Guantánamo leaks lift lid on world's most controversial prison
source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/25/guantanamo-files-lift-lid-prison
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• Children, elderly and mentally ill among those wrongfully held
• 172 prisoners remain, some with no prospect of trial or release
More than 700 leaked secret files on the Guantánamo detainees lay bare the inner workings of America's controversial prison camp in Cuba.
The US military dossiers, obtained by the New York Times and the Guardian, reveal how, alongside the so-called "worst of the worst", many prisoners were flown to the Guantánamo cages and held captive for years on the flimsiest grounds, or on the basis of lurid confessions extracted by maltreatment.
The 759 Guantánamo files, classified "secret", cover almost every inmate since the camp was opened in 2002. More than two years after President Obama ordered the closure of the prison, 172 are still held there.
The files depict a system often focused less on containing dangerous terrorists or enemy fighters, than on extracting intelligence. Among inmates who proved harmless were an 89-year-old Afghan villager, suffering from senile dementia, and a 14-year-old boy who had been an innocent kidnap victim.
The old man was transported to Cuba to interrogate him about "suspicious phone numbers" found in his compound. The 14-year-old was shipped out merely because of "his possible knowledge of Taliban...local leaders"
• Innocent people interrogated for years on slimmest pretexts
• Children, elderly and mentally ill among those wrongfully held
• 172 prisoners remain, some with no prospect of trial or release
Obama's inability to shut Guantánamo has been one of the White House's most internationally embarrassing policy failures. The files offer an insight into why the administration has been unable to transfer many of the 172 existing prisoners from the island prison where they remain outside the protection of the US courts or the prisoner-of-war provisions of the Geneva conventions.
The range of those still held captive includes detainees who have been admittedly tortured so badly they can never be successfully tried, informers who must be protected from reprisals, and a group of Chinese Muslims from the Uighur minority who have nowhere to go.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/25/guantanamo-files-lift-lid-prison
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artemis6
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They need to be busted out . How many have died in there ? Bradly manning should be busted out too . We need a peoples' army . The current us army it working for someone else .
- 1 year ago
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artemis6
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artemis6
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For the love of decency , they should all be let go .... Obama said , and i HEARD it , this would end . If there was one thing that needed doing this was it .
- 1 year ago
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artemis6
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letsliveinpeace
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artemis6:
Agreed let them go send them home.
- 1 year ago
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letsliveinpeace
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ampersand
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Are there five people on the planet who still don't know what a complete fiasco and tragic stain Guantanamo is on the U.S.?
Yet, Mr. Obama, the light of reason and moderation, and not, incidentally, the President of the United States, has been unable to close Guantanamo, even after signing an executive order to that effect.
That must tell us and the world something about who really runs the U.S. and what kind of nation we live in.
As Bill Mayer once said, in case one might mistake him for a silent collaborator in this ongoing engine of evil: "Hey, I'm Swiss." - 1 year ago
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ampersand
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artemis6
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ampersand:
I certainly have no more illusions about who is in charge . It is so depressing .
- 1 year ago
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artemis6
