Thursday, January 11, 2007

A Grim Anniversary

Five years ago today, Guantánamo opened its infamous prison camps.

Candace Gorman has two new articles observing this sad marker. In Guantanamo Five Years Later: The Graveyard of Human Rights (apearing in Huffington Post), Candace offers an overview of the camps' history, from the brutality detainees endured during their capture and transport to the opening of Camp Delta.

FIVE YEARS LATER... But Who's Counting?, written for MichaelMoore.com, Candace has a more personal reflection on her client, Mr. Al-Ghizzawi and his ongoing unjust detention.
When Mr. Al-Ghizzawi was explaining to me his early years at Guantanamo, he told me about a flower that had appeared outside his cage in the spring of 2002. Just one little flower poking its beautiful leaves and petals out of the sand. He was describing the flower to me, but I couldn’t quite figure out what kind of flower it was. He called it a primrose and maybe it was. He said to me “I am like that little flower. It didn’t belong there…. I don’t belong here either.”