One of Barack Obama's campaign positions was that he would seek to close the detainee camp at Guantanamo Bay after he was elected president. On January 29, he signed an executive order to do just that. President Obama is not the only person who has called for the camp to be closed, but there is also considerable pressure to keep the camp operational. This research presents the position that closing the camp will lead to more terrorist attacks.
Those who supported closing the detainee center at Guantanamo held that the center provided a recruitment tool for terrorists because of the alleged torture that took place there. In addition, critics of Guantanamo argued that pillars of the American legal system-including the right to a speedy trial and to confront one's accusers-were abandoned at Guantanamo and served to promote a negative image of the United States around the world. This negative image, they suggested, would serve as reason for additional attacks on the United States (Rhee, 2009).
Critics of the Guantanamo Bay closure include Lamar Smith, a Republican congressional representative from Texas and the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee. Smith expresses the same concern of many others when he noted that it is unclear where the detainees will be sent after the camp closes and this could cause increased security threats. If the detainees are transferred to American soil, Smith is concerned that they would be subject to the rules of the American criminal justice system and a "friendly judge" could release them into American society (Ross & Pergram, 2009).
Other critics maintain that in the rush to close Guantanamo, insufficient attention has been paid to the larger issue of how the United States will continue to protect itself against terrorism. Failure to determine how and where the detainees will be moved before signing the orders to close the camp are in
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