Posted on 06/10/2008 4:50:22 AM PDT by Abathar
BERLIN (Reuters) - Over two-thirds of the detainees in the Guantanamo Bay prison are suffering from or at risk of mental problems because they are kept isolated in small cells with little light or fresh air, according to Human Rights Watch.
In a report entitled "Locked Up Alone: Detention Conditions and Mental Health at Guantanamo," the group says 185 of the 270 detainees at the U.S. military prison for terrorism suspects are housed in facilities similar to "supermax" prisons.
They spend 22 hours alone in cramped cells, have very limited contact with other human beings and are given little more than the Koran to occupy themselves, said the report, which is based interviews with government officials and attorneys.
Detainees held in this manner include many that have not been charged with crimes and have already been cleared for release or transfer, according to the report.
"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.
More than six years after the United States began sending terrorism suspects to the naval base in Cuba, not a single case has gone to trial.
Nineteen cases are now pending, including some that have been delayed repeatedly amid challenges to the legality of Guantanamo war crimes court set up by the administration of President George W. Bush.
Both U.S. presidential candidates, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, have pledged to close the prison, which has been denounced by human rights groups and foreign governments for years.
The Bush administration denies that Guantanamo prisoners are treated inhumanely and the president has said he would like to close the detention centre.
The Human Rights Watch report says that even the two hours of recreation time afforded the prisoners in Guantanamo generally takes place in single-cell cages so that detainees cannot physically interact with one another.
Unlike prisoners in most high security prisons in the United States, none of the Guantanamo detainees have been allowed visits by family members and very few have been able to make phone calls home, the report says.
Several are reportedly suffering depression and anxiety disorder, and some have reported having visions and hearing voices, Human Rights Watch said.
"Detainees held in this manner include many that have not been charged with crimes and have already been cleared for release or transfer, according to the report."
Doesn't make them innocent, just means that their home country will have nothing to do with them. I swear they are actually cheering for the other side sometimes.
And the 911 victims suffered immolation.
Liberalism is a mental disease. Those suffering from it are unqualified to diagnose mental disease in others.
I think we should saw off a few of their heads. That would make them feel right at home.
Wait just a minute here... I think there's ample evidence that these people suffered mental damage long before they ever visited Guantanamo Bay.
And what are their victims suffering from? I would restrict them to a all pork diet followed by the blasting of the Lord’s Prayer at about 500 watts repeatedly. Followed up by a one hour break of having to listen to Pat Roberts while duct taped to a chair.
I’d say the number one mental problem Club Gitmo vacationers suffer is Islam.
They're all messed up on islam.
More likely do to that satanic cult they belong to than the way they were treated by the US.
Like I would believe the reports of people who so vehemently hated the US anyways?
Liars.
I don’t care what happens to them. Those terrorists are not out killing American soldiers and Marines, isn’t that the point?
Simply put them out of their collective misery. This will also get them out of the daily news cycle.
Problem solved.
Next?
geez, at least give them some TV so they can see what they are missing
It seems that's what they were experiencing before their lockup
Not just some times..... I can't temember when they have put in print anything for our side....
Hey if Gitmo was fun... everyone would want to be a terrorist.
They are not killing American civilians, yet....
Even when Bush gets a good idea, he screws it up.
WHY ON EARTH are any of the Gitmo scum still alive?
The German terrorists who landed in 1942 were arrested, interrogated, tried, had their appeal heard by the Supreme Court, and were executed in eight weeks.
There's no reason for keeping anyone at Gitmo alive. None whatsoever.
I LIKE the idea of Gitmo detainees suffering “mental damage.” I like the idea of them suffering high-energy lead poisoning EVEN BETTER!
I hope...the many who died on 9/11 and have died since then putting these bastards in place where they can have their ugly vergins...don’t even have that chance anymore...although I suspect more than one one them had a life time of horrors just before they died in that horriable World Trade Center towers scene from hell!!!!!!
I think more than a few of the people here in the states would like to have a little attitudinal adjustment with these scum-of-the-earth miscreants.
Gitmo detainees suffering mental derangement from reading the Koran.
Islam causes mental damage. Guantanamo is the consequence.
It sounds like the biggest complaint they have is that the prisoners can not communicate with each other. I wonder if they just want the prisoners to be able to co-ordinate action against the guards.
Saw a few heads off? Yes, it would let some fresh air in, too.
That's a good start...got to work a little harder to get the percentagte higher !! SCREW'EM !!!
Guess the fact that Castro has prisoners of conscience whose only crime was wanting to live free locked up in far worse conditions a few miles away doesn’t get the world as excited.
What is the difference between their conditions and how regular US prisoners are held? Last I heard, US prison cells were “cramped,” and prisoners spent 22 hours in their cells.
Also - why are they given Korans to read? Isn’t that just enouraging them?
I believe those incidents would qualify as “pre-existing conditions”.
And the 911 victims suffered immolation.
Also, many of the survivors among these terrorists’ victims are suffering from mental damage.
If they were Muslim they were already mentally damaged long before they made it to Gitmo.
That's the major part of the reason that got them there in the first place.
I think anyone who thinks it's ok to turn children into walking bombs is either 'mentally damaged' or a liberal.
If McCain gets elected the Gitmo terrorists will be housed at the Hilton. Of course we have no choice because if Osamabama get elected he will release his brothers of Islam.
Many of the enemy combatants, however, fail to comply with established rules. Offenses often include head-butting, kicking, biting and splashing young soldiers and sailors with feces and urine "cocktails." These detainees are housed in Camps 5 and 6 – modern, climate-controlled facilities modeled after existing U.S. prison facilities in the Midwest. They get a minimum of two, soon to be three, hours of outdoor recreation per day adjacent to three to five other detainees. And they are held in a block of single-occupancy cells where they communicate with other detainees, guards, medical staff, library assistants and mail delivery personnel.
The people quoted in this article are lying scum. Story here.
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