The watergate story Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The watergate story - Essay Example During the re-election campaign he got incredible number of votes and won. However, he was brought down by the scandals he got involved in. There were many smaller dealings he was involved in that went undetected by the public and FBI or CIA. Nevertheless, in his fight to assure victory on the elections, he committed more serious crimes. It started with break-in to the headquarter office of the Democrat Party. Then the long and drawn-out court hearings followed, many high officials lost their positions, a power struggle and, finally, the first in the history of USA resignation of the President. WATERGATE COMPLEX BREAK-IN In June 1972 five people were arrested inside the offices of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate office complex in Washington. They were carrying wiretapping equipment, thus they were not just an ordinary robbers or burglars. The men were wearing surgical gloves and carried thousands of dollars in cash. The whole operation was carefully and professiona lly planned and was not an ordinary case of robbery. The press got right into investigating this case and Nixon had to make to make a claim that White House had nothing to do with this break into the headquarters of the Democratic Party. As was found later, the bugging was a part of the President’s Nixon’s re-election campaign. ... Two masterminds of the break-in were G.Gordon Liddy (who was fired from the committee only few days before the accident) and E. Howard Hunt, a White House consultant (who did not want to give his testimonies during the investigations, he was paid to keep silence). Both of them were former FBI and CIA agents. Other suspects were also agents of either FBI or CIA. Democrats have tried to bring this incident up in the White House and at Nixon’s re-election committee. The five men arrested, or so it seemed, had something to do with Cuba, and most of them were connected to CIA or FBI in some way. The Police confiscated the spying equipment these men carried with them as well as cash, total amount of which was $2,300. During the case of investigation it was determined that prior to the incident a check for a large sum of money was deposited to the banking account of one of the people, who participated and were arrested for the break-in, namely, to Bernard Baker. The finance chairman of the President’s re-election campaign could not provide any substantial explanation as to where the check came from, why and how it got to Mr. Baker or what was the purpose of it. Mr. Baker was trying to pretend the money got to him by accident, however, it was determined that he was well aware of this financial operation and withdrew large amount of money from his account. Some of that money was found on men who were arrested for break-in. All these evidence and more led former Democratic National Chairman Lawrence O’ Brien to file a civil suit against Nixon and his committee as well as five suspects on the ground of violation of constitutional rights of all Democrats. Mr. O’Brien stated that a special counsel to the President, Charles

Guantanamo Bay Closing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Guantanamo Bay Closing - Essay Example In 2002, more than hundreds of Afghani prisoners were detained in this prison and did not have any rights, which were defined by the Geneva Conventions. However, they were given minimum rights in the year 2006 (Londras, 52). This paper seeks to analyze and investigate the 'Guantanamo Bay closing", it impact on U.S security and international security, in the lights of broad and diverse academic resources. After the September eleventh attack on United States, detention camp was made at Guantanamo base for detainees who were believed to be terrorists. After the U.S invasion in Afghanistan, majority of the suspected Afghani terrorists were move into Guantanamo detention camp(Fletcher, 125). These prisoners were considered to be the associated with Al Qaeda. Guantanamo Bay served as a detention center, where these prisoners were interrogated in order to get information on future terrorist attacks and to track down other terrorists groups. Donald Rumsfeld, the Defense Secretary, had authorized special interrogative methods which were used to compel the detainees to give information regarding terrorist groups and their activities. This was done in order to prevent international terrorism. However, methods such as invading prisoner's privacy, chaining them, exposing them to humiliation, etc were used for interrogation (Fletcher, 129). These acts were subjected to severe criticism. Media, human rights activists and peacekeepers severely criticized these methods and declared them inhumane practices, which violated human rights. In the year 2006, former President George Bush declared that suspected terrorists would be held at Guantanamo Prison. However, minimum rights were given to these prisoners (Mariner, 312). In 2009, President Barack Obama became the President of United States and took measures to close the Guantanamo Bay's prison (Brophy-Baermann & Conybeare, 200). United States of America is considered to be the country, which believes in liberty and human rights. According to critics, the methods devised by Donald Rumsfeld in order to break silence of the prisoners were inhumane and barbaric and they violated basic human rights. Prisoners were forced to wear female underwear on their heads, chained, lashed or exploited sexually so that they break their silence (Fletcher, 131). The military had the authority to use these methods in order to gain information on terrorists groups and activities. According to media reports, these strategies were specially devised for these detainees and were considered to be general procedure for interrogators. Reports also indicate these interrogators threatened detainees if they didn't cooperate with them. Several human right organizations believed that this was violation of human rights. Arguments against Guantanamo Bay Closing Although more than billion of innocent people are subjected to inhumane treatment and tyranny by governments of different countries such as Sudan, China, Somalia, etc, majority of human rights organization have concentrated on Guantanamo Bay Prison. It has been subjected to severe criticism because it had introduced special methods for interrogation. Although it has violated human rights, proponents have failed to articulate a rational and practical rationale for its closing.