Conditions at Guantanamo

Eleven days ago, I wrote a brief article in remembrance of Abdul Rahman al-Amri, a Saudi prisoner at Guantánamo, and a long-term hunger striker, who died on May 30, 2007, apparently by committing suicide. Today is another bleak and overlooked anniversary, as it was exactly two years ago that the news was announced that the [...]

Despite attempts by the administration to portray Guantánamo as an efficient, lawful, functioning prison, the Associated Press notes that a new US military report, “Danger Inside the Wire” (it’s one page long, so it’s more of a memo, really) declares that, although assaults on guards are down by more than 60 percent, “there were 385 [...]

A brief insight into the dehumanizing isolation that is prevalent in Guantánamo is provided in a Gulf Daily News article by Geoffrey Bew, in which, following a recent visit, US lawyer Joshua Colangelo-Bryan explained that Isa al-Murbati –- the last Bahraini in Guantánamo following the release last month of joint Bahraini-Saudi national Juma al-Dossari –- [...]

The English-language Arabic daily newspaper Asharq al-Awsat recently ran an intriguing article, Life After Guantánamo, about a released Guantánamo detainee, Mishal al-Harbi, which I only came across because it was mentioned on John Burgess’ well-balanced Crossroads Arabia website.
Al-Harbi, who is now 27 years old, but who was only 21 when he was captured after a [...]

The following is a declassified letter from a Guantánamo detainee named Abdul Aziz, who has been held in US custody without charge or trial for over five and a half years. Abdul Aziz traveled to Afghanistan in late September 2001, after taking his final exams at the Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud University in Riyadh, to [...]