Episcopal Church webinar marks 20 years of Guantanamo Bay human rights ‘disaster’
Twenty years ago, the first detainees arrived at the United States detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as part of the Bush administration’s war on terror, launched in 2001 in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks. Since then, 780 people suspected of terrorist connections have been held at Guantanamo, but few were ever tried or even charged.
“They called them the ‘worst of the worst,’ but ultimately many of the people who were sent there were basically innocent who had been swept up in our war on terror,” Matt Hawthorne, of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, said January 11 in a webinar hosted by the Episcopal Church’s Office of Government Relations.
Today, 39 detainees remain at Guantanamo, and only 12 have been charged or convicted of crimes. About 18 have been cleared for transfer, once the US government can arrange for other countries to accept them.
