Is anyone else as deeply disturbed as I am about what is going on at Guantanamo bay? My main worry is the clear denial of basic human rights by the US. The US is denying the prisoners at Guantanamo POW status, and instead is detaining them indefinitely without charge or trial. WTF is that? Sorry, but it really pisses me off.

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The prisoners, who have not been charged with any offence, have been held in Guantanamo Bay in solitary confinement for over 18 months. They have been denied all legal rights, including any direct contact with their families or access to their own lawyers, and are subjected to constant interrogations by the US military. Their detention is in defiance of the Geneva Convention, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the US Constitution. It has been denounced by Amnesty International and a broad range of human rights and international legal bodies.

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“[B]ecause they have been deemed outside the jurisdiction of an American court,” it continues, the prisoners’ circumstances “may not only continue indefinitely, they may deteriorate: the United States may beat prisoners, as it has apparently done in other facilities, or it may transfer them to other countries where beatings are commonplace. Or it may simply forget them, in the vain hope that the world will as well.”

On a more local note, two Australian citizens, David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib are being held at Guantanamo Bay. Their families have taken the US government to court over their illegal imprisonment. Two British Citizens are also being held. Tony Blair and John Howard held meetings with Washington, under increasing pressure and criticism from the public. The result: they have received assurances that those prisoners won't be executed if found guilty and they can serve out their sentences in their home countries if they go to trial, which is unlikely at this stage.

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The US military was prepared to put some of the prisoners before military courts, he continued, if President Bush gave the orders. “We have the apparatus arranged, ready, and we have a very fine group of advisers as to how to do it in the event it has to be done,” he said. “But for the moment, we don’t have any candidates.” Rumsfeld’s “apparatus” is the military-style “kangaroo courts” being organised by the Bush administration to try selected prisoners. All military tribunal proceedings and their personnel will be controlled entirely by the US government. This includes the judges, prosecutors and defence lawyers, who are all military officers. The guilt or innocence of those dragged before these courts will be determined on the basis of a two-thirds majority by a panel of three to seven judges. Any statement extracted from the detainees under interrogation and without the presence of their lawyers is admissible as evidence, with no right of appeal to any higher court. Even if prisoners are found innocent of charges, the US can still continue to hold them indefinitely in Guantanamo Bay. These tribunals are such a legal travesty that America’s National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys has said that it would be “unethical” for any defence lawyer to have anything to do with them

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