Since the report from McClatchy estimates are now up to as many as 50% of the inmates are participating in the hunger strike. It is hard to know actual numbers but it is clear that the hunger strike is picking up speed.
McClatchy is reporting that more than 10 % of the Guantanamo prisoners are now participating in a hunger strike and being force fed. Obama has to end this madness on day one. Men who have never been charged with anything are sitting in detention with no end in sight.... while the men whom the government has described as the "worst of the worst of the worst" have bogus commission trials and go home. Of course the release of Hamdan and Hicks only show that those men were not anywhere close to being war criminals but that does not help the men who are still suffering in solitary confinement and who are now in their seventh year of detention without any charges against them.
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Friday, January 9, 2009
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3 comments:
Thank you for your work!
The kangaroo komissions were supposed to be the justification for the rest of the place. And yet, 99 2/3% of those detained haven't been "tried" in 7 years, but nearly 2/3 of those detained have been discharged without charge or trial (as have 2 out of the 3 of those "tried"... the one "life sentence" going to Al Bahlul, who refused to participate in the travesty, and had a counsel who sat mute.) Funny... 3 is also the same number of those the Bush Administration has released pursuant to court order.
Diplomats are almost unanimous in saying that the number one most important thing Obama can do is shut down Guantanamo.
Candace is absolutely right: it should be shut down on day one, preferably as Obama's first act upon reaching the White House after inauguration.
Contrary to the inside-the-beltway Village idiocy, he can do it with the stroke of a pen. Just close it. Period. Move everyone-- every single detainee-- to facilities within the United States. The whole point of keeping them in Cuba was to avoid legal reach... that has been totally mooted by the Supreme Court's refusal to accept a lawless zone.
So move 'em here, charge those to be charged in court-martials or federal indictment within, say, 30 days?... and if not charged (not necessarily tried... just charged), release everyone else, and if their own country (say China) is inappropriate for return, then release them here. Not hard at all. It takes... nothing more than a pen stroke. That's all it took to open the God damned place.
Otherwise... the moral stench coming from the East End of Cuba will only get more odiferous... and the needless suffering will go on.
Awe, why not just internationalize it. Giver the International Red Cross 100% access to the inmates. Play the BBC 24-7. Staff security with Swiss Guards? Mend Gitmo, don't end it.
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