Guantanamo Bay Progress Report 2

Progress Report 2:

Guantanamo Bay- Group 1

Ayesha Syed

Claire Glezer

Preston Keiffer

Rachel Grossfeld

Greg Baumel

Dealing with the Remaining Prisoners at Guantanamo Bay

Group Members' Progress on Tasks:

      All members of our group have worked to accumulate a multitude of sources relating to the Guantanamo Bay prisoners.  This is evident from our working bibliography that will undoubtedly change as our action campaign begins to take shape.  Also on a group level, we have made plans to view the documentary that Claire found together.  This will allow us all to express our views on the issues regarding the remaining prisoners.  We plan to use at least one clip from this documentary, Taxi to the Dark Side, so viewing the film together will help us to determine what clips resonate most with the viewer and best get our point across.  Rachel has been finding journal articles that cover the debate over the remaining prisoners and sending them to all of the members via our group email thread.  These articles have been particularly helpful in describing the argument from both sides in a professional manner.  Ayesha has been posting frequently in the group page on Blogger and is helping greatly to relate the topics discussed in class to our own topic.  This has ensured our groups timely submittal of all assignments and provided links between class topics and the Guantanamo Bay situation.  Preston and Greg have both focused on finding academic sources that will provide published insight into the Guantanamo Bay debate over human rights.  The articles compiled so far have provided opposing viewpoints that allowed our group to get a more universal understanding of why this topic is so controversial. 

    As we move on towards progress report 3 our group plans to begin forming our multimedia presentation with both Microsoft PowerPoint and video clips. Also, we will move towards taking a stance in the debate and format our presentation based on each individual group member's opinion.  This will account for varying opinions on the controversial topics of how to deal with the Guantanamo Bay prisoners.

Bibliography

Hertzberg, Hendrik. "Prisoners." New Yorker 87.9 (2011): 45-46. Academic Search Premier. Web.

          1 Oct. 2012.

Moore, Catherine. "The United States, International Humanitarian Law And The Prisoners At 

         Guantanamo Bay."International Journal Of Human Rights 7.2 (2003): 1-27. 

         Academic Search Premier. Web. 1 Oct. 2012.

Schneider, Daniella. "Human Rights Issues in Guantanamo Bay." Journal of Criminal Law 68.5   
         (2004): 423-39.

Schulhofer, Stephen J. "Does The Treatment Of Prisoners At The Detention Facility In 

         Guantánamo Bay Violate International Law? Pro." International Debates 4.4 (2006): 

         110-122. Academic Search Premier. Web. 1 Oct. 2012.

Taxi to the Dark Side. Think Film, 2007.

Progress Report 1:

Dealing with the Remaining Prisoners at Guantanamo Bay

Guantanamo Bay: Group 1-Progress Report 1

Ayesha Syed

Claire Glezer

Preston Keiffer

Rachel Grossfeld

Greg Baumel

            Dealing with the Remaining Prisoners at Guantanamo Bay

Questions to Address:

As our group’s topic deals with the institution of Guantanamo Bay, we have chosen two main questions surrounding the controversy to address in our action campaign. Primarily, we hope to discuss and reach a conclusion about whether the institution should be completely shut down resulting in the return of the remaining detainees to their respective countries. The debate about whether the detainees should be released to their countries arises from the notion that detainees of Guantanamo Bay are not entitled to all human rights or protections stated in the Geneva Conventions. Subsequently, the second issue our group would like to address is whether it is anyone’s decision to strip the prisoners of rights they are essentially entitled to.

Resources:

 In order to address these issues, our group will explore both electronic resources and book resources. Our hope is enhance our presentation with video clips and graphic images of occurrences at the institution to convey the severity of what Guantanamo Bay has caused and is still causing.

Developing the Campaign:

As of now, each group member has been assigned the responsibility of completing a progress report. Everyone in the group is responsible for accumulating research on the institution and posting it on our blog as they come across it. After there is a firm understanding of the issues at hand, we plan to synthesize the information and claim our collective or individual stance on the two main issues we will address in the campaign. We will then build our campaign using a PowerPoint presentation that contains graphic images, videos, and interviews with the prisoners, as well written information obtained from our research. Also, we will present the counterarguments to our positions on the issues and explain why we are not in accordance with them.  We believe the best way to build our campaign is with pertinent factual information as well as visual aids that will appeal to the ethos of our audience.