MORE FROM HUFFPOST
MORE FROM HUFFPOST
indefinite detention
There had never been any test of guilt or innocence, just six years of reported interrogations and torture.
Even when an inter-agency team of U.S. government national security experts determines that a detainee does not pose a threat to U.S. national security interests, some detainees continue to be held simply because of their nationality, not dangerousness.
The National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, is the book of books when it comes to defense spending. And the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) is the first body in Congress to craft the annual defense bill into what will become passable legislation.
Guantanamo is not only a symbol of the U.S. failure to fully change course, it is also an ongoing human rights tragedy where the United States continues to imprison 104 men indefinitely, most without charge or trial. What can U.S. condemnation of other nations' human rights abuses mean in the face of 14 years indefinite detention in an offshore prison of men not convicted of any crime?
WHAT'S HAPPENING
WHAT'S HAPPENING
Acknowledgment accompanied by justice and accountability helps restore that sense of control. But for national security detainees held by the U.S. government and its proxies, justice and accountability are being systematically denied as a matter of law.
While Americans were celebrating the Fourth of July holiday with fireworks and beach vacations, some prominent Brits were noting a certain irony.
While Obama has slowly stepped up transferring detainees already cleared by a multi-agency process for release from Guantanamo to other countries, his administration has dragged its feet on reviewing the 51 detainees who aren't yet cleared, out of the remaining 122.
When President Barack Obama, with Vice President Joseph Biden at the side of the stage, announced the resignation of Chuck Hagel as Defense Secretary on November 24, it came as a surprise to many people in the Washington, DC area.
These are not family facilities. They are not shelters or temporary transit facilities. These are jails behind barbed wire, heavy security doors, metal detectors and other hallmarks of prison. Women and children locked up inside have been languishing for months. They could be there indefinitely.
