Wednesday 11 January 2012 marked ten years since the first 20 prisoners arrived at the US prison camp in the Guantanamo Bay naval base. In these ten years the US has held 779 people in the detention camp, using the occupied Cuban land to detain innocent people without trial and subject them to a regime of systematic torture. According to US government figures, 92% of those detained have turned out not to be 'al-Qaeda fighters'. Instead Guantanamo Bay has demonstrated to Cuba and the world, the barbaric depths to which US imperialism will sink in defence of its international profits.
The US occupation of Guantanamo Bay began in June 1898, when the invading US army set up a camp in the area as it fought the Spanish-American war. The area provides the best deep-water harbour on the south side of the island, defended by the island's geography. The bay is a strategic location at the heart of the Caribbean, ensuring control of the nearby Panama Canal. In 1903, after the defeat of Spain and the 'liberation' of Cuba, the new 'independent' government headed by US citizen Tomas Estrada Palma, signed an agreement to lease 45 square miles of the bay to the US for 2000 gold coins a year. The naval base has been used to enforce the aims of US imperialism in the region ever since. Since the triumph of the Cuban revolution in 1959 Cuba has refused to accept the US 'rent'. These cheques have been stored, un-cashed, whilst Cuba calls for a complete and immediate withdrawal, and the return of the land to the Cuban people.
Following George Bush's 2001 declaration of the 'war on terror', Guantanamo bay provided the perfect location for the US to establish its prison camp. As Cuba is classified as 'outside US legal jurisdiction', the US has not only been able to torture prisoners and ignore international law, they could also send a message to the governments of region which were increasingly refusing to accept the dominance of US imperialism. During Guantanamo Bay’s decade as a prison, eight prisoners have died, six attributed to suicide – with hundreds more suicide attempts. The evidence of the use of torture is damning; prisoners have testified to the use of water-boarding, sleep deprivation, stress positions, as well as sexual and religious abuse.
One detainee, Juma al Dossary, was released in 2007 without charge. He was interrogated hundreds of times during his five years in Guantanamo Bay. Three and half of those years he was kept in solitary confinement, and reports that he was regularly urinated on, made to walk on barbed wire, beaten so badly he had to spend three days in intensive care, and sexually assaulted. Many of those leaving the prison have similar stories. Today, 171 prisoners are still left in Guantanamo Bay, 167 are held without trial. 12 remain from the initial intake of the camp ten years ago. 89 of these prisoners are still held after being cleared for release.
Detainees have been primarily from Afghanistan and Iraq and have ranged from 13 to 89 years old. 86% of prisoners have been turned over to the US army after the payment of a bounty in response to the US army's distribution of posters and leaflets offering millions of dollars for the capture of ‘terrorists’. A former commander of the camp, Brigadier General Jay Hood explained to the Wall Street Journal, 'Sometimes, we just didn't get the right folks'. Alongside this, Amnesty International has presented evidence that the UK, Germany, Italy, and Sweden, among other countries, co-operated in rendition flights to Guantanamo Bay.
On January 22 2009 Barack Obama, in a celebrated election promise, declared that he would close down Guantanamo Bay Detention Centre. The deadline he set himself passed two years ago. On 7 January 2011, he signed the Defence Authorisation Bill, which prevented the closure of the camp and the transfer of prisoners to other prisons. Furthermore, on 31 December 2011, he signed the National Defence Authorisation Act 2012, enshrining in US law the possibility to indefinitely detain prisoners in military custody without trial. Rather than taking steps to close the prison, Obama's government has continued to protect it, and ensure its survival into the future.
The 9,500 troops and marines stationed in Guantanamo are in a key position for US imperialism. The naval base and its prison camp, described by the US military as on the 'front lines for regional security in the Caribbean area', is not something Obama or his successors will give up easily. The juxtaposition of the inhuman extrajudicial interrogation camp to the achievements of Socialist Cuba presents a crystal clear example of the choice currently facing mankind: Imperialist barbarism, with its wars, prisons and repression, or Socialism. As the Cuban revolution continues to meet the needs of its people and spreading dignity, health and education internationally; it is clear which side of Guantanamo's fence represents the best hope for the progress and protection of humanity.
Shut down the Guantanamo concentration camps!
End the US occupation of Cuba!
Viva Cuba! Viva Socialism!
Toby Harbertson for Rock Around the Blockade