The nation's shame: Guantanamo Bay prison violates American ideals

Even before three prisoners at Guantanamo Bay committed suicide over the weekend, the prison had been a source of shame to an America that prides itself on its recognition of universal human rights.

Over 450 people are now being held at "Gitmo" on suspicion of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban. Some of them have been in custody for 4½ years. Fewer than a dozen of them have been formally charged with any crime.

Yet there on the tip of the island of Cuba they languish. A couple of days ago, three of the prisoners—two Saudi Arabian nationals and one from Yemen—managed to hang themselves with nooses made of bed sheets. Such is the air of despair and hopelessness that hangs over the prison.

Following the suicides, the international community stepped up pressure on U.S. officials to close the Guantanamo Bay jail. Denmark's Prime Minister Fogh Rasmussen, a supporter of President Bush in the Iraq War, said the prison violates "the very principle of the rule of law," a sentiment shared by many other foreign leaders. We can't imagine U.S. officials keeping silent were Gitmo under the jurisdiction of another country. How often in recent years has the United States condemned human rights abuses elsewhere? How is it, then, that the Bush administration has been so blind to its own suspension of common decency in the handling of "suspected" terrorists?

If, as the military said in defending the prison, that the detainees pose a danger to the United States and its allies, then they should be formally charged with a crime or crimes, stand trial, be judged guilty or innocent on the basis of the evidence presented and then be sentenced or released. That's the way we define justice in this country. Even Bush said he would like Guantanamo Bay prison to be emptied. But he's done precious little to move the process along.

The president said his administration is now waiting for the Supreme Court to rule on whether he overstepped his authority in ordering the detainees to be tried by a U.S. military tribunal. More delay. It's no wonder that a feeling of hopelessness grows among the prisoners, not to mention a show of defiance. One such demonstration, a hunger strike, was met by restraining prisoners and force-feeding them.

So the military seems intent on keeping the prisoners alive but not much more. The administration is oblivious to their suffering. The president has repeatedly said, "We do not torture." So what does he call holding prisoners for years without charge? Is that not a form of mental torture?

We agree with Sen. Arlen Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who said the detainees' cases must be adjudicated more quickly. An effort should be made to empty Guantanamo prison within months, if not weeks.

None of us will soon forget the stigma left by the U.S. abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Abuse of an equally serious nature, officially condoned, no less, is taking place at Guantanamo Bay.

This is not the way for America to gain and maintain support for the war on terror.