It’s not often that one can turn to the Economist for moral guidance, but on the issue of Guantanamo Bay, the British pro-business magazine is right on target. A recent Economist article entitled “Enough to make you gag,” correctly calls the American military prison a “disgrace” that “needs to be closed rapidly. There are now 166 prisoners at Guantanamo, some of whom have been there for more than 11 years, and 90% of whom have not been charged with any crime. Approximately 100 of these prisoners are currently on a hunger strike. In a sane world, this would be a horrible catastrophe. In the world that exists, however, a mass hunger-strike is probably the most practical solution to the problem of Guantanamo Bay. But the authorities there are determined not to let this solution take place. Instead, they are force-feeding the prisoners by shunting feeding-tubes through their noses and into their stomachs. It is essentially a factory-farm, but worse, not because the animals being fattened up are humans, but because they are being fed for no clear purpose. At least the cows and pigs that are factory-farmed provide enjoyment to those who eat them. These prisoners are simply rotting away in a military prison. And if the moral case against Guantanamo wasn’t clear enough, the cost to American taxpayers for this house of horrors, is over $900,000 annually, PER PRISONER. It is indeed time to bring this moral nightmare to an end.
Below is an RT segment on the current situation at Guantanamo, including an interview with a former prisoner. As you can hear from one of the interviewees in this video, RT is one of the few major media outlets to provide any consistent coverage of the plight of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.
