Camp 6

by hilzoy

Here's an article (h/t someone, but I forget who) from the National Law Journal on Guantanamo's Camp 6. As the author notes, some of its inmates have been cleared for transfer to other countries, since they are not guilty, have no intelligence value, and pose no danger to us. This is where we keep them:

"The men imprisoned in Camp 6 are alone in cells with walls, floors and ceilings of solid metal 22 hours a day. There is no natural light or air and no windows except strips of glass next to the solid metal door that allow only a view of an interior corridor. During cell time, the men have no contact with any human beings other than guards.

“Rec time” consists of a transfer in shackles to a “pod” of five pens separated by chain-link fences. Each detainee is placed alone in a 12- by 9-foot pen for two hours and allowed to communicate with others should there be men in adjacent pens. The two-story-high concrete walls of the pod are covered by barbed wire, allowing a glimpse of the sky but no view of the horizon. Though this outdoor time is offered each 24-hour period, it is sometimes offered very late at night. Other than heavily censored letters to family and from family, the imprisoned men are completely cut off from information about the outside world. Though the prison was built with common areas, such as those where U.S. maximum-security prison inmates are permitted to spend their time during the day, the prisoners of Camp 6 are not permitted access to these areas. Indeed, in U.S. maximum security prisons where we send the “worst of the worst” (after a whole lot of process, none of which occurs in Guantánamo), it is common for inmates to have jobs, to eat communally, to receive visits from family and friends and to have social contact with other inmates. (...)

There are about 400 men imprisoned at Guantánamo. Only 10 of them were charged under the president's first military commission system that was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, and none has been charged under the new military commission system passed by Congress last year. The government claims it intends to charge and try 60 to 80 men; with approximately 100 men languishing, but cleared for transfer, this leaves more than 200 men already imprisoned or at risk of being imprisoned under conditions that are worse than the harshest prisons in our federal system-without due process and with no end in sight. The situation at Guantánamo is worsening, desperate and critical. Many minds have already been lost and their bodies will soon follow."

Canada did the right thing. Why can't we?

Comments

[CharleyCarp]

Canada? http://www.sabanews.net/view.php?scope=f9129&dr=&ir=&id=126697>Yemen is giving people trials.

[Equal Opportunity Cynic]

Because we'd rather elect idiots who make us feel all rough and tough with their faux-cowboy act?

[Hartmut]

Because Congress is dominated by corrupt and/or cowardly people that abhor the idea of a clean break (at the neck of those responsible)?
I guess it is similar to the "We didn't know about the KZs, how dare you to remind us!?" mindset over here in 1945ff. Doing something would be a confession of wrongdoing.

[bob mcmanus]

Because we are bad people.

[cleek]

trials are a sign of weakness. by allowing someone to come to trial, you are acknowledging that he/she might have a case, and that your evidence and reason for holding that person might not be beyond question.

[Tim]

Because we suck bigtime.

[Jay C]

Because the media and the public are still suffering from the aftershocks of 9/11/01, and are still reflexively prone to shrug off any abuses that might be inflicted on "terrorrists" - and uninterested in holding the government to account on behalf of people written off as "evil".

[Nell]

Because we're a great and good nation, a shining city on a hill. So if we're holding hundreds of men in hellish conditions with no process whatsoever, they must have done terrible things to deserve it.

They're "terrorist suspects", "taken from the battlefield." I know this is true because I heard Lee Casey saying so only a few days ago on C-SPAN.

[BigHank53]

In order to show God that we are Good, we need to keep some Evil around. If we can't find anyone Evil enough to make us look good, we'll just enhance 'em.

Emigration is looking better and better.

[sidereal]

I concur with Tim's analysis. Big time.

[Paul]

This article on the participation of medical and psychological personnel at Guantanamo is worth reading as well. Worth remarking on, too, is the fact that the eventual investigation was instigated by FBI agents, not the clinicians.

Hilzoy, what are the chances of those participants losing their licence to practice.