5th Anniversary of Guantanamo Detainees

Today marks the 5th anniversary of the first detainees at Guantanamo Bay.  Around the world people are organizing in opposition to US practices, and I sit at a coffee shop smoking cigarettes and drinking roasted coffee with sugar and cream.  I look around me and people are conversing, happy, enjoying the warmth of the fireplace, and just winding down.  It’s amazing how detached we all are from the real happenings, the real human rights violations that our country is committing.  I’m am no better.  Maybe worse for knowing it’s happening and not doing anything about it.

There’s a write up in the London Financial Times about Guantanamo detainees ‘driven insane’ by the cruelty of the camp.

“Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Right’s Watch says the isolation regime at Guantanamo has tightened in recent months, piling the mental pressure on inmates who have ‘no fair procedure’ that would lead to possible release.”

Kenneth Roth went on to say in interview that it is not his belief that the Bush administration plans on closing the camp, even though Bush was quoted saying he would “very much”  like for it to but shut down.  “Very much”?  Apathy is inaction.

“Brent Mickum, a defence lawyer, says one of his two clients, Bisher al-Rawi, an Iraqi-born UK resident ‘ is slowly but surely slipping into madness” because of ‘prolonged isolation couple with environmental manipulation that includes constant exposure to temperature extremes and constant sleep deprivation.’  He says Mr. Rawi’s ration of toilet paper was removed because he used it for shielding his eyes from the light and his prayer rug was taken away because he used it for heat.”

“Jonathan Hafetz, an attorney for Brennan Center for Justice at New York University school of Law, says the five years of the Bush administration’s detention policy and related practices may have ‘done more to reverse 200 years of democracy than any other government act in US history.’”

There are still about 400 prisoners at Guantanamo of which potentially only 60-80 will be prosecuted.  How do you compensate for the lost time and torture and deprivation of human rights that the other hundreds of prisoners have been subjected to?  Will those prisoners that are “proven” innocent have rights to file charges against the US government for wrongful prosecution (prosecution in the way of oppressive, sanity-stretching, physically abusive crimes of humanity)?