US Slammed for Secret 'Floating Prisons'

Task force steams ahead with quality-of-living improvements

(NEWSER) - Money is being poured into improving the quality of life for Guantanamo detainees just as the government works toward closing the detention center, writes a puzzled Judith Miller after a tour. Recreation facilities and classrooms are being expanded, and inmates have access to satellite TV. Prisoners are given a choice of six halal meals daily—including two weekly "Islamic feasts." The place "embodies the best of what we do as Americans," a Navy doctor told Miller. More»

UK a full partner in US terror effort, report says

(NEWSER) - Binyam Mohamed, a recently released Gitmo detainee, alleges that he was tortured in Morocco while asked questions on behalf of Britian’s MI5. His story so far has amounted to his word against MI5’s, but a new report supports the former detainee’s claim, the Economist reports. A UN report on human rights says Britain, France, Germany, and Italy all sent interrogators to Gitmo despite publicly condemning the American facility. More»

Prison camp staff will offer more activities to distract detainees

(NEWSER) - Art class at Guantanamo Bay? Yes, it's in the works—along with geology class, Game Boys, access to newspapers, and more movie nights. The prison staff wants to keep prisoners "stimulated," Guantanamo's cultural adviser told the Miami Herald. "Once they are engaged and busy, they leave the guards alone." English classes are also planned, despite fears that they may help detainees eavesdrop on guards. More»

Justices rebuke Bush and restore one of the nation's founding principles

(NEWSER) - Today's Supreme Court decision giving Guantanamo Bay prisoners the right to challenge their detention "will be one of the most celebrated landmark rulings of this generation," Glenn Greenwald writes in Salon. By upholding habeas corpus—a rebuke to the Bush administration and complicit pols of all stripes—the court rescued one of the nation's most important principles. More»

(NEWSER) - The U.S. prison at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan is as bad as Guantanamo, reports Eliza Griswold in the New Republic. Prisoners are kept in barbed-wire cages, beaten, tortured, raped, and held without promise of trial. But unlike Gitmo, Bagram has no visiting congressional delegations. More»