Guantanamo Bay

I remember how much Republicans like Duncan Hunter loved to go out there and "brag" (for lack of a better term) about how we let the Red Cross visit the detainees at Gitmo. Well that turns out to be another lie told to the world by this administration.

That's what prosecutors are seeking for Guantanamo Bay detainees charged with connections to 9/11.

Sounds kind of convenient:

The US military has lost a year's worth of records describing the Guantanamo confinement of Osama bin Laden's driver, a prosecutor said at the Yemeni captive's war court hearing.

Lawyers for the driver, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, asked for the records to support their argument that prolonged isolation and harassment at the Guantanamo prison have mentally impaired him and could affect his ability to aid in his defence against war crimes charges.

"All known records have been produced with the exception of the 2002 Gitmo (A nickname for Guantanamo Bay) records," one of the prosecutors, Navy Lieutenant Commodore Timothy Stone, told the court. "They can't find it."

I would check in the same location as the waterboarding video tapes. It's a damn good chance you will find them there.

What is camp 7? The AP has uncovered that:

Somewhere amid the cactus-studded hills on this sprawling Navy base,
separate from the cells where hundreds of men suspected of links to
al-Qaida and the Taliban have been locked up for years, is a place even
more closely guarded — a jailhouse so protected that its very location
is top secret.

For the first time, the top commander of detention operations at
Guantanamo has confirmed the existence of the mysterious Camp 7. In an
interview with The Associated Press, Rear Adm. Mark Buzby also provided
a few details about the maximum-security lockup.

Guantanamo commanders said Camp 7 is for key alleged al-Qaida
members, who must be kept apart from other prisoners to prevent them
from retaliating against long-term detainees who have talked to
interrogators. They also want the location kept secret for fear of
terrorist attack.

Yes so we have Gitmo, and then we have the super-secret Gitmo. I bet the people in Camp 7 dream of days of only facing water boarding.

This is absolutely absurd:

The U.S. Supreme Court turned down a lawyer's request Tuesday for immediate access to the medical files of a Guantanamo prisoner who says he has AIDS.

Chicago attorney H. Candace Gorman said she needs access to her client's records as she wages a legal fight to make sure he gets adequate medical treatment at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo, Cuba.

The court rejected the request without comment. Gorman had said earlier this month that her client, Libyan prisoner Abdul Hamid Abdul Salam Al-Ghizzawi, told her in a letter that a Guantanamo doctor had diagnosed him with AIDS.

It sounds like Bush's SCOTUS is working for him. It's time for Congress to step up with some new laws and push another challenge.

It seems like a lot of top people say this, but will it ever happen?

The chief of the U.S. military said Sunday he favors closing the prison here as soon as possible because he believes negative publicity worldwide about treatment of terrorist suspects has been "pretty damaging" to the image of the United States.

"I'd like to see it shut down," Adm. Mike Mullen said in an interview with three reporters who toured the detention center with him on his first visit since becoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff last October.