by James Glaser
May 7, 2003

It is called Camp X-Ray and it is located on the Marine Corp base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. This is the American torture facility for people we think are terrorists. The people we send there never see a court, never see a lawyer and many of them have no idea of where they are.

The people we have jailed in this prison are in concrete and chain metal cages. They have been told if in the future we decide to put them on trial and they are found not guilty, we are still not going to let them go. This is an American torture camp, plain and simple.

Human Rights Activists the world over hold this prison up for the world to see what America considers as Justice. Our own government has reported 24 suicide attempts by some of the 660 prisoners. That is how many they have told us about.

Now we find out we are holding three terrorists ages 13 to 15 years old. Spokesman for the prison have said that the boys, "are in a secure environment free from the influences of older detainees." We are now so afraid of terrorism that we are torturing children. Almost all of the prisoners are from Afghanistan and on the other end of the scale some are in there 70s. Last year we released a couple of old men that were over 70 years old, who had no idea of where they had been nor why the had been taken.

We decided that even though we call it a war on terrorism, the people we capture are not soldiers, so we can treat them any way we want. We expect other nations to follow the rules of the Geneva Convention, while we make up our own. Many of the prisoners families have no idea if they are alive or dead. The men we put there have no legal representation and these young kid's parents have no idea where they are. We torture not only these men and children, but their families too.

When we transport prisoners to Cuba from Afghanistan we chain them to a sitting position, hands behind their back, blindfolded, and set them on the floor of a cargo plane for a fifteen hour flight. Most have never been in a plane nor do they have any idea of where they are going.

Even the most callus of tortures must know that young children that are being used as soldiers are being exploited by those in charge. The horrors that these young prisoners have gone through by being in a war, should tells us that they are victims too and that they are prime examples of the very people we went to Afghanistan to help.

It looks like America is so afraid of everyone now that even children must be tortured and held in limbo for who knows how long. There are international rules regarding Children and there are only two countries in the United Nations that have not signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child. That is the United States of America and Somalia.

Our Nation has sunk to a new all time low. We speak of Justice, while at the same time we are torturing hundreds of people every day. Think about being one of these prisoners. No contact with your parents, wife or your children. Think of those parents, wives, and children. They have no idea of what happened to their son, husband, or father. Out treatment of these men and their famlies is sick.

And we call ourselves Christians.