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Dear John,
Today marks the 20th anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo Bay, the military detention center set up in Cuba as a part of America’s “War on Terror” strategy. Over the past two decades, the infamous prison has become an epitome of gross human rights violations, including secret detention and torture, and obstruction of justice. It is a shame that all of us Americans have been forced to bear.
Fifteen years ago, I visited Guantanamo Bay with a delegation of journalists, activists, and government officials to assess living conditions of the inmates. Upon arrival, I was explicitly instructed not to speak to any of the prisoners, some of whom had been held without charges for years. They paced back and forth like nervous animals in a zoo, some with faces pressed to the glass, their eyes looking far away. The military insisted that they were being fed well and provided religious material, a Quran, and a prayer rug, but they had been deprived of their humanity. Like the infamous Manzanar Japanese internment camp before it, Guantanamo should not only be closed, but it needs to serve as a reminder of a time to which we should never return.
It is due time that President Biden fulfills his pledge to close down the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility, and end this chapter in the story of our nation. We owe it to our future generations, and the world, to do so.
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