unclear as pertains to the reasons for the current misunderstanding on policy formulations. A clear fact remains: both parties play a major role in the emergent policy frameworks under Obama administration. The current American government has created a philosophical strategy to reform that show sustenance of a variety of controversial decisions from past administrations,
Szegedy-Maszak, Marianne. "The Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal: Sources of Sadism." Writing and Reading for ACP Composition. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Custom, 2009. 210-12. Print.
Mazzetti, Mark, Julian E. Barnes, Edward T. Pound, David E. Kaplan, and Linda Robinson. "Inside the Iraq Prison Scandal. (cover story)" EbscoHost. N.p., 24 Oct. 2004. Web. 21 Mar. 2014.
In the article, “The Torture Myth,” Anne Applebaum explores the controversial topic of torture practices, focused primarily in The United States. The article was published on January 12, 2005, inspired by the dramatic increase of tensions between terrorist organizations and The United States. Applebaum explores three equality titillating concepts within the article. Applebaum's questions the actual effectiveness of using torture as a means of obtaining valuable information in urgent times. Applebaum explores the ways in which she feels that the United States’ torture policy ultimately produces negative effects upon the country. Applebaum's final question is if torture is not optimally successful, why so much of society believes it works efficiently.
The book’s title, with its dry allusion to the separation of powers, does not do it justice. “Guantánamo and the Abuse of Presidential Power” represents the best account yet of what Mr. Margulies calls “a human rights debacle that will eventually take its place alongside other wartime misadventures, including the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, the prosecutions under the Espionage and Sedition Acts during World War I, and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus during the Civil War.”
For decades, the media portrayal of the Arab culture and Islam has contributed to a skewed public opinion in America. Looking closely at the news coverage concerning the Middle East and the United States, there is an inherent media bias against Arabs and Muslims as foreign threats to domestic security. Stephen Franklin argues that "Islamic nations are often portrayed in news reports as uniformly intolerant and anti-democratic" (Franklin 17). Unfortunately, such coverage has contributed to the public and government misconceptions of all Arabs and Muslims as terrorists. According to Fawaz Gerges, "terrorism has emerged as one of the most important political issues in the United States...[linking] it to Islamic militancy..." (Gerges 79). Moreover, the media's skewed depiction of the Arabs and Muslims has perpetuated countless stereotypes that undoubtedly affect the American opinion. These stereotypes and misconceptions of the Arabs and Muslims clearly indicate a media bias provoked by ignorance and ethnocentricity. The elite media's role in the portrayal of the Arab culture and Islam following the Oklahoma City bombing has had adetrimental effect on America's public opinion, investigation proceedings, and government action.
Because I am a journalism student, I have talked, researched and discussed with many of my fellow students and faculty members about the topics above. I am choosing to talk about this because I think it is important and they are pertinent issues in the journalism field. I am also very interested in this topic, so I thought it would be fun to take the opportunity you gave us to design our own multi-part question and write about something in journalism that is appealing to me.