{"id":2489,"date":"2015-01-15T10:26:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-15T03:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.amnesty.or.th\/en\/11-reasons-january-11th-must-be-guantanamos-last-anniversary\/"},"modified":"2024-11-11T17:40:08","modified_gmt":"2024-11-11T10:40:08","slug":"11-reasons-january-11th-must-be-guantanamos-last-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.amnesty.or.th\/en\/blog\/2015\/01\/11-reasons-january-11th-must-be-guantanamos-last-anniversary\/","title":{"rendered":"11 Reasons January 11th Must Be Guantanamo\u2019s Last Anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

15 January 2015<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This Sunday, January 11, marks the grim 13th anniversary of the opening of the prison at Guantanamo Bay. With the momentum President Obama has now, he must make this anniversary Guantanamo\u2019s last. Here are 11 reasons why closing the prison now is a human rights imperative:
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1. THEY DON\u2019T KNOW WHEN \u2013 IF EVER \u2013 THEY WILL BE FREE<\/strong>

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Imagine if you were in prison. Now imagine you had no idea when, if ever, you would be charged with a crime or released. For more than 100 men at Guantanamo, indefinite detention is a cruel reality. They face the prospect of remaining in limbo\u2014their lives on hold\u2014forever.
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2. WE HAVE MOMENTUM<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Activists protest the 10th anniversary of the Guantanamo Bay detention, Washington DC, USA, 11 January 2012.
Activists protest the 10th anniversary of the Guantanamo Bay, Washington DC, 11 January 2012<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Six years ago, President Obama ordered Guant\u00e1namo closed within a year. In the face of his failure, we have kept up the pressure through protests around the globe. And we are beginning to see long overdue progress: in the last year and a half, the government has transferred 39 detainees out of Guantanamo. Compare that to just 4 cleared detainees being transferred between July 2011 and July 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. TOO MANY MEN ARE IN LIMBO<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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US Army Soldiers stand guard on a cell block inside Camp Five at the detention centre, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, 14 November 2006. Camp Five is one of six camps that comprise the detention center and has been built with many features that can be found in many maximum-security prisons in the United States.
US Army Soldiers stand guard on a cell block inside Camp Five at the detention centre, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, 14 November 2006.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But President Obama must do far more. More than one hundred detainees still remain in indefinite detention without charge or trial. Every detainee must either be fairly tried or released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. A HISTORY OF TORTURE AND OTHER INHUMANE TREATMENT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Detainees in orange jumpsuits sit in a holding area under the watchful eyes of Military Police at Camp X-Ray at Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, during in-processing to the temporary detention facility on January 11, 2002. REUTERS\/DoD\/Shane T. McCoy
Detainees in orange jumpsuits sit in a holding area under the watchful eyes of Military Police at Camp X-Ray at Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, during in-processing to the temporary detention facility on January 11, 2002. REUTERS\/DoD\/Shane T. McCoy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shackled, hooded and blindfolded, detainees began arriving at Guant\u00e1namo in 2002. The place was treated as \u201cbattle lab\u201d for experimental, unproven interrogation techniques, according to a Senate report. Since then, it has been the site of abuses including widespread and prolonged solitary confinement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compounding the injustice, at least 28 of those still held at Guantanamo were secretly detained at other U.S. sites, before being sent to Guantanamo. \u201c[T]hey gave me a \u2018Goodbye Party\u2019 at Kandahar and a far worse \u2018Welcome Party\u2019 at Guantanamo,\u201d said Shaker Aamer, who was first detained in Afghanistan in 2002 and still languishes at Guantanamo after nearly 13 years\u2013 despite being cleared for transfer by the Obama and Bush administrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. A HISTORY OF DESPAIR: \u201cDEATH IS MORE DESIRABLE THAN LIVING\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In 2012, Adnan Latif died at Guant\u00e1namo, after being held for more than 10 years without charge\u2014despite a judge\u2019s order that he be released. His circumstances, he said, \u201cmade death more desirable than living\u201c. Latif protested his treatment with a hunger strike and poetry, writing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where is the world to save us
from torture?
Where is the world to save us
from the fire and sadness?
Where is the world to save
the hunger strikers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nine men have died at Guant\u00e1namo since detainee operations began there in January 2002. According to the US military authorities, six of the previous eight deaths were the result of suicide and two from natural causes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. INTOLERABLE DOUBLE-SPEAK \u2013 AND THE DOUBLE STANDARD<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A sign stands in front of Camp Delta which is part of the U.S. military prison for ‘enemy combatants’ on June 25, 2013 in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Joe Raedle\/Getty Images
A sign stands in front of Camp Delta which is part of the U.S. military prison for \u2018enemy combatants\u2019 on June 25, 2013 in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Joe Raedle\/Getty Images<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Orwellian overtones, Guant\u00e1namo\u2019s official slogan is \u201cHonor Bound to Defend Freedom.\u201d But the doublespeak goes much further. Every year that Guant\u00e1namo has been open, the U.S. has continued to proclaim its commitment to international human rights standards. If an abusive regime was responsible for a place of injustice like Guant\u00e1namo, it would surely draw U.S. condemnation. It\u2019s long past time for the US authorities to end the double-speak\u2014and the double standard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. WE MUST DISRUPT THE POLITICS OF FEAR<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Members of Congress and pundits have treated Guant\u00e1namo like a political football, using it to sustain the politics of fear and ignoring the reality of human beings languishing in detention. That has made the likelihood of human rights obligations being recognized and fully respected by the US even more remote, and fed the possibility that a future president might decide to keep the facility in operation indefinitely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8. WE REJECT \u201cGLOBAL WAR\u201d
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<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To justify the unlawful detentions at Guant\u00e1namo, the USA has invoked a vision of global \u201cwar\u201d against al-Qa\u2019ida and other armed groups. The Guant\u00e1namo detainees held on \u201claw of war\u201d grounds have included people taken into custody far from any battleground as traditionally understood, and not in the territory of a state at war with the United States, including places like Azerbaijan and Thailand. The \u201cglobal war\u201d theory denies human rights, including the requirement that the US either release or fairly try in federal court every detainee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9. GUANTANAMO IS PART OF A WEB OF ABUSE
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<\/strong>


The US is \u201cat a crossroads\u201d, President Obama said on May 23, 2013, requiring it to \u201cdefine the nature and scope of this struggle, or else it will define us.\u201d Yet this \u201cglobal war\u201d has done just that. Guant\u00e1namo, unlawful drone attacks, mass surveillance\u2014they are all part of a web of abuse. Sustained by secrecy and impunity for abuse, this web persists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10. THE US IS DAMAGING HUMAN RIGHTS GLOBALLY
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<\/strong>


Why, as we near day 4,749 in the life of this notorious prison camp, is Amnesty International still talking about Guant\u00e1namo? As we said on its 10th anniversary, Guantanamo is \u201ca symbol that emboldens predatory states around the world to ignore fundamental human rights\u2026and every single one of us is a little less secure as long as Guantanamo remains open.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

11. THE DEBATE OVER GUANTANAMO AND TORTURE IS ALIVE AND WELL<\/strong>


In his memoir Decision Points, President Bush recalled that by his second inauguration in January 2005 he had come to appreciate that Guantanamo had become \u201ca propaganda tool for our enemies, and a distraction for our allies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet since President Obama entered office\u2014and especially since last month\u2019s release of the summary of the Senate torture report\u2014defenders of abuse have gone on the offensive. In his 2014 memoirs, former vice president Dick Cheney wrote: \u201cit\u2019s not Guant\u00e1namo that does the harm, it is the critics of the facility\u201d, adding he is \u201chappy to note that for President Obama the \u2018imperative\u2019 of closing Guant\u00e1namo has evolved into the necessity of keeping it open.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Obama\u2019s delay in closing Guant\u00e1namo has provided fodder to those who would revisit the worst detention practices of the \u201cWar on Terror.\u201d It may even give future administrations an excuse not only to keep the Guant\u00e1namo open, but to commit other abuses out of alleged \u201cnecessity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

15 January 2015 This Sunday, January 11, marks the grim 13th anniversary of the opening of the prison at Guantanamo Bay. With the momentum President Obama has now, he must make this anniversary Guantanamo\u2019s last. Here are 11 reasons why closing the prison now is a human rights imperative: 1. THEY DON\u2019T KNOW WHEN \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2490,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-description":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-image":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-image-id":0,"_yoast_wpseo_twitter-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-description":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-image":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-image-id":0,"_hero_title":"","_hero_content":"","_hero_cta_text":"","_hero_cta_link":"","_hero_alignment":"","_hero_background":"","_hero_size":"","_hero_show":"","_hero_type":"","_hero_embed":"","_hero_video_id":0,"_hero_hide_image_caption":true,"_hero_hide_image_copyright":false,"_nav_style":"","_disable_share_icons":false,"_disable_sidebar":false,"_display_author_info":false,"_hide_featured_image":false,"_hide_featured_image_caption":true,"_maximize_post_content":false,"_reduce_content_width":false,"_sidebar_id":0,"_stretch_thumbnail":false,"byline_context":"","byline_entity":"","byline_is_author":false,"disable_related_content":false,"download_id":0,"download_text":"","show_published_date":true,"show_updated_date":true,"term_slider":"","amnesty_index_number":"","recipients":"","recipients_refresh":"","recipients_refreshed":"","amnesty_umbraco_data":"","document_ref":"","amnesty_updated":"","footnotes":""},"category":[1584],"location":[1589],"resourceType":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-2489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","location-world"],"datePosted":"January 15, 2015","mlpRelationships":{"1":2130,"2":2489},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amnesty.or.th\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amnesty.or.th\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amnesty.or.th\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amnesty.or.th\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amnesty.or.th\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.amnesty.or.th\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amnesty.or.th\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amnesty.or.th\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amnesty.or.th\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category?post=2489"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amnesty.or.th\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=2489"},{"taxonomy":"resource-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amnesty.or.th\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resourceType?post=2489"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amnesty.or.th\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=2489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}