This is extremely touching whether you’re a Muslim or not. GITMO is one of the United States’ greatest failures in recent history and it’s something we should become more ashamed of as each day that it remains open passes. Here are a few reasons why to refresh everyone’s memory:
About 780 people have been held at Guantanamo. At least 158 have been determined to be completely innocent thus far. Only 220 were ever considered dangerous threats and 380 were deemed to be “low-ranking guerrillas.”
At least 15 children have been detained.
Of the 166 people still being detained, at least 55 have been cleared for release.
Of the nearly 800 people detained at Guantanamo Bay, only 3 have been formally charged by a military court with a crime: David Hicks, Salim Hamdan, and Ali al-Bahlul.
We even detained an Al Jazeera cameraman for 6 years, partially so we could interrogate him about the network.
Other detainees have included an Afghan taxi driver, captured “because of his general knowledge of activities in the areas of Khowst and Kabul based as a result of his frequent travels through the region as a taxi driver,” an Afghan gentleman because he was a Mullah in a city where some members of the Taliban were suspected of living, and a British man who was detained because U.S. officials assumed he had knowledge of the Taliban because he was once imprisoned by them.
The Bush administration knew early on that innocent people were being detained and were of little to no intelligence value but higher up officials, such as Cheney and Rumsfeld, refused to release prisoners because doing so would have left a “black mark” on their leadership and been “politically difficult.”
6 detainees are reported to have committed suicide. However, strong allegations exist that the designation of at least 3 of the deaths as suicides were attempts to cover up homicides. In addition, hundreds of suicide attempts and rampant self-harm among prisoners has been documented. In fact, during the first year and a half after the prison was opened alone, 18 detainees carried out 28 suicide attempts.
Detainees have been widely subjected to physical and psychological torture during interrogations and as a form of discipline. Some of these alleged techniques include waterboarding, sexual assault/rape/harassment and humiliation by both male and female interrogators, severe sleep deprivation, prolonged solitary confinement, mock executions, medical experimentation, forced medical treatments and procedures (some detainees reported doctors forced, or attempted to force, unnecessary amputations), withholding medical treatment, threats of dog attacks, subjecting detainees to temperature extremes, sometimes to temperatures bellow freezing or over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, prolonged sensory bombardment, such as exposure to loud, irritating sounds and bright lights, often permanently damaging eyes and ears, threats of transfer for torture in other countries, exposure to irritating chemicals and substances, physical beatings, some of which have resulted in permanent injuries such as confinement to a wheelchair, shackling prisoners and putting them in painful stress positions for hours at a time, refusal to allow detainees to use the bathroom, the repeated use of tear gas and pepper spray, oxygen deprivation, the removal of everything but underwear and the Qur’an from cells, desecration of the Qur’an, religious humiliation, interference with religious practices (famous examples include female interrogators sexually assaulting detainees during prayers, guards forcing detainees to strip before prayers, withholding food when fasting breaks during Ramadan), force-feeding detainees during hunger strikes, causing detainees to bleed from the nose and throat, vomit, and go to the bathroom on themselves, etc.
The Obama administration has decided not to investigate or prosecute any U.S. officials for torture or abuse.
Guantanamo Bay isn’t going to be closed any time soon.
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