Close Guantanamo

For the past five years, the United States has held hundreds of men from over 45 countries in Guantanamo Bay. Not a single person has been convicted of a crime, and three men died of apparent suicides. Today marks five years since the US first transferred men to indefinite and arbitrary detention. Five years of lawlessness is enough – demand that the detention facilities at Guantanamo be closed.

Amnesty International USA

George W. Bush (Republican) - President

Call for the Closure of Guantanamo

I urge you to take all necessary steps to close the detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Over the past five years, the US has detained over 700 men from over 45 nations in Guantanamo. Despite numerous allegations of torture and ill-treatment, international condemnation, three deaths in custody, several unfavorable court decisions, and not a single conviction of a detainee for any crime, your administration has responded by building more permanent facilities. No amount of permanent structures will make the detentions at Guantanamo lawful – it is time to shut it down.

Guantanamo has come to symbolize US human rights violations committed in the name of the “war on terror.” People currently in Guantanamo have been subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Some have been subjected to unfair trial proceedings. Some have been rendered to third countries that torture. Still others have been disappeared into secret CIA prisons. By continuing to insist that the United States has the right to detain people indefinitely without access to courts and outside the rule of law, you have placed the United States squarely on the wrong side of history and in defiance of international law.

The America I believe in would close Guantanamo and lead the world on human rights. Five years of lawlessness is too long. All those detained in Guantanamo should be charged immediately and given a fair trial, or released unconditionally and not sent anywhere where they would face torture or other human rights abuses. It is time to bring America back into the community of nations as a country that upholds human rights and the rule of law.

Cosmos

BlogMarks

Tags :: Politics · Gitmo · War of Terror · Bush