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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIT DON’T GITMO BETTER THAN THIS
A T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan IT DONT GITMO BETTER THAN THIS is perhaps the definitive physical manifestation of globalization. Sewn in Honduras and sold by Jamaican contractors on land rented from Cuba, the shirt celebrates an American prison holding Muslims whove been declared enemies in the war on terror. Its a popular item in the Gitmo gift shop (yes, Gitmo has a gift shop), displayed next to the stuffed banana rats and shot glasses engraved with GUANTÁNAMO BAY: DIVE IN.
Built in 1898, the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base looks like a US suburb. Theres a McDonalds, a Subway, and even a Christmas parade. On Halloween, military members dressed as zombies complete a 5K run. Winners of the Mr. and Ms. Gitmo Figure and Fitness Competition arch their backs on the cover of the Wire, the bases in-house magazine. The Team Gitmo outdoor movie theater screens all the big blockbusters (when I visited it was World War Z), and in the evenings, visitors can eat jerk chicken next to swaying banyan trees, get drunk at OKellys (the only Irish pub on Communist soil), or sing karaoke.
But since the Joint Task Force (JTF) arrived in 2002, Guantánamo Bay has been home to the worlds most notorious prison.
Gitmos prison camps were built, in principle, to hold and interrogate captives outside the reach of US law. Nearly 800 Muslim men have been imprisoned since it opened, and the vast majority of them have never been charged with any crime. Since he was inaugurated in 2008, President Obama has twice promised to close Gitmo, but 166 men still languish in indefinite detention. It is a place where information is contraband, force-feeding is considered humane care, staples are weapons, and the law is rewritten wantonly.
Nabil Hadjarab arrived at Gitmo 11 years ago, in an orange jumpsuit and a diaper, his head covered by a hood, eyes blinded by blackout goggles, mouth gagged, and with headphones blaring white noise into his ears.
much more:
http://www.vice.com/read/it-dont-gitmo-better-than-this-0001000-v20n8?Contentpage=-1
Photos are not allowed but art sketching is which she has more of in the long article describing her experience there
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IT DON’T GITMO BETTER THAN THIS (Original Post)
Ichingcarpenter
Aug 2013
OP
pscot
(21,024 posts)1. K&R
JaneyVee
(19,877 posts)2. Vice is the only media organization covering stories of substance.
enough
(13,291 posts)3. Powerful. Breaks through the numbness somehow. (nt)