Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Spotlight on Guantanamo Bay


The image is confronting, it is supposed to confront, supposed to be a wake up call. Guantanamo Bay symbolizes the illegality and amorality of the Bush administration’s war on terror, or as we a finding, war of terror!.



Lawyers who represent some of the 460 men at the prison said no one should be surprised by the suicides of three inmates at the weekend - one of whom was 17 years old when he was incarcerated and another who was earmarked for transfer.

Bill Goodman, legal director of the Centre for Constitutional Rights (CCR), said: "The Bush administration has systematically and deliberately denied these men their most basic rights through a policy of choking off all contact, communication, information and hope."


"[It has] consistently fought to keep these men from lawyers, doctors and others who were willing to help them."



In 2003, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the only independent organisation granted access to the prisoners, warned of the severe mental health issues facing many and said the nature of their incarceration and interrogation - including humiliating acts, solitary confinement, temperature extremes, use of forced positions - was "a form of torture". Britain’s Independent



I have been waiting to see the US domestic response to this latest situation. The local media is generally a little slow in taking up confronting national issues. But it has started flowing now.

From SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, within shouting distance of my current location:

The deaths will intensify the global attention on and criticism of the way the
Bush administration has used the facility to deny basic legal and human rights.


Bloody right it will intensify global attention. But more to the point, it must galvanize those American’s who believe in a fair system of justice and who are opposed to torture in its many forms.

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