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Gitmo, Obama’s Death Camp
The situation is dire in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, with many hunger striking inmates prepared to die, according to federal public defender Carlos Warner, stressing that his client is calling on the Obama administration to either ‘respect or kill’ them.
It appears the latter choice has already been decided by Barack Obama.
‘We all died when Obama indefinitely detained us’
Detainees at the Guantanamo Naval Base, many with a hose snaked up there nose while the men are restrained for peacefully hunger striking, are even being denied water under Commander In Chief Obama.
Thursday, on the 51st day of their hunger strike, Guantanamo inmates complained of not being given drinking water and having to cope with extremely low temperatures, their lawyers have said.
Guantanamo detainees who have been refusing food for weeks now complain of being denied drinking water, according to Yemeni prisoner Musaab al-Madhwani, who spoke with his attorney by phone on Monday. He also claimed that temperatures at the camp were being kept extremely low.
These miistreatment allegations were denied by the prison spokesperson, Navy Capt. Robert Durand, who said inmates there were getting “the same water I make my coffee with and that they make lunch with.”
In an interview by Russia Today (RT) US, attorney Carl Warner spoke about breaking news from Colonel Wingard at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay Cuba, with a statement from detainee Faiz al-Kandari.
“I scare myself when I look in the mirror,” al-Kandari said. “Let them kill us as we have nothing to lose.
“We all died when Obama indefinitely detained us,” he said. “Respect us or kill us. It is your choice. The US must take off its mask and kill us.”
Warner said that the detainees have no hope because of the Obama administration.
[See: Obama worse than Bush proven by Guantanamo]
“I think many of them are ready to die,” Warner said. “The question is how and when will they die?
“They have no hope of being released from that place and unless a human being has some hope, it is very difficult to live. And many of them are prepared to die.”
Al-Kanadri has not been cleared for release and is instead, sentenced to indefinite imprisonment, the worst of all sentences, including death, according to psychologists and criminologists who specialize in prison abuse.
“But let’s be clear,” Warner told RT. “Everyone in Guantanamo is indefinitely detained. No one is being released – cleared for release or not.”
Why is the U.S. war crime continuing?
Warner explained “The reason is very simple and it is at the foot of President Obama.”
This week, the Obama’s White House spokesman claimed Obama is trying to close Guantanamo, only a week after the Obama administration allocated $50 million to keep Guantanamo open indefinitely.
Wednesday, White House Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest said President Barack Obama’s team is closely monitoring the hunger strike and remain committed to closing Guantanamo Bay.
Last week, however, the White House had announced beefing up the facility with 50 million more dollars going there for new additions to house “special” detainees indefinitely, detainees that could include Americans kidnapped from their communities, according to Obama’s National Defense Authorization Act.
[See: Obama administration gives $50 million to keep Guantanamo open indefinitely]
Barack Obama demonstrated beyond doubt last week that his rule on torture and indefinite detention is even worse than George Bush, wanted for war crimes..
Warner said:
Now you’re talking to a federal defender. What that means, I come from the far left. I’m a liberal and I believe in President Obama and I’ve voted for him twice. But this is a broken promise, one he has chosen not to abide by. He looks at the republicans in congress and says it is their fault. Well, as of today, there isn’t one person in the administration I can contact to address these problems. There is nobody in the entire Obama administration I call and say, let’s stop the hunger strike. I’m forced to do that at the base with young officers. (Russia Today)
“These are men. They are not animals,” Warner asserted. “These are people that we have grown to know and respect and I do not want to see any of them die. I don’t want to see them die over this or any other protest.
“They should get processed. They are at the end of their rope.
“When people die, if the strike has not ended, then sure there is going to be more attention. But let me tell you, as a human being I do not want to see my clients die and the fact that they are in this condition is one of the most heart-wrenching things I have had to experience as a lawyer,” Warner said.
“It is up to the world. The military is telling them to look away from Guantanamo, everything is fine, nobody is striking, there is only 10-15-20, and now I heard it’s over 30 today.
“The only way this changes is if the world pressures United States, internally as well. We need the citizens of the United States to stand up and demand that the president Obama follow through with his promise. And his promise is to close the Guantanamo.
“He made that broken promise and as you can hear from the mouth of Faiz, it is killing people in Guantanamo now.”
Red Cross races to Guantanamo amid hunger strike crisis
With at least eleven of America’s captives with forced tubes snaked up their noses and into their stomachs and at least thirty-one detainees on hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay due to human rights abuses, the International Red Cross (ICRC) raced to has arrive there this week.
The United States is holding many prisoners in the infamous military torture center in Guantanamo Bay, without charge.
They have given up hope due to Americans failing to to resolve their fate.
“America should take off its mask and just kill us,” a prisoner told Warner, a public defender representing 11 Guantanamo detainees who spoke to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.
Warner said the situation at Guantanamo is “dire.”
Vigil and Fasting for those vomiting blood
Today marks Day 5 of citizens fasting in solidarity with the prisoners at Guantanamo, an initiative started by Witness Against Torture (WAT).
“One of our clients already suffers from other medical conditions that were worsening and now he has started vomiting blood,” WAT said Thursday. “We’re at a loss for words when we write to them.”
Over 100 civilians are participating in the fast this week, according to WAT.
Vigils have been held in Erie, PA, Washington DC, Chicago, NYC, Los Angeles, Northhampton, Toledo, and many other places.
[Click here for photos from Guantanamo Hunger Strike Emergency Response Vigils and to send photos and reports to Witness Against Torture for the organization to share.]
“It really helps to be able to tell them that others, through WAT and other organizations, are bringing awareness to their suffering. So, thank you.”
The ICRC said Wednesday it changed plans to send its team to Guantanamo on April 1 and was going sooner.
“However, in an effort to better understand current tensions and the ongoing hunger strike, we have decided to start this visit one week earlier,” ICRC spokesman Simon Schorno said.
There are 166 captives remaining in Guantanamo, including five on trial for the Sept. 11 attacks, an inside job, according to officials who wrote the official white paper about the mass murder.
Over half the population at Guantanamo have been cleared by the Pentagon for transfer, yet they remain behind bars due to Congress-imposed restrictions or they cannot be returned to their countries of citizenship for fear they will be tortured or killed upon their return.
“It leaves them with the prospect of the only way we leave Guantanamo is death,” Warner told CNN. “And unfortunately, I think the men are ready to embrace this.”
Obama approving the spending of millions more of taxpayers’ money to build a new facility at Guantanamo to indefinitely detain “special” prisoners prompted Joe Scarborough to tell Americans watching him on national TV, “He promised it would be closed a year from when he was sworn in. It’s because it represents everything that’s wrong with the country.
If it’s so immoral, then close it, Scarborough asserted.
Obama, worthy successor of Bush warmonger, torturer
“There are no excuses for it,” said Frank Jannuzi, deputy executive director of Amnesty International USA. “We do believe one way to realize the closure of Guantanamo is by first … reducing the population there,” starting with those who have been cleared for release.
“We live in surreal times,” human rights journalist Andy Worthington wrote Saturday. “President Obama, who promised ‘hope and change,’ has, instead, proven to be a worthy successor to George W. Bush as a warmonger and a defender of those in positions of power and authority who authorized the use of torture.”
If, as social psychologists say, a nation’s prison system reflects the health of that nation, this is the sickest nation in the world:
The U.S. has more prisons, prisoners, prisoners in torturous solitary confinement, kidnappings to place people into prisons, prisoner indefinite detentions and tortured prisoners than any other nation in the world. These numbers of human rights abuses have risen during the brutal Obama regime. (Obama worse than Bush proven by Guantanamo)
A fomer Guantanamo prison official said last week that it is up to the American people to close the facility.
[See: Official: Closing Gitmo is up to American people]
One peaceful detainee protester’s poor health conditions were recently witnessed by an attorney, US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Barry Wingard, who shared his impressions with RT.
“I’ve never seen him thinner in all of my five years of coming to Guantanamo Bay… I mean, he’s forgetful and he’s in a bad physical condition. He’s hard to focus, he complains of headaches, he’s weak. He went from 147 pounds down to 107 pounds,” Wingard said.
WAT is supporting Americans to affect that change Obama promised to be elected.
“This week of fasting and vigils in response to the Hunger Strike at Guantanamo has offered a number of examples of how these two work together, each enhancing the other,” Amy Nee Walker with WAT wrote. “Consider orchestration and participation in a vigil, or demonstration, as an act of resistance.
“Standing outside, holding a sign, I often feel restless, frustrated, futile. Giving my mind to contemplation of the men unable to bring their message to a public space, reflecting on their poignant poetry and letters, on what I know of their lives, I find the energy and focus to sustain my action.
“Only contemplating their lives, however, without actively responding, has a withering effect leading to anger at the injustice and despair at the broken laws and lives.”
