A Note on Mishal al-Harbi:

Sunday's Washington Post featured an article on Mishal al-Harbi, a former Guantánamo inmate who suffered brain damage under mysterious while at the base. Al-Harbi's family suspects that he was beaten by the guards, the U.S. maintains that the his brain was deprived of oxygen during an attempted suicide by hanging. Either way, al-Harbi is a victim of the Guantánamo's brutality and dehumanization.

Today, the internet news service Islam Online, features its own angry response (via Turkish Weekly) to al-Harbi's story ... another example of how Guantánamo undermines the U.S.' stated aim of improving its image in the Muslim world.

- Adrian Bleifuss Prados

The Boston Globe Speaks Up for the Uighurs

Yesterday, in a strong editorial (featuring quotes from our friend Sabin Willett), the Boston Globe denounced the treatment and continued "detention" of the Guantánamo Uighurs, members of a Muslim ethnic group from western China.

So Guantanamo will continue as an international symbol of this country's retreat from its rule-of-law traditions. Gates has wisely decided not to go ahead with a planned $100 million court complex for the base. He could make it even clearer that he is changing the self-destructive course the country is on there by releasing the Uighurs.

Releasing the Uighurs would be a good start - but let's not forget the hundreds of other prisoners languishing in that Cuban dungeon, victims of the Bush Administration's kangaroo justice.

- Adrian Bleifuss Prados