Bryan Cruz

History 1700
Guantanamo

This article written by Dianne Feinstein, published in the NY Times On

November 4, 2015 talks about why Guantanamo bay should be closed.
Feinstein provides numerous reason why Guantanamo should be closed,
including how inefficient it has been with regards to dealing with terrorism.
She describes the major deficiencies within Guantanamo & compares it to
prisons in the United States. She inscribed that it costs us more to maintain
prisoners in Guantanamo than it does to keep prisoners in the United States.
She describes how terrorists use Guantanamo as an excuse to carry
out more violent crimes, and how our allies criticize & find Guantanamo a
violation of the rule of law. Numerous individuals that were in detention
under the Bush administration were just at the wrong place at the wrong
time and had no ties to any criminal, or terrorist organizations. Feinstein also
talks about five co-conspirators charged with planning the attacks that
occurred on September 11, that have not gone on trial; this supports her
argument about how inefficient, and unnecessary Guantanamo is, and why it
should have been closed down years ago.
Overall, this was a well written article, and it provided reasonable
evidence on why Guantanamo should be closed. Although numerous people

have tried to close down Guantanamo, it is ultimately up to congress to

make the final decision.

Bryan Cruz
History 1700
U.S Navy

This article, published on The History Channels website by Jesse

Greenspan on October 13th 2015 talks about the United States Navy,
and how it was initially formed. Greenspan refers to George
Washington as the Father of the Navy. He begins talking about the
reasons why Washington needed to form the Navy; on October 13,
1775, Congress agreed to arm to sailing vessels in order to intersect
British supply ships.
Washington decided to not wait for the Continental Congress to
act, and he converted a small group of fishing ships into warships. This
was the birth of the Navy. Greenspan also talks about the disbandment
of the Navy following the revolutionary war. Introducing this was really
good, because the majority of the populace is not aware of the
disbandment. Greenspan goes on to summarize the events that took
place during the war of 1812, and included some of the presidents that
served in the navy during WWII. Greenspan did a good job including

historical references, and relating some of the events to historical

figures that the majority of the populace is familiar with.

Bryan Cruz
History 1700
China & Taiwan Meet after 66 years

This Article was written by Jane P. & Austin R. published in the NY times
on November 3, 2015. In the article, they begin by taking about the reasons
why there had not been an official meeting between China & Taiwans
leaders for the last six decades. The president of china, & the president of
Taiwan agreed to meet on Sunday, November 8th to discuss promoting their
countrys developments.
Mr. Xi, president of China wanted to show that he is not afraid to take
risks with regards to foreign policy. They go on to talk about each countries
views on communism & the economic relations between them. They
speculated about the things that may occur with regards to the meeting as
well as rumors of reunification. Throughout the article they included
background on the relations between the two countries. This was good,
because it informs the reader about the history of both countries. They
ended this article talking about what the populace thinks of this meeting;
there are definitely going to be mixed opinions, however, the populace will
react with accordance to what transpires in the meeting.

Bryan Cruz
History 1700
Israeli Politics
This Article was written by Isabel K. & posted in the NY times on
November 3, 2015. The article talks about Israel & the assassination of prime
minister Yitzhak Rabin. It talks about the 20th anniversary of his assassination
& of something that his assassin Hagai Amir wrote. Hagai wrote that Rivlin
(President of Israel), along with the Zionist state would pass from this world
and be destroyed in a horrific way. The author of this article talked about
some of the background of the killer, and about the time he served in prison.
Isabel introduces a lot of background of the country, the events leading up to
the assassination, and everything that occurred after. She talked about the
differences between Israeli left, and right & their different views regarding
the growth of Israel.
She included suicide bombings that occurred during the the second
Palestinian uprising. The author included many important historical
references & described them well enough so that the reader knew what she
was referring to. The article ended with her talking about the changes that
occurred within the last 20 years; the new left does not speak of peace, but
of occupation. The new right does not speak of salvation, but of security. I
think this was a really strong way to end the article and summarize what the
main point of the article was; which was to bring attention to the new
ideologies of both the left and right parties, and to see how they operate.

Bryan Cruz
History 1700
Jack the Ripper
Published on the History Channels website, this article talks about Jack
the Ripper, a serial killer who butchered women in London during the 18th
century. This article talks about the top theories regarding Jack the Ripper
and his real identity. The first theory was by a retired English Detective; the
theory says that Jack was a German Sailor, and his real name was Carl
Feigenbaum & ended up being executed for murdering a NY woman in 1894.
It was believed that Jack only targeted prostitutes; Carl had many similarities
to Jack & could be placed near the scene for at least one of the crimes.
The second theory states that Prince Albert Victor, son of King Edward
VII was the one who committed the murders. British physician Thomas
Stowell published an article that implied that the prince, also known as
Eddy, committed the crimes; however, this was later disproven, when they
found evidence that he was nowhere near Whitechapel when the killings
where taking place.
The theories went on to implicate a painter, a gentleman who worked at a
morgue, and finally ended at Jill the Ripper. This theory was one that said
Jack the Ripper was essentially a female. They believed it to be Mary
Pearcey, a female who was executed for murdering her lovers wife and child
with a carving knife. Studies conducted showed that the sender of the letters
was most likely a female & it could possibly have been Mary. Although there

are many theories about the identity of Jack the Ripper, no one is really sure
who he was, or why he did what he did.

Bryan Cruz
History 1700
German Court & Ex-Guard at Auschwitz

This article was written by Melissa Eddy, and published on the NY

Times on November 3, 2015. The article talks about a court in Berlin that has
determined that a man who served as an SS Sergeant at Auschwitz is fit to
stand trial. He is facing charges of accessory to the murder of at least
170,000 people during his service at Auschwitz. His name is Reinhold H, he
was found to be physically healthy, and mentally stable enough to withstand
trial sessions of up to two hours.
Although the article is relatively short in comparison to others, it
manages to include why Germany is doing this after such a long time, and it
also references other cases which have to do with former Nazi officers being
put on trial and convicted. I took the liberty to look up the Statute of
Limitations for murder in Germany, and it looks like it is not in favor of those
who served Hitler during the war. I think the author of this article did a good
job at staying unbiased, and professional about her opinion in this. I found it
to be an interesting, and well written article. Im not too sure how I feel about
them re-opening all of these cases, because on one hand, they did all of
those horrible things willingly, and never got punished for it and on the other
hand, theyve had to live with that their entire lives, and to punish them at
their current age seems a bit pointless and unavailing.

Article Sources

1. Guantanamo: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/05/opinion/letsfinally-close-guantanamo.html?
action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=opinion-c-col-leftregion&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-ccol-left-region&_r=0
2. Navy http://www.history.com/news/7-things-you-may-not-knowabout-the-u-s-navy
3. China http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/04/world/asia/leadersof-china-and-taiwan-to-meet-for-first-time-since-1949.html?
ref=world
4. Israeli politics
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/04/world/middleeast/20years-after-rabin-israeli-politics-have-shifted.html?ref=world
5. Jack The Ripper http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/whowas-jack-the-ripper-6-tantalizing-theories
6. German Soldier
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/04/world/europe/germanyauschwitz-guard-ss-sergeant-fit-to-stand-trial.html?ref=europe