Pentagon Review Finds Treatment of Guantanamo Bay Detainees Meets Geneva Conventions
A Pentagon report of the conditions at Guantanamo Bay, commissioned by President Obama, found that the treatment the detainees received at the dentention center was in compliance with the Geneva Convention, according to the Washington Post. However, the report stated that many prisoners in the higher security levels should be allowed more time for “religious and social interaction.”
Many civil rights organizations have publicly challenged the findings. Pardiss Kebriaei, a staff lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights, stated “We do think conditions are in violation of U.S. obligations to treat prisoners humanely, and prisoners are at a physical and mental breaking point…These are not the conclusions we had hoped for under Obama. It’s very disappointing.” The center will release their own report shortly.
Many of the critics of the report cite force-feeding of detainees on hunger strikes as particularly abusive. According to the article: “Ahmed Zaid Salem Zuhair, a Saudi who has been on a hunger strike since the summer of 2005, has lost so much weight during his time at Guantanamo Bay that a federal judge has ordered an independent medical evaluation of him. Zuhair’s attorney, Ramzi Kassem, said his client has been strapped to an uncomfortable chair for hours at a time during feedings and described the procedure as very painful.”
Read the entire Washington Post article here.
