Should guantanamo bay detainees recieve protection from the Geneva Convention and Constitution

The United States detention facility located at Guantanamo Bay operates in full accordance of international and national law. There are misconceptions about Guantanamo Bay and how Guantanamo Bay breaks national and international law. The first of these misconceptions is that the United States government has to either put detainees on trial or release them this is false, the United States government is under no obligation to put detainees on trial or release them. The United States is currently part of an armed conflict in Afghanistan and the Geneva Convention only requires that enemy combatants be released only "after the cessation of active hostilities." This means the United States has no obligation to release prisoners kept at Guantanamo Bay even if there is no criminal reason why detainees were kept and the only reason was they were fighting against United States forces. Many insurgents are kept away from the world because the insurgents were deemed too dangerous, by United States military tribunals, to be released back into the world. Thus, the United States government is allowed to keep insurgents away from the world until the fighting in Afghanistan ceases. Even the United States Supreme Court ruled it was legally permissible to keep enemy combatants and gave the president authorization to hold detainees for the duration of combat in Afghanistan. If the highest court in the United States recognizes the legality of Guantanamo Bay then Guantanamo Bay must be legally permissible. The second misconception about Guantanamo Bay is that detainees can seek aid under the Geneva Convention. First there has to be a basis in recognizing the difference between an enemy combatant and a prisoner of war. According to the Military Commissions act of 2006 the Taliban and al-Qaeda were labeled as unlawful enemy combatants. This meant that they do not follow the rules of war, they do not carry their arms openly, and they do not have any distinctive insignia. A prisoner of war, as defined by the Geneva Convention of 1949, is a person who has fallen to the enemy, and follows these rules: being commanded by a person responsible for his subordinates, having a fixed insignia recognizable at a distance, carrying their arms (weapons) openly, they conduct their operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war. The Taliban and al-Qaeda cannot be labeled as prisoners of war as they only fulfill one of these requirements and have no fixed insignia, they do not carry their arms openly, and they do not conduct operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war. The Taliban and al-Qaeda openly violate the Geneva Convention and cannot seek aid under the Geneva Convention. Many people believe that detainees do not receive due process. The Taliban and al-Qaeda openly violate the Geneva Convention. This makes it much more difficult for the United States Military to determine upon the capture of a combatant if they are part of the enemies forces. This forced the United States developed a system of screening each detainee which exceeds any guideline set by the Geneva Convention and by United States military standards. Ironically, because the Taliban and al-Qaeda directly disobey guidelines set by the Geneva Convention members of al-Qaeda and the Taliban have received more due process then if they followed the Geneva Convention. Detainees in Guantanamo Bay have absolutely no right to seek Habeas Corpus relief. Habeas Corpus relief refers to legal action brought by someone who believes that he or she is being imprisoned unjustly. Habeas Corpus is a fundamental part of the United States Constitution. The United States Supreme Court ruled over fifty years ago that if a non-citizen enemy combatant is captured, during wartime, and imprisoned outside of the United States he or she does not have the right to Habeas Corpus. This case involved 21 German nationals who were convicted of espionage and then kept in allied occupied Germany. The 21 Germans petitioned a United States federal judge to release them under the writ of Habeas Corpus saying they had been wrongfully imprisoned. The United States Supreme Court ruled that the German prisoners had no right of Habeas Corpus because there was no point in time that the German prisoners ever set foot on American soil and thus they were beyond the American court system. Guantanamo Bay detainees are basically in the same situation as the German's over fifty years ago. Prisoners at Guantanamo Bay never set foot on any territory that the United States is sovereign over, the crimes they committed were in Afghanistan and thus, they are beyond the United States judicial system. The only way to show that Guantanamo Bay detainees should receive habeas corpus relief is to show that the detainees did not receive due process. Regulations exceed the requirements set by the Geneva Convention and the United States military so, there is no reason why the Guantanamo Bay detainees should receive habeas corpus relief.