THEHISTORYANDOVERVIEWOFACIA TORTURESITE:GUANTANAMOBAY

By Elena Sofia Uzielli '25

Torture is a violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms

This, alongside a myriad of other declarations about and against inhumane practices, is stated in the United Nations General Assembly resolution 39/46 of December 10th 1984

The United States of America signed the resolution in 1988, therefore agreeing to its terms

Then, in 2002, the USA opened Guantanamo Bay detention camp on the US Naval Base in southeastern Cuba Guantanamo Bay has gained worldwide attention due to the emergence of various atrocities that occurred there concerning the involvement of American officials in illegal, harmful, and degrading torture practices. More commonly referred to as ‘Gitmo’, the detention facility was part of the USA’s response to the threat of terrorism in the panicked aftermath of 9/11. It was, and is to this day, used to house Muslim militants or suspected terrorists, often captured during attempts of western expansion in middle eastern countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

The camp has a reputation for sparking controversy over accusations of torture by U.S. authorities, and has been accused of violating the legal rights of prisoners under the Geneva Conventions.

Since its opening, Gitmo has held roughly 780 detainees, many interned as potential members of al-Qaeda (the terrorist organisation responsible for the attacks on New York City’s ‘Twin Towers’) or the Taliban (the group of Islamic fundamentalists that ruled Afghanistan until 2001 (and then took control again in 2021)) Most of the 780 detainees were held without charge and with no possibility of having legal representation to challenge their imprisonment. The Republican president at the time, George W Bush, stated that Guantanamo Bay was not obliged to grant constitutional protection to the inmates due to the camp’s strategic positioning outside of U.S. territory. Though operated by American officials, the actual camp is, rather conveniently, in Cuba And, until very recently, this sufficed as a reason for the inhumane interrogation techniques carried out within Gitmo to continue, undisturbed and undisclosed.

One of the most talked about victims of the Guantanamo Bay system is Abu Zubaydah, age 50, whose actual name is Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn.

He is a Saudi-born Palestinian who was captured in Faisalabad, Pakistan on March 28th 2002 in a raid where he was shot several times. Between 2002 and 2006, he was moved around to various CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) secret ‘black sites’ in Thailand, Poland, Lithuania and other countries. Subsequently, in 2006, he was permanently relocated to Guantanamo Bay and has been held there ever since. Zubaydah was considered one of the CIA’s “high-value” targets, seeing as, according to American Intelligence, he was behind many of al-Qaeda’s schemes and was part of the planning for their future attacks

This was later proved to be completely false; he was neither tied to nor part of al-Qaeda in any way Despite this new information that should have sufficed to ensure his release and repatriation, Abu Zubaydah was not only kept in custody indefinitely, but was also used as an experimental guinea pig for the CIA’s interrogation methods.

This technique was then tested on Abu Zubaydah to establish whether or not it could be used on detainees for the sole purpose of obtaining information The victim created a series of forty drawings to portray the cruelties he was subjected to.

The drawings reached Zubaydah’s lawyers, but only after they were partly censored by the CIA due to their incredible accuracy in depicting both torture practices and his torturers’ faces.

Upon his arrival at Gitmo, the ‘forever prisoner’ (known as such due to being offered no prospect of release despite his lack of charge) was tortured twenty-four hours a day for 19 consecutive days.

In 2002, the CIA brought in two psychologists, James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, to create the program of interrogation that would be adopted in coming years They conducted experiments on dogs and ultimately developed what became known as ‘learned helplessness’, which consisted in hurting and humiliating the animals to the point where they would stop resisting.

The torture consisted of: violence; sexual and religious humiliation; verbal, physical, and sexual abuse; psychological terror; and near-total sleep deprivation. At one time Gitmo officials believed him to be dead as a result of the torture and the fear of being prosecuted by the Justice Department pushed them to change Abu Zubaydah’s status to ‘noncommunicando’ which means he hasn’t spoken to anyone other than his lawyers, jailers, and torturers in over two decades.

Abu Zubaydah’s case has become famous on a global scale, but his is only one of many stories of unjustly detained individuals at Guantanamo Bay detention centre. Attempts have been made, including one by former President Barack Obama, to permanently shut down Gitmo and relocate the detainees.

Despite these efforts, the detention camp is still running and holds around 30 people, most of whom are there without having had a trial and without having been given a reason We have reached a point where the United Nations, the American people, and the world as a whole are calling for the permanent closure of the detention facility.

The USA’s ‘war on terror’ started with the intention of increasing national security and promoting peace, but twenty years later it is succeeding in doing precisely the opposite.

What is inflicted on the inmates in Guantanamo Bay is a prime example of how the hypocrisy that surrounds the American facade of ‘morally correct’ ultimately leads to prejudiced discrimination and, in this case especially, a direct and deliberate violation of fundamental human rights.