Skip to main content

At Gitmo: 100 days.... and counting

Last Friday saw the 100th day pass on which there has been a hunger-strike underway at Gitmo.

The day has been marked by those concerned enough to care - as we all ought to be!





Activists protest against the indefinite detention of detainees outside of the Supreme Court

"Hacker vigilante group Anonymous is marking the day with a "twitterstorm," implementing social media to bring greater awareness to the human rights violations going on at Guantanamo, particularly the indefinite detention of prisoners, many of whom have for years been cleared for release.

Under the hashtag #GTMO17, the group is asking participants to tweet out facts or quotes in order to convey the reality of the detainees' imprisonment. Some examples include:


"...shackled by his wrists and around his waist —while food is “dumped into this throat” for up to two hours at a time." #GTMO17

Amnesty International added this week that the situation at the notorious camp is “at a crisis point,” #GTMO17


“They won’t let us live in peace and now they won’t let us die in peace,” said detainee al-Kandari. #GTMO17


"they go & invade people's cells and beat them up. Maybe they think by doing so is like to break you down/make you stop the strike" #GTMO17


"They had a photograph of a Chechen rebel, and they thought that was me. That was secret evidence for five years." #GTMO17
"

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Reading the Chilcot Inquiry Report more closely

Most commentary on the Chilcot Inquiry Report of and associated with the Iraq War, has been "lifted" from the Executive Summary.   The Intercept has actually gone and dug into the Report, with these revelations : "THE CHILCOT REPORT, the U.K.’s official inquiry into its participation in the Iraq War, has finally been released after seven years of investigation. Its executive summary certainly makes former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who led the British push for war, look terrible. According to the report, Blair made statements about Iraq’s nonexistent chemical, biological, and nuclear programs based on “what Mr. Blair believed” rather than the intelligence he had been given. The U.K. went to war despite the fact that “diplomatic options had not been exhausted.” Blair was warned by British intelligence that terrorism would “increase in the event of war, reflecting intensified anti-US/anti-Western sentiment in the Muslim world, including among Muslim communities in the

An unpalatable truth!

Quinoa has for the last years been the "new" food on the block for foodies. Known for its health properties, foodies the world over have taken to it. Many restaurants have added it to their menu. But, as this piece " Can vegans stomach the unpalatable truth about quinoa? " from The Guardian so clearly details, the cost to Bolivians and Peruvians - from where quinoa hails - has been substantial. "Not long ago, quinoa was just an obscure Peruvian grain you could only buy in wholefood shops. We struggled to pronounce it (it's keen-wa, not qui-no-a), yet it was feted by food lovers as a novel addition to the familiar ranks of couscous and rice. Dieticians clucked over quinoa approvingly because it ticked the low-fat box and fitted in with government healthy eating advice to "base your meals on starchy foods". Adventurous eaters liked its slightly bitter taste and the little white curls that formed around the grains. Vegans embraced quinoa as

Climate change: Well-organised hoax?

There are still some - all too sadly people with a voice who are listened to - who assert that climate change is a hoax. Try telling that to the people of Colorado who recently experienced horrendous bushfires, or the people of Croatia suffering with endless days of temps of 40 degrees (and not much less than 30 at night time) some 8-10 degrees above the norm. Bill McKibben, take up the issue of whether climate change is a hoax, on The Daily Beast : Please don’t sweat the 2,132 new high temperature marks in June—remember, climate change is a hoax. The first to figure this out was Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, who in fact called it “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people,” apparently topping even the staged moon landing. But others have been catching on. Speaker of the House John Boehner pointed out that the idea that carbon dioxide is “harmful to the environment is almost comical.” The always cautious Mitt Romney scoffed at any damage too: “Scientists will fig