Wednesday, October 22, 2003

Foreign policy a la Kafka:

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba — The detention facility here for prisoners captured mostly in the Afghanistan war is increasingly taking on a permanent air as the authorities are building a hard-walled traditional prison alongside the corrugated metal units that have housed detainees for nearly two years.

Although the International Committee of the Red Cross has taken the unusual step of publicly criticizing the United States for the open-ended nature of the detention, officials here say they are planning changes that will allow for the long term. Col. Jerry Cannon, who is in charge of the prison facility, said in a recent interview here that he was revising some of the security procedures at the camp with the expectation that it would continue to hold prisoners for some years.

The hard-walled prison will be ready next spring, said Lt. Col. Pamela Hart, the public affairs officer for the Joint Task Force that administers the detention camp and supervises prisoner interrogations. "This will be a permanent structure and will be able to house approximately 100 prisoners," Colonel Hart said....


--New York Times

Think about how young most of the Guantanamo prisoners must be. Now think about the fact that the terror war might just go on as long as the Cold War. If we're going to keep these guys incarcerated "for the duration," without ever bringing charges against them, or even allowing them to be identified, your grandchildren may have to go to protest marches to get the prison camp under the scrutiny of the civilized world.

No comments: