A national disgrace: prisoners are suffering physically and mentally from isolation, lack of proper food, medical care and exercise

Chicago Tribune | A national disgrace: "Scandalous state of affairs at Gitmo | By Thomas P. Sullivan | Published March 1, 2006

'Tantamount to torture' is how an inspection committee of the International Committee of the Red Cross recently described detention practices at Guantanamo Bay. More than 400 men have been detained for more than four years in virtual solitary confinement at the military detention center in Cuba. The prisoners, whom the U.S. government has denominated 'enemy combatants,' are foreign citizens taken into custody from various countries.

They have been interrogated repeatedly. With few exceptions, they have insisted they have done nothing wrong and took no action against the U.S. government. " ...
...
I recently traveled to Guantanamo to interview a client, a man from Saudi Arabia. He is in his 30s, married, father of several children, who has been incarcerated since late 2001. ... Armed soldiers searched us and escorted us to and from a small cubicle. One of my client's legs was shackled to the floor.

Many of the cells--more appropriately described as cages--were made from shipping containers, 6-by-9-feet, with a raised cement slab and mattress for a bed, a metal floor, a toilet and a wash basin. That's it. Heat and rain enter freely, often making it alternately extremely hot or cold. The walls are mesh or undulating horizontal bars, causing damage to prisoners' eyesight. Prisoners see and converse only with detainees in cells adjacent or directly across from their cells. Prison guards escort them individually to a shower twice a week and to exercise twice a week in an enclosure consisting of a cement floor about 15 yards square surrounded by a chain-link fence. They have no access to radio, TV, magazines, newspapers or telephone. Reading materials are sparse--everything sent, including letters from families, is screened, a process that often takes many months. The lunch I saw served appeared hardly fit to eat.

Many prisoners are suffering physically and mentally from isolation, lack of proper food, medical care and exercise. Some have been driven to hunger strikes and attempts at suicide.