'I will never leave Guantanamo'

By Sabin Willett
December 3, 2007

"WE HAVE important news for you!"

Chained to the floor of a cell in Camp Six, Guantanamo, Joseph said nothing. But he had some news for us, too.

The Court of Appeals had decided what record - what pieces of paper - it would examine when it considered his "Detainee Treatment Act" case. This was big. For months, we urged the Bush administration to release its exculpatory evidence about Joseph. The administration fought back hard. And we'd won - a brilliant victory!

"What do they say - these papers?" Joseph asked.

An awkward pause followed. We didn't exactly have them yet. The government had moved for reconsideration, filed affidavits, more briefs. There might be further appeals. It was complicated. The order came down in July, and now it was October. They hadn't produced a page. But it was a great victory!

Joseph listened in silence. During six years of US imprisonment he's heard this sort of thing before. All this talk from American lawyers about American courts - in Camp Six a man can't be sure that American courts exist at all, but if they do, it is certain that nothing ever comes of them but essays. No one alleges that Joseph was ever a terrorist, or a soldier, or a criminal. The military told him in 2002 he was innocent. Again in 2003. Again in 2006. He filed a habeas petition in 2005. He would be gone if the military could find a country to take him.

...

Somewhere in a file drawer in Guantanamo is a copy of the memo that clears Joseph for release. But it was written in 2006, and is as forgotten as he is. So the good husband did the last thing a man in isolation can do. He set his wife free from her husband's prison.



http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/12/03/i_will_never_leave_guantanamo/

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What the hell as happened to our country, our supposed system of justice?

Why aren't the real war criminals behind bars?

This man at Gitmo has been found innocent. Yet there he languishes, chained to the floor in 'Camp Six' apparently forever.

What is wrong with our Democratic Opposition???!!!

And this is a man they admit did nothing wrong: He is held alone in a metal cell, denied any contact with companions, books, news, the world - with his wife or child.

We will all pay for this shit. And we deserve what we get.

He is innocent. Chained to the floor and as you say, isolated, no contact with his family or anyone else.

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?

I don't think this country can really ever be a beacon of freedom again. Too many of us won't confront these sorts of issues and continue to live in denial that it matters to them and their immediate families. Oh lord I wish I could wave a wand and move as all right into the middles of this cyclone. Sadly my post here and all the posts on DU are really only speaking to the choir. Letters to the editor don't seem to matter anymore even when they get printed. They drop like lead and never get responded to. IT IS HAPPENING HERE!!!