“Locked Up Alone” – Human Rights Watch Report on Guantánamo

Locked Up Alone: Detention Conditions and Mental Health at Guantanamo

http://hrw.org/reports/2008/us0608/

The 54-page report, “Locked Up Alone: Detention Conditions and Mental Health at Guantanamo,” documents the conditions in the various “camps” at the detention center, in which approximately 185 of the 270 detainees are housed in facilities akin to “supermax” prisons even though they have not yet been convicted of a crime. These detainees have extremely limited contact with other human beings, spend 22 hours a day alone in small cells with little or no natural light or fresh air, are not provided any educational opportunities, and are given little more than a single book and the Koran to occupy their time. Even their two hours of “recreation” time – which is sometimes provided in the middle of the night – generally takes place in single-cell cages so that detainees cannot physically interact with one another.

from the blog of attorney Candace Gordon

“Guantanamo detainees who have not even been charged with a crime are being warehoused in conditions that are in many ways harsher than those reserved for the most dangerous, convicted criminals in the United States,” said Jennifer Daskal, senior counterterrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch. “Security measures don’t justify locking people in windowless cells 22 hours a day, for months and years on end, with almost no opportunity for human interaction, physical exercise or mental stimulation.”

UPDATE ON URGENT action from Mr. al-Ghizzawi’s attorney

NEW URGENT ACTIONS!! from Attorney Candace Gorman:
1. Sign the online petition…..

Mr. al-Ghizzawi’s attorney thanks everyone who wrote letters and signed the online petition. She requests  no more petitioning Judge John Bates on her client’s behalf, as he has ruled (unfavorably) on his case.

http://gtmodocuments.blogspot.com/2008/04/his-own-fault.html

al-Ghizzawi blamed for his poor medical condition after 5yr+ detention

“Judge Bates entered the order yesterday… I know I shouldn’t be surprised that the judge continues to believe everything the government says and refuses to allow us to even see the medical records… but I am. In fact one would think that even if the judge was not going to allow Al-GHizzawi his records… that he would ask to see them himself to clarify the misstatments of the government… sigh…The judge actually goes so far as to blame Al-Ghizzawi for his health problems and trivializes his condition….”

from the blog of attorney H. Candace Gordon
http://gtmoblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/no-medical-care-for-al-ghizzawi.html

See also: A Sickening Truth at Guantánamo

A sickening truth at Guantánamo

A gravely ill detainee I represent, never charged with a crime, has been neglected by military doctors. Will he be the next to die inside the notorious prison?

By H. Candace Gorman

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/03/14/sick_in_guantanamo/

What kind of house of horrors are they running at Guantánamo, anyway?

Mr. Al-Ghizzawi, one of the Guantanamo detainees who is very ill and whose condition we’ve been following, has told his attorney, Candace Gorman, that the Guantanamo doctor informed him he has AIDS, contracted only after arriving at Guantanamo. Here’s the story from Andy Worthington, author of The Guantanamo Files:

Horror at Guantánamo: Libyan detainee infected with AIDS

It really doesn’t get any worse than this.

Candace Gorman, lawyer for Abdul Hamid al-Ghizzawi, a Libyan detainee at Guantánamo, reports that her client has been infected with AIDS. Mr. al-Ghizzawi explained to his lawyer in a letter that he was told about his infection by a doctor at Guantánamo, adding that he believes that the infection took place in 2004, when he was given a blood test, which “resulted in alarm amongst the hospital staff,” although he was not given any explanation for the alarm at the time….
Read the rest at:
http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/?p=215

Now’s the time for those letters! Candace Gorman says to contact all of the following:

Condoleezza Rice
U.S. Department of State 2201 C Street NW Washington, DC 20520
+202-647-4000 (main switchboard)

John. B. Bellinger III
Legal Advisor
Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Rm. 6423
Washington D.C. 20520
VIA FACSIMILE +202-647-7096

DON’ FORGET
Rear Adm. Mark H. Buzby, Commander Joint Task Force Guantánamo
Department of Defense , Joint Task Force Guantánamo, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, APO AE 09360
Fax: +1 305 437 1241
Salutation: Dear Rear Admiral

THEN THERE IS ALSO:
J. Alan Liotta, Principal Director, Office of Detainee Affairs
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense, 2900 Defense Pentagon, Washington DC 20301-2900, USA
Email via: http://www.defenselink.mil/faq/comment.html
Salutation: Dear Director

PLEASE SEND COPIES TO:
Member of US Congress
Rep. Jan Schakowsky, 1027 Longworth House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515, USA
Fax: + 1 202 226 6890

REPRESENTATIVE SCHAKOWSKY (Candace’s REPRESENTATIVE) HAS BEEN WONDERFUL AND IT IS GOOD TO LET HER KNOW THAT WE APPRECIATE HER HELP…..