Guantanamo Bay: America’s Shame

Minaret Research Network

The Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba, established by the Bush administration in 2002, represents one of the most shameful acts in the record of human rights violations by the US. The detention centre was established to hold and interrogate detainees from Afghanistan and Iraq. There is overwhelming evidence which suggests that detainees at the Guantanamo prison have been subjected to brutal torture and humiliation by the US military authorities. A number of topmost US authorities, including the former president George W. Bush, former vice-president Dick Cheney, former Attorney General John Ashcroft, and former Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet, appear to be involved in the sordid affair. The most telling evidence has come from George W. Bush’s memoir Decision Points, in which he admits that he personally authorized the waterboarding of one of the detainees, Khaled Sheikh Mohammed.

The torture inflicted on detainees—including merciless beatings, sleep deprivation, solitary confinement, exposure to extreme cold, forced drugging, sexual degradation, waterboarding, unbearably loud music—has been confirmed from a variety of sources, including the testimonies of released prisoners, statements of US officials and reports of human rights organizations. Susan J. Crawford, who was appointed by former Secretary of Defence Robert Gates to review the condition of detainees at the facility, admitted to the media in January 2009 that at least one of the detainees, Mohammad al-Qahtani, was tortured while being held prisoner.  Continued