Tags: corruption | Coverups | George Bush | Guantanamo Bay | prisons | terrorists | torture | US Military

I hear the rumors that Guantanamo Bay is actually going to close. I guess when you keep getting caught in lie after lie about your detainees, it starts to look bad.

Guantanamo Bay or GITMO as it is called has recently been a sore subject for the U.S. government and rightfully so after so many allegations of torture, abuse and human rights violations.

Guantanamo Bay is a U.S. detention capt that is operated by the Joint Task force at the Guantanamo Bay Navy Base on the shore of Cuba.

The camp is broken up into section called Camp Iguana, Camp Echo, Camp Delta and the infamous Camp X-Ray which was closed. The various camps have different security levels and since early 2000 have been opening and closing depending on detainee housing needs.

Reports say that most detainees are never charged and eventually released, some after a few months, while others spend many years there. As of Summer 2008, only 20 of the 770 have been charged with crimes, one of which was Australian David Hicks.

The sticky part here is that the camp also houses "detainees" that the U.S. Government has tagged "enemy combatants" and with that title the U.S. Military believes that the detainees are not awarded any protections of the Geneva Convention. In 2006, the Supreme court made a ruling giving these detainees minimal protections... seems those protections are very minimal.

Prisoners at Guantanamo are held for years without ever being charged. They are beaten and tortured and many have been held at GITMO based on suspicion of being tied to something or even just being related to someone.

A 33 year old man, who was linked to Al Qaeda, was held for years without charges had this to say after his 12 suicide attempts failed. He wrote a 20 page account of his stay.

"The enormous horrors that my eyes have seen and continue to see, renew my anxiety and pain and my very being and feelings are shaken at the mere thought or flash of them in my memory,"

The detainee claims he was wrapped in the US and Israeli flags during one interrogation session and that an interrogator urinated on his copy of the Koran.

He claims one of the reasons he is detained is that he attended a Saudi government training camp when he was 16. He denies charges of being a terrorist.

His guilt or innocence should be decided, but not by an angry, gun toting teen ager in U.S. military uniform. It should be decided by a court of law. But, that will never happen.

The U.S. government claims the detainees are treated well, get excellent medical care, are able to speak freely to interrogators who sometimes even give them burgers and pizza, and they have all the social contact they need through the feed hole of their cage.... Sounds lovely and quite believable.

O.K, lets check out these prime conditions and the trip to GITMO

Detainees on the road to Guantanamo Bay

Great housing, housing cages at GITMO

more GITMO cages

and yet more Guantanamo Bay housing cages

Interrogators giving out burgers and pizza

Excellent Medical care courtesy of the U.S. Military

As harsh as that looks for the Muslim detainees, an Australian Named David Hicks was also housed there

From Wikipedia

The cell in above picture is the one David Hicks, an Australian Guantánamo Bay prisoner, was detained. Inset is the prisoners' reading room. I bet he hot Pizza.