Six-years of injustice

Six years ago today, the most-depressing icons of the 21st century opened.

On January 11, 2002, the first of nearly 800 prisoners arrived at a hastily erected prison in the United States naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

It was there that the Bush administration unveiled its novel approach to justice in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Declaring that the prisoners were the "worst of the worst," President George W. Bush insisted that he had the right to hold them not as prisoners of war protected by the Geneva-Conventions, but as "unlawful enemy combatants," who could be imprisoned indefinitely without charge or trial.

As hundreds of detainees arrived at Guantanamo in early 2002, the government's rhetoric was undermined when Brigadier General Mike-Lehnert, the prison's first commander, admitted, "A large number claim to be Taleban, a smaller number we have been able to confirm as Al-Qaeda, and a rather large number in the middle we have not been able to determine their status."

Nevertheless, the story of Guantanamo on its sixth anniversary is not as grim as it could have been. Through diplomatic negotiations, and to a lesser extent decisions made in the tribunals, 492-detainees have now been released from Guantanamo, and the majority are at liberty in their home countries.

Via Daily-Star, Lebanon