You are hereOn Guantanamo Bay -- a letter to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette
On Guantanamo Bay -- a letter to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette
When prisoners from Afghanistan were first brought to the American-run military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, televised images showed the prisoners in outdoor, chain-link cages. Since then, government officials have claimed that accommodations for prisoners have become more humane, but information included in your June 12 article shows this not to be the case. Your article quotes military officials as saying the three prisoners who committed suicide had been held in 6-by-8 foot cells with wire-mesh walls. Try finding a cage that small at the Pittsburgh Zoo.
Not only should the prison at Guantanamo Bay be closed, but the United States should evacuate the base and return it to Cuba. While Cuba was under U.S. occupation in the wake of the Spanish American War the United States forced Cuba to lease Guantanamo Bay to our military. Cuba has been rejecting rent payments on the base for half a century. Guantanamo Bay has become a moral black hole. The torture and complete lack of due process at the base strips us of our humanity and undermines our Constitution. The Bush Administration recognizes neither Cuban nor American law on the base, so constitutional bans on torture or detainment without charge do not apply. The existence of the base and its prison has introduced a source of decay into our body politic that erodes the integrity of our Constitution at a time when little else protects us from the Bush Administration's attack on our democracy.
