This piece was reprinted by OpEd News with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
Drugging Guantanamo Detainees - by Stephen Lendman
From inception, most Guantanamo detainees were uncharged. On January 5, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) said:
"....the vast majority of the men at Guantanamo should never have been detained in the first place, and that over 550 have been released and are peacefully rebuilding their lives." Most of the 800 captured and brought there were lawlessly "seized in broad sweeps and sold to the US (for) substantial bounties." From the Pentagon's own records, "most (have) no link to terrorism."
For over seven years, CCR "organiz(ed) and coordinat(ed) more than 500 pro bono lawyers across the country" to represent detainees, and helped to resettle about 60 others still at Guantanamo "because they cannot return to their country of origin for fear of persecution and torture."
Obama promised to close Guantanamo, yet nothing followed up to assure it. Moreover, early in 2011, an Executive Order (EO) will authorize indefinite detentions for longstanding uncharged detainees the administration won't release.
Guantanamo and other US torture prisons are blights on democratic values and fundamental international law that prohibits all forms of torture and abuse at all times with no allowed exceptions.
Yet closure for none are planned, including Guantanamo, symbolically representing the worst kind of cruel and unusual punishment. It's prohibited under international and US law, including the Constitution's Supremacy Clause (Article VI, clause 2), designating federal statutes and treaties automatically "the supreme law of the land," including international laws to which America is a signatory. Nonetheless, Washington systematically violates them.
Indefinitely detaining innocent prisoners (wrongfully called too dangerous to release) exacerbates injustice, a CCR statement saying the Obama administration may also try doing it in America. If so:
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).