[pjw] FACTS: Guantanamo, 22 years later

[Peace and Justice Works]

Hello IAG supporters
Because I got in early today in case of blizzard (which seems that it will 
be happening tomorrow), I had time to finalize and upload the fact sheet 
for tonight's event. Feel free to share with others.

You can print out a pdf copy by going here:

https://www.pjw.info/Guantanamo22ylfacts.pdf

Thanks
dan handelman
peace and justice works iraq affinity group

---------------------------------------------

Guantanamo: 22 Years of  Imprisonment without End... for 30 People
January 12, 2024

January 11 marked 22 years since the U.S. opened its notorious detention 
facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in 2002. At one point, roughly 770 
prisoners were held there. In 2024, 30 people remain in indefinite 
detention. Sixteen have been cleared for release but remain imprisoned. 
Only ten have charges pending against them, one is serving a life sentence 
after being convicted, and three are considered "forever detainees" (New 
York Times, 12/11/23).

Thus, over 95% of the detainees have been released, often after spending 
more than a decade in the detention facility, due to there being little to 
no evidence that they posed a threat or were linked with terrorism. Some 
of those facing charges will likely not be convicted because much of the 
evidence against them was obtained through torture (NPR, 11/14/19), which 
then continued at Guantanamo in the form of the force feeding of hunger 
strikers. At least nine detainees have died in custody (Reprieve.org, 
8/19/18). Guantanamo's oldest inmate Saifullah Paracha was finally 
released in 2022 at age 75.

Developments in 2023 include the first-ever visit from a UN human rights 
investigator, who said the conditions were "cruel, inhuman and degrading 
treatment under international law" (Associated Press, June 26). Also, one 
prisoner, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, was declared unfit to face charges because 
he was rendered psychotic by his treatment by the US (AP, September 22).

Many of the torture techniques were confirmed in the 2014 Senate report on 
post-9/11 CIA "interrogations." The non-governmental organization Reprieve 
noted in 2018: "The vast majority of detainees in Guantanamo (86%) were 
not captured by US forces. Instead the Government filled the prison with 
people they bought for bounties. The US flew planes over parts of 
Afghanistan and Pakistan offering $5,000 for any 'suspicious person.' This 
amounted to approximately seven years' average salary for most people in 
the area, encouraging them to turn over innocent men in exchange for  a 
life-changing amount of money. Since then, it has turned out they got it 
wrong most of the time. It didn't even take long for those in charge to 
see their mistake-- as early as 2002, Guantanamo's operational commander 
complained that he was being sent too many 'Mickey Mouse' detainees."

The prison has become a political football, with President Obama promising 
to close it as he entered office in 2009 but never doing so, President 
Trump pledging to "fill it up with bad guys" but instead releasing one 
person. While President Biden has accepted Congressional restrictions 
which prevent him from using funds to close down the prison (Stars and 
Stripes, 12/29/21), he again expressed concerns about a provision in the 
2024 National Defense Authorization Act which bars funds from being used 
to transfer prisoners to the US (EFE, December 23).

Guantanamo has been referred to as "the most expensive prison on earth." 
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) estimates the prison costs $540 
million per year to operate, or over $13 million per detainee. The New 
York Times in 2019 (September 16) said that in 2012 the per-prisoner cost 
at a "SuperMax" prison in Colorado was $78,000 a year, and estimated 
running Guantanamo cost $7 billion since it opened. While this is a drop 
in the bucket of the $8 trillion that the "War on Terror" has cost since 
2001 (Watson Institute, September, 2021), it is a waste of taxpayer money 
and a blight on a country that claims to believe in the rule of law.

Amnesty International (AI), the Center for Constitutional Rights, and 
others continue to call for the prison to be shut down. AI notes that "the 
existence of an offshore prison for Muslim men who are denied due process 
of law is a blatant example and encouragement of Islamophobia and racism."

On Jan. 11, 2024, Witness Against Torture, AI, Center for Victims of 
Torture, and others held a rally at the White House calling to shut 
Guantanamo down.

The US has only brought one prisoner from Guantanamo to the US for trial 
(the Guardian, 7/10/18). All the other inmates are being held with no end 
in sight on the island of Cuba without prosecution. Holding detainees 
indefinitely without charge or trial is an unacceptable violation of human 
rights and only serves to inspire backlash against the United States in 
acts of violence which are considered terrorism. Keeping the prison open 
is making us less safe, not more secure. It is far past time to shut 
Guantanamo down!

Local groups organizing the January 12, 2024 Portland action include the 
Peace and Justice Works (PJW) Iraq Affinity Group and Amnesty 
International Group 48 (Portland).

-----

This flyer was prepared  in January, 2024 by the
Peace and Justice Works Iraq Affinity Group
PO Box 42456                                         iraq at pjw.info
Portland, OR 97242               www.pjw.info/Iraq.html
(503) 236-3065                     Contact us about our meetings!
Meetings usually 2nd Mondays, 5 PM; next one is February 12.