For more than 100 days, detainees at American detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been on hunger strike, drawing international attention back to the prison that U.S. President Barack Obama vowed during his first presidential campaign to close down. Ramzi Kassem, a lawyer who defends prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Photo courtesy of Ramzi Kassem. … Continue reading “Detainee Lawyer: Guantanamo ‘Has No Right to Exist’”

There have been nine congressional hearings on the Benghazi controversy – with more to come – but almost no one in Congress dares put the spotlight on the unfolding scandal surrounding the Guantanamo Bay prison where most of the remaining 166 inmates have opted to “escape” from indefinite detention via the only way open to … Continue reading “The Deepening Shame of Guantanamo”

He disappeared more than a decade ago, just 18-years-old and teaching abroad, separated from his family for the first time in life. His mother and father, sick with worry, heard nothing. For all they knew he was dead. Then, one day they opened a newspaper and learned their son was being held in a military … Continue reading “Happy Mothers Day: From Guantanamo to Yemen”

The Guantanamo Bay prison is a glaring manifestation of the political indecision which the United States has experienced since President Barack Obama’s first day in office. While his second term is unlikely to deliver much of the “change” he had so industriously promised, skeletal men continue to sink into utter despair at the American gulag … Continue reading “Hungry For Freedom In Guantanamo”

Kangaroo Court: 1.) a mock court in which the principles of law and justice are disregarded or perverted For years, activists have been referring to the military tribunal system at Guantanamo Bay as a “kangaroo court.” Evidence pouring in from the island compound and from the U.S Military Commissions office in Washington indicate this invective … Continue reading “A Kangaroo Court at Last”

The Obama Administration was on the defensive last week as an intensifying hunger strike among the detainees at Guantanamo Bay finally reached international attention. Notably, it’s put into stark relief the fact that nearly half of the prisoners there have been cleared for release, but the White House – which once promised to close the … Continue reading “Gitmo Hunger Strike: Bigger Than You Think”

Ten-year anniversaries can be a golden opportunity to redirect public attention to an ongoing crisis or bad policy that has yet to be resolved. But the 11th anniversary, well, it can be kind of sad. So is the case with the campaign to close the Guantanamo Bay military prison facility, which this week celebrated its … Continue reading “Why Are These People Still Caged?”