Why you need to know about Guantanamo Bay

I'm pretty sure most of you have heard about. If you haven't then get googling!!

Guantanamo Bay Prison located in Cuba is the greatest injustice to have been served in the 21st century. If you disagree, then you've either been reading the stuff the government wants you to read or you brains a little bit mushy and therefore your moral compass is slightly wonky.

Tuesday 11 January 2011 marked 9 years since the first detainees were transferred to the US military prison. Your probably thinking 'well they're all terrorists so it makes sense to put them in prison duhh!' or 'well if they're innocent they've got nothing to worry about.' If only that was true! Allow me to introduce you to Fayiz Al-Kandari.

Fayiz al-Kandari

Al-Kandari, who is from a wealthy family in Kuwait, and has a history of providing humanitarian aid in countries where Muslims were suffering (in Bosnia in 1994, and in Afghanistan in 1997), has persistently stated that he arrived in Afghanistan at the end of August 2001, on a humanitarian aid mission that involved building two wells and repairing a mosque for a small rural community. He has also repeatedly stated that, sometime after the US-led invasion in October 2001, he set off for Pakistan, after being shown a leaflet that had a picture of an Afghan holding a bag with a dollar sign on it, accompanied by some text, which, in essence, said, “Turn in Arabs and this will be you,” but was then seized by Northern Alliance soldiers who subsequently sold him to US forces. Fayiz has been held in Guantanamo Bay prison since 2002. Although he has maintained his innocence and the US government has no evidence against him, he was put forward for a trial by Military Commission under President Bush. 

Lieutenant Colonel Barry D. Wingard is the detailed lead attorney from the Office of Military Commissions. Lieutenant Colonel Wingard recently submitted and had published an article about citing hearsey evidence against his client. Lieutenant Colonel Wingard said "Vague charges made it difficult to defend his client after he was assigned in October to represent a Kuwaiti named Fayiz al-Kandari". In trying to prepare his case, Lieutenant Colonel Wingard said:

"There simply is no evidence other than he is a Muslim in Afghanistan at the wrong time, other than double and triple hearsay statements, something I have never seen as justification for incarceration, let alone eight years."

Fayiz is currently still at the facility fighting for justice and living in hope. Be apart of something big and sign the petition to get him back home to his family!

Why do you need to know about Guantanamo Bay Prison? 

Because it breaks almost every law meant to protect us! The Geneva convention does not apply in this awful place, since the opening of this prison indefinite detention without trial has become ACCEPTABLE! This should not be how justice works - throughout history evidence is made present and then a counter argument after which a fair jury decides the outcome. In Guantanamo the accused isn't able to see the evidences presented against him therefore unable to argue against it! Imagine it was your son/daughter/husband/brother in this situation, how helpless would you feel?

I'm not asking you to believe that every person in there is innocent (although most are!) what I'm asking you to do is realise the procedures and policies are illegal and its about time we the public made a fuss about it and made our governments accountable for their actions!