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# Letter: Guantanamo detainees held without trial for nearly six years
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/lloyd-garver-send-comments-to-editor-smdp-com-modern-times-dont-mock-constitutional-rights-editor/
- Published: 2007-07-07T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T02:14:08.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By Phyllis Elliott Santa Monica*

In her argument on behalf of the detention of prisoners at Guantanamo (“Don’t mock it till you try to love it,” July 2), Charlotte Hays chooses to ignore the fact that they have been held almost six years without trial.

The argument is not whether to free them. It is that they have been denied due process of law, which is the entitlement of every individual regardless of citizenship. Without that right, the U.S. becomes another totalitarian dictatorship.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 7, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/070707.pdf?ref=smdp.com)