A Decade Of Shame Lives On

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the opening of Gitmo (the infamous U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay)

Gitmo received its first 20 detainees on January 11, 2002, as part of the initial stages of Bush Jr's global 'War on Terror.' Over the next ten years, 779 prisoners would be transfered to Guantanamo, labeled as "illegal enemy combatants," a definition permitted the U.S. to hold them indefinitely without charges and subject them to illegal torture. Only one of the remaining 171 detainees at Guantanamo faces formal charges.

President Obama had promised to close the facility after taking office -- calling it a "betrayal of American values." Yet almost four years later, the Obama administration has failed to deliver on that promise. "Human rights groups and lawyers for prisoners are dismayed that Obama [not only] failed to close the prison, but [that he] has resumed military tribunals at the base and continues to hold men like [Suleiman] al-Nahdi who have been cleared for release," the Associated Press writes. "Critics are also angry over the president's Dec. 31 signing of the National Defense Authorization Act, which includes a provision allowing indefinite military detention without trial."

Today, 171 men remain detained at Guantanamo Bay. 36 are set to face trial on war crimes charges; 46 are considered too dangerous to be released but cannot be prosecuted because the evidence against them was obtained by illegal torture; 57 men from Yemen are held because the U.S. does not want them to return to their unstable country; and congressional limitations (written into Defense appropriation bills) are preventing the release of 32 others.