By Samantha Goldman

Guantanamo has returned to the news as U.S. officials shared anonymously that there is internal conflict on where on U.S. soil to place the 116 men who have been caged for more than a decade, most with no charges or trial. Jill McLaughlin, World Can't Wait Steering Committee member, covered new developments in Justice Detained, Justice Denied: Indefinite Detention and Torture Continue as Law of the Land.

American Psychological Association Sanctions Torture, Except If It's "Constitutional"?

Jill writes:

After years of struggle to expose and stop what the American Psychological Association did to support U.S. torture and detention policies, we celebrate a recent victory for people of conscience who have long spoken out and forced revelations of 14 years of sordid, and criminally complicit, history.  Last week, the APA voted to ban psychologists from participating in the interrogation and torturing of detainees at Guantanamo, on vessels in international waters, and in black sites. There is still contention however, as William Boardman has exposed that it, "would be really good news if there weren’t a huge exception: the psychologists also voted that it would be all right for them to take part in “constitutional” interrogations by federal, state, and local law enforcement in the US. Given the ragged history of US law enforcement, this is a loophole that could at any moment become another noose...

Graphic from Amnesty International

Tariq Ba Odah: "True justice for those that have been detained and tortured by the U.S. remains... detained."

Tariq Ba Odah's life hangs in the balance. He has been in Guantanamo Bay prison for 13 years; for the past eight he has been on a hunger strike. Never charged with a crime and cleared for release since 2009; Ba-Odah went on the hunger strike as an act of protest his cruel treatment and indefinite detention.

At 36 years old, he now weighs less than 75 lbs. Jill explains, "His lawyer has repeatedly pleaded for his release due to his decline in health. From what we know, State Department officials are in favor of an immediate release but the Defense Department doesn't want to set a precedent and allow hunger strikers to get released, even when they are already cleared for release." On Friday the Justice Department submitted a sealed document opposing Ba-Odah's petition for habeas corpus, while a federal judge complained, again, that the government "has fought at every single step" the release of video of forced feedings at Guantanamo.

"Forever" prisoners may be entombed in U.S. after possible "closure" of Guantanamo

Jill notes, "The Obama administration may close Guantanamo, but not release those prisoners who have never been charged, and instead move them to federal prisons in the U.S. where they could languish for many more years and die in the custody of the U.S. government. Others in Washington want the prison to remain open, keeping it as an international symbol of U.S., and an implicit threat to any person or nation who thinks the U.S. won't put someone away for ever. These are the terms of the actual debate between people running this country. Not once have these debates been about delivering true justice to those unjustly detained there. If these men are not released Guantanamo becomes their tomb whether in Cuba or on U.S. soil."

And while it is not yet determined whether inmates will be transferred it is essential to understand that this would not be a positive development. Fusing indefinite detention and the most grotesque features of the Guantanamo policies into the U.S. justice system would be horrific for the people of the world. Guantanamo Bay prison has been a key weapon in this empire's arsenal, because continuing to imprison 116 men — mainly without charges, and many for over a decade — it sends the message to the world that the U.S. can do whatever they want to whomever they want, forever.

As Jill says, "We should do all we can to stir the collective conscience to not accept this denial of justice one minute more." Read more...