Guantanamo - 10 Years Later!

10 years later Guantanamo remains open and worse of all, active. 170 captives remain stranded on this is island in a facility that will go into history books as the the worst criminal act by the USA. I guarantee you!

This facility is known to have carried out regular torture & this came in all forms, physical, mental and sexual. The implications of this on the detainees mental health are terrifying. Sexual abuse is sadly quite common in regular state prison, committed by criminals on other incarcerated criminals. Never have I heard of such rampant cases of sexual abuse by GUARDS on prisoners as often as I have from Guantanamo. I say without hesitation that the majority of guards at GITMO are more criminal than those being held. Guantanamo is the equivalent of letting dogs look after humans - a disaster waiting to happen. Human rights group argue that indefinite detention alone is an act of torture, add solitary confinement to that and you have a lethal mental weapon against detainees.

Acts of torture are common. This is not me saying it, the documents speak for them self! Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was captured in March 2003 & had been waterboarded atleast 183 times by the CIA. That wasn't all, he was held at a secret detention facility - so only God knows what else he & many others were put through. A judge even declared that "Americas idea of what is torture...does not appear to coincide with that of most civilized nations".

Detainee returning after interrogation

This facility has held over 700 people. That's 700 lives destroyed / tainted forever, not including the guards. As much as one can say they are weak people to follow commands even when they are so blatantly inhumane one can't begin to think of what they feel when they're back home with their families, knowing what evil acts they've witness & participated in.

Guantanamo has changed the future for many people. It has transgressed all limits both morally & legally. It has always been said that in war leave alone the women, the children & the old. Guantanamo has had no mercy. The oldest captive was 89 year old Mohammed Sadiq, and the youngest 14 year old Naqib Ullah (I'm pretty sure I've heard of a 12 year old being held but can't find the details). There have also been statements of women being held there. The US government has since become cocky & has even so far as to go into other nations and kidnap foreign citizens! Last year Italy convicted 26 CIA agents in absentia for kidnapping an Italian citizen & then dumping him in the woods near his house a year later.

The individuals that remain there are there simply to save face! Shaker Ameer, Fayiz Al Kanderi, Omar Khadr & many more are ready for release but due to the US governments stupidity & plain arrogance they remain stranded.

David Hicks

"GTMO should be closed, torture abolished, military commisons scrapped, renditions ceased, indefinite detention should be a thing of the past & people (including children) should no longer be made to 'disappear' into unknown black site prisons" - David Hicks (in an exclusive interview with Jason Leopold) The fact that such a statement needs to be said tells us how bad things have got.

Guantanamo is no longer about keeping the bad guys locked up. The bad guys aren't the ones in the cages - scary but true! Rather it's the ones in uniforms carrying out the commands who should be locked up. It's the leader who allows their actions to continue, when a true leader would be ashamed of having such actions associated with his leadership, who deserves to be locked up. The real criminals sit behind desks arguing to keep practicing torture & sign new laws that make torture acceptable! The real criminals strut around thinking their invincible, I swear by the One who created this Earth & everything in it, they will be judged & true justice will be served!