Guantanamo Bay

Seventy-one inmates at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, captives will get parole-board-style hearings at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba, the Pentagon said Sunday, refusing to say when the panels will meet, whether the media can watch and which of the long-held captives will go first. Retired Rear Adm. Norton C. Joerg, a senior Navy lawyer during the Bush administration, advised the lawyers that the new six-member Periodic Review Boards will not decide whether the Pentagon is lawfully imprisoning their captive client. Rather, the panel members "assess whether continued law of war detention is necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the security of the United States," Joerg said. Joerg offered no explanation for the late-night notices that came during a long-running hunger strike by prisoners at the Guantanamo naval base over their conditions of detention.

Whatever moral authority America once commanded continues to wither as we violate our country’s cherished values of human rights and the rule of law with the continued operation of Guantanamo. There, at Guantanamo, 166 detainees live in captivity; over 80 of those men have been on a hunger strike, many being force-fed against their will. Over half of the total detainees have been cleared of charges and await release. The world watches our government’s inaction to address this injustice. Additionally, and in violation of international law prohibitions against “cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment,” several dozen inmates who remain on hunger strike are being force fed.