Guantanamo Comes To A Head

We've been through the reports, the pictures, and the speeches of plausible deniability. In fact, the calls to close Guantanamo surfaced while the Iraq War was heating up. The latest chapter in the saga that has become of Guantanamo Bay Detention Center is from the podium of the Presidency. Friday, there will be an announcement whether the prison will remain open or not. The chatter of the day sided with the fact that American President George W. Bush will consider closing the facility. That, of course, would be a surprise in the long run, because there was such a protracted fight on his part to keep it open to house "enemy combatants".

What was not surprising to me about this move is that I later read this evening that the talk scheduled about finally closing the detention center had suddenly been "dropped" from the schedule. Wonder why? So do I. Here is the latest from the ABC News:

The Bush administration is nearing a decision to close the Guantanamo Bay detainee facility and move its terror suspects to military prisons elsewhere, The Associated Press has learned.

Senior administration officials said Thursday a consensus is building for a proposal to shut the center and transfer detainees to one or more Defense Department facilities, including the maximum-security military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., where they could face trial.

President Bush's national security and legal advisers had been scheduled to discuss the move at a meeting Friday, the officials said, but after news of it broke, the White House said the meeting would not take place that day and no decision on Guantanamo Bay's status is imminent.

"It's no longer on the schedule for tomorrow," said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council. "Senior officials have met on the issue in the past, and I expect they will meet on the issue in the future."

I wonder when.

But, the stink from the detention center has risen to the surface. Furthermore, the stories have been so profuse that one cannot ignore them--especially when they have to do with the United States' unconscienable record of treating prisoners within a thin shade of state-sanctioned torture. There has been suidices, force feedings, the rolling out of prisoners in straight jackets, the denial of prisoner rights especially on the grounds of habeas corpus, indefinite incarcerations without charges as well as the inability to see one's legal advocate behind bars. Add that to the lists of prisoners that were smuggled out by one Lieutenant Commander Matthew Diaz to a lawyer who specialized in the welfare of human rights law.

We do have to question the humanity of not only our military,but our government when stories such as the "mental torture" of the prisoners come out in plain sight--as related in the BBC News:

A Pakistani-born US resident detained at Guantanamo Bay has said he was "mentally tortured" there, according to a transcript released by the Pentagon.

Majid Khan, who has been accused of planning to blow up petrol stations in the US, also described how he tried to commit suicide by chewing on an artery.

Mr Khan presented a Statement of Torture to the US military tribunal reviewing his "enemy combatant" status.

He was among 14 "high-value" detainees moved to Guantanamo Bay in September.

The men were previously held in secret CIA prisons but are now being detained in a maximum security wing at the base in Cuba.

[...]

At the tribunal at Guantanamo Bay on 15 April, Mr Khan denied he had any connection with Islamist militant groups such as al-Qaeda.

There is extensive torture even for the smallest of infractions.

"I am not an enemy combatant," he asserted.

"I am not an extremist."

"I have never been to Afghanistan and I have never met Osama bin Laden."

Afterwards, Mr Khan's personal representative read out a written statement, in which he alleged psychological torture.

"I swear to God this place in some sense worst than CIA jails. I am being mentally torture here," he said.

"There is extensive torture even for the smallest of infractions."

After reading stories such as the one above, it only goes to show that the saga that is Guantanamo Bay is drawn-out from vignettes such as these which generate more questions than getting the answers that are so needed. With the legal cases on the docket that continue to challenge the legality of the Bush Administration in keeping the site open, it is almost inevitable that culpability must come from some where--especially when it deals with the most blatant acts of torture and legal wrongdoing within the prison. What is especially mind-blowing is that after the false assurances and contrition that has come from the lips of assorted officials of the current Administration, the latest news shows that there is a lack of desire to get to the truth and finally close the doors of the notorious place of incarceration. It's as if the government wants to allegedly keep the system in tact without caring how the acts within its gates reflect on the national character outside American shores.

Have they no shame?