Center for International Policy

Wayne Smith Comments on the Guantanamo Naval Base
January 27, 2005

We have all read the reports of the International Red Cross and of FBI agents who had been to the Guantanamo Naval Base of the abuse of prisoners held there. None sounded quite so horrific as the pictures coming out of Abu Ghraib, but were deeply disturbing nonetheless. On January 19, the Cuban Government presented formal protest notes to U.S. officials in Havana and Washington over the "atrocities committed on prisoners held at the USNaval Base in Guantanamo" The notes went on to point out that such activities were in blatant violation of the base agreement signed in 1903 by the two governments which stipulated that the base would be used by the USonly for coaling and naval activities and for no other purpose. US officials have expressed outrage over the Cuban protest notes, indicating that they won't be lectured to by the "biggest and most closed human rights violator in the hemisphere."

I'm sure we are all distressed over this situation, but not so much at the Cubans as at our own officials for putting our country in this position, for so dragging our standards through the slime. US officials may strike offended, holier-than-thou poses if they wish, but no one looking at the pictures coming out of Abu Ghraib and the reports coming out of other US military prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Guantanamo is likely to be convinced by those poses, especially as Alberto Gonzales, the man whose memos helped open the road to such tortures, is now moving toward confirmation as Attorney General.

This is a shameful chapter in our history. Just to give you a head's up, CIP is planning to do a conference soon on the status of the prisoners at Guantanamo and its implications for the legalities of our continued presence there.