US Guantanamo Torture Prison: The Shame of the Nation
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)
Washington operates numerous global black sites, Guantanamo the tip of a torture network iceberg.
Torture is torture whether by inflicting physical or emotional pain by various means, or by indefinitely detaining targeted individuals uncharged and untried behind bars - how the CIA and Pentagon operate at Guantanamo and other US black sites.
The UK-based Reprieve human rights group accused the US of systematically design(ing) and implement(ing) a (diabolical) program of abducting and torturing (alleged) terrorism suspects (despite no evidence proving guilt), before imprisoning them without due process” or judicial fairness.
The vast majority of Guantanamo detainees were literally sold to America for bounties, ranging from $5,000 - $25,000 - in nearly all cases, individuals guilty only of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or at odds with someone fingering them unjustly to collect a large monetary payoff.
Guantanamo and numerous other US black sites remain open, US media scoundrels ignoring this high crime against humanity.
On July 4, London’s Guardian published a letter from 10 former unjustly detained and tortured Guantanamo prisoners, demanding a legitimate inquiry into their unjust treatment, saying in part:
“We, the former British nationals and residents who were imprisoned by the US government at secret prisons in Kandahar, Bagram and Guantanamo, call on the British government to order a comprehensive and transparent judge-led public inquiry into the perpetrators of this abuse, and the individuals who ordered it…”
“…British intelligence services were willfully complicit in our kidnap, false imprisonment, torture and other mistreatment.”
US President Trump “believes ‘torture works…(He) appointed (a woman) who ran a torture facility to head the CIA, despite reports alleging she ordered the destruction of evidence documenting torture.”
“Between us, we have spent close to 90 years imprisoned without charge or trial. We have endured cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.”
Britain partners with US high crimes, including naked aggression, torture, and other policies flagrantly violating rule of law principles. Letter signatories include:
Moazzam Begg
Shaker Aamer
Asif Iqbal
Jamil El-Banna
Ruhal Ahmed
Bisher al-Rawi
Binyam Mohamed
Shafiq Rasul
Omar Deghayes
Tarek Dergoul
Accountability for their high crimes isn’t in the US or UK vocabulary - not earlier, not now, likely never.
On Wednesday, Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) lawyers argued in federal court against the continued unlawful detention of individuals at Guantanamo.
Representing 11 detainees, CCR argued against Trump’s refusal to release anyone held at the prison, even longterm uncharged and untried detainees - calling his policy “arbitrary and unlawful.”
CCR argued for their release, its legal director Baher Azmy saying:
“Our dangerous experiment in indefinite detention, after 16 years, has run its course.”
“Due process of law does not permit the arbitrary detention of individuals, particularly at the hands of a president like Donald Trump, who has pledged to prevent any releases from Guantanamo.”
“That position is based not on a meaningful assessment of any actual threat, but on Trump’s animosity towards Muslims, including these foreign-born prisoners at Guantanamo - the height of arbitrariness.”
“Short of judicial intervention, Trump will succeed.”
Sharqawi Al Hajj has been unlawfully detained uncharged and untried since 2002. He joined CCR’s motion, saying:
“The government says my detention is legal because of the indefinite war against terrorism. When terrorism ends, the war will end. So, never.”
“Even though I expected such a response, I was still shocked at the idea that I am such a threat that the government wants to keep me here at a cost of millions every year.”
“I feel like I am dead but still breathing. Seventeen years have gone from my life. I’ve been deprived of my family. Every day I have a new ailment. If I think about it too much I’ll lose my mind.”
“I’m asking the judge to protect justice. I don’t present a threat. Show me how I can convince you that I don’t pose a threat to anybody. Just show me the way and I will follow it.”
Reprieve attorney Shelby Sullivan-Bennis, joining in CCR’s motion, said: “Keeping these men behind bars forever, when the government’s own investigators have determined that they committed no crime and pose no threat, is a shocking violation of the USA’s founding principles.
“Guantanamo Bay is a global symbol of injustice. It has made us less safe, at huge expense to taxpayers, while doing lasting damage to the USA’s reputation as a beacon for fairness and liberty.”
Trump ordered Guantanamo kept open and expanded, earlier saying he wants it “load(ed) up with some bad dudes” - no matter their uninvolvement with terrorism, their innocence of any crimes.
The infamous facility operates extrajudicially, an instrument of US imperial viciousness.
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