How can the American public continue to ignore the horrendously inhumane conditions of inmates in Guantanamo Bay prison camp? How can we believe ourselves to be living in a civilized, free democracy when we tacitly allow such travesty to occur in our name?
A new Amnesty International report on Guantanamo to be released on Thursday, clearly documents the worsening conditions of some 300 inmates at the prison camp, most of whom are placed in windowless, isolated cells for 22 hours a day. According to BBC news reporton the findings:
Conditions for detainees at the US military jail at Guantanamo Bay are deteriorating, with the majority held in solitary confinement, a report says.
Amnesty International said the often harsh and inhumane conditions at the camp were "pushing people to the edge".
The [Amnesty International] report, published on Thursday, said about 300 detainees are now being held at a new facility - known as Camp 5, Camp 6 and Camp Echo - comparable to "super-max" high security units in the US.
The group said the facility had "created even harsher and apparently more permanent conditions of extreme isolation and sensory deprivation".
It said the detainees were reportedly confined to windowless cells for 22 hours a day, only allowed to exercise at night and could go for days without seeing daylight.
The organisation's UK director, Kate Allen, described the process at Guantanamo as "a travesty of justice".
"With many prisoners already in despair at being held in indefinite detention... some are dangerously close to full-blown mental and physical breakdown.
Shouldn't we call for a full blown investigation by Congressional committees of these deteriorating conditions of so-called enemy combatants, held over five years in indefinite detention? Shouldn't the American public ask that these 'medieval' torture chambers be closed down permanently? Why do we continue to remain silent in face of such inhumanity and lack of basic legal justice?