General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPowerful and frightening NYT OpEd piece: Gitmo Is Killing Me
ONE man here weighs just 77 pounds. Another, 98. Last thing I knew, I weighed 132, but that was a month ago.
Ive been on a hunger strike since Feb. 10 and have lost well over 30 pounds. I will not eat until they restore my dignity.
Ive been detained at Guantánamo for 11 years and three months. I have never been charged with any crime. I have never received a trial.
I could have been home years ago no one seriously thinks I am a threat but still I am here. Years ago the military said I was a guard for Osama bin Laden, but this was nonsense, like something out of the American movies I used to watch. They dont even seem to believe it anymore. But they dont seem to care how long I sit here, either.
<snip>
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/15/opinion/hunger-striking-at-guantanamo-bay.html?hp&_r=3&
Brickbat
(19,339 posts)dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)I cringe whenever I hear the worlds"freedom" coming from any gov't official.
xiamiam
(4,906 posts)Moostache
(9,897 posts)He took the coward's way out and the politically expedient path of least resistance.
The man campaigned on ENDING Gitmo, closing it down. He made a big show of it early in term 1 and then.....he backed down once the right started waving the "terrorism" flag at him. It was bullshit then, its bullshit now and it will be bullshit every day until he follows through on his pledge and provides trials and ends the illegal internment camp or slinks out of DC in 3 years to make a fortune with his Wall Street pals and speaking engagements.
Barack Obama will be a flawed and complex ex-president, but he and he alone can ensure that at the very least he addresses this issue and resolves it before then...
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)It's their death camp.
Paul E Ester
(952 posts)malthaussen
(17,216 posts)It sends my blood pressure through the roof. This shit is being done in *my* name, by *my* country, and is contrary to every principle of justice under which this country was founded and has stood for since its inception. There is not enough bad that can be said about it.
-- Mal
AnotherMcIntosh
(11,064 posts)I am still being force-fed. Two times a day they tie me to a chair in my cell. My arms, legs and head are strapped down. I never know when they will come. Sometimes they come during the night, as late as 11 p.m., when Im sleeping.
There are so many of us on hunger strike now that there arent enough qualified medical staff members to carry out the force-feedings; nothing is happening at regular intervals. They are feeding people around the clock just to keep up.
...
I will agree to whatever it takes in order to be free. I am now 35. All I want is to see my family again and to start a family of my own.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/15/opinion/hunger-striking-at-guantanamo-bay.html?hp&_r=4&
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)Is there anyone in this country who will end this nightmare, even speak out against it among our courageous leaders??
I can only imagine if this was from some place we view as a 'dictatorship'. The screams and threats and moral outrage would be heard around the world. This man would be rescued and brought to the next State of the Union address to show what 'humanitarians' we are.
Is anyone in Congress or the WH ASHAMED as they should be, by this crime they are 'moving forward' from?
There are no enough words to express the hatred I feel for those responsible for that hell hole that OUR tax dollars are paying for.
I wouldn't even do this to the war criminals responsible, but it would be tempting.
cali
(114,904 posts)As for congress: phtt.
City Lights
(25,171 posts)AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)Our President swore he would close Gitmo when if he was elected.
This has to end.
Rex
(65,616 posts)It is the way WE would be treated if the GOP had it's way.