Guantanamo Bay

About a week ago, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in the lead-up to her Friday meeting with President Bush, called upon the US to close Guantanamo Bay Prison. Her comments came across to most red-blooded Americans as out of line, and they were. It is not Germany's buisness to dictate to the US whether or not it keeps prisons open. It comes across particularly obnoxiously after previous German Chancellor Gerhard Shroeder's minister of the environment gave a speech essentailly claiming that the United States deserved the havok wreaked by Hurricane Katrina for not signing on to Kyoto. As seemingly offensive as her comments may have been, some of the complaints about Guantanamo Bay are legitimate, and are ones that should be loudly coming from the American people.
The Bush administration has proven that it cannot be trusted to respect human rights unless it is being ever-so-closely watched. Its broad authorizations for the use of torture against anyone who they suspect might be a terrorist evidences that. And, while I fully believe that most prisoners at Gitmo are excellently treated, the administration's record of a rogue cowboy attitude towards human rights makes it very probable that some are being grossly mistreated. It is the responsibilty of the people of our country to care about this.
What is absolutely necessary is a concrete, enforcable declaration outlining how we will handle Guantanamo Bay Prison. At the moment, the administration seems to hold an anything goes attitude towards the prison. There seems to be no concrete code that it follows in regards to it.
First, it must state who can be held in Guantanamo Bay, and the vague phrase "persons deemed dangerous to the security of the United States" is simply not going to cut it. Guantanamo needs to be a place for those who have commited certain specific crimes. Some burden of proof needs to be placed on the government, making sure that these people are being justly detained. Some trustable body must be set up to hold the government to this burden, too. Also, the declaration must make clear that US citizens will not be held in Guantanamo Bay, even if they are considered enemy combatants. All US citizens must be granted their full Constitutional rights, and all of the protections of the due process of the American justice system.
Secondly, some system must be set up for the prosecution of those detained. Having secret military tribunals for some, and never even charging others with a specific crime, is not acceptable. There needs to be some time limit for how long people can remain detainees without being brought to trial.
Finally, the government must clearly state its code of conduct for how these prisoners will be treated. I, for one, do not require that the prisoners be treated like royalty. They can be continuously annoyed, etc., but the line must be drawn somewhere. I think that, while most of the detainees are not actually afforded any rights by the Geneva Conventions, the Geneva Convention standards are a convenient and appropriate place for the line to be drawn.
I am sure that this opinion will come under attack for being "soft on terror." In the long run, however, I believe that it will help our mission against terrorists. It will improve our stature in the world, and as much as we'd like to believe that this doesn't matter, it does. It will hurt the terrorist cause. They will no longer be able to use our torture as a rallying call. Also, the United States broke away from Britain largely on the belief that distinct codes limiting government must exist and must be respected. For the government to issue a declaration similar to the one I am calling for is the American thing to do.