Gitmo: A fetid and cancerous symbol

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http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-margulies2jun02,1,7693434.story?track=rss&ctrack=1&cset=true

Gitmo: A fetid and cancerous symbol
The offshore prison breeds terror; it must be closed now.

By Joseph Margulies, JOSEPH MARGULIES, a law professor at Northwestern
University School of Law, is the author of "Guantanamo and the Abuse of Presidential Power" and served as lead counsel in Rasul vs. Bush before the U.
June 2, 2007


OCCASIONALLY, apparently unrelated episodes will align to reveal an important truth. So it is with three events reported in the last few weeks. The first happened sometime Wednesday, when another prisoner killed himself at Guantanamo Bay — the fourth suicide since the base opened. As is its wont, the military was tight-lipped, refusing to describe how the prisoner, who was Saudi Arabian, finally escaped from Cuba.

But we know how these things have happened in the past. Last year, three prisoners at the base hanged themselves with strips of knotted cloth ripped from clothing and bed sheets. Each had a ball of cloth stuffed in his mouth, apparently to muffle any reflexive choking sounds as he died.

They left suicide notes that have never been made public. One of the three prisoners, Yassar Talal al Zahrani, from Saudi Arabia, was 21 at the time of his death but 17 when he arrived at the base. Another, Mani Shaman Turki al Habardi al Utaybi, also from Saudi Arabia, had been designated for release. The Pentagon has refused to say whether he knew of his pending transfer when he killed himself.

After the first raft of suicides, the Pentagon vowed there would be no more and instituted a crackdown, which summons to mind the sardonic warning "the floggings will continue until morale improves." Security was tightened dramatically. Today, most prisoners — even those cleared for release — are held in a new, super-maximum security prison. They pass endless hours locked in concrete cages, removed from the sight, sound and touch of other human beings.
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[G_j]

1. KICK, close it down now!

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2. -

[libodem]

3. .

kick