Anger is growing this week as more details emerge about the Trump administration’s detention of Somali immigrants at Guantánamo Bay, including people with no criminal records and, in at least one case, a legal US resident.
At least eight Somali men are being held at the notorious US military base in Cuba, while as many as 12 Somali deportees have passed through the facility in recent weeks, according to Sahan Journal. Seven of those still there are being held at Camp 6, which was originally opened under the George W. Bush administration during the so-called War on Terror to imprison men and at least one child in a facility rife with torture and other abuse.
“I never expected to be arrested in a prison established for the terrorists who I fled from,” 31-year-old Hassan Abdi Abtidoon told Sahan Journal’s Mohamud Farah on Tuesday.
Among the other Somalis held at Guantánamo is 31-year-old Adam Abdullah, a St. Paul, Minnesota, resident who came to the United States as a legal asylum seeker in 2023. Abdullah had a work permit and Social Security number, operated an auto repair business, and had no criminal record, according to Minnesota court records. His past involvement with law enforcement appeared to include nothing more than two parking tickets. Security claimed the flight included “some of the worst of the worst” with criminal histories including assault, weapons offenses, robbery, theft, drug charges, and drunken driving. …
You can’t call a country democratic and have a prison where the laws don’t apply. And I ask Americans to use the terms “gulag” or “concentration camp” because Guantanamo is exactly that.
BTW, the Guantanamo gulag was established by George W Bush and was used by Bill Clinton, George Bush Jr., Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden. All of them can’t be called democrats precisely because they sent people to a concentration camp without being convicted. Less than Stalin, but still.
the Guantanamo gulag was established by George W Bush and was used by Bill Clinton,
How does this work exactly? Does it involve time travel?
Yeah, I mixed Bushes, the one with W is a Jr, had to check. Newer knew American’ presidents, who was who.
That is interesting, and I genuinely wonder if a table of people sent to some “gulag like” prison could be done by leader and per year at power. So it would be easier to compare… even if we add some other leaders from other countries later…
There’s always going to be awfulness in Guantanamo Bay. That’s what it is for.
It’s 50 miles of seized Cuban land. The USA uses this as a concentration camp because they can. Because it’s illegal, and it’s not even in US territory, everything they do there is to circumvent US laws and oversight. Otherwise, why bother transporting prisoners there?
It’s not a “prison established for terrorists”. We’ve “owned” it since 1900, it’s a military base, our first overseas one.
The “prison” within is a place for people to disappear without any trial. So it’s not even a prison, really; nobody has been found “guilty”. The only reason we know about this are photo leaks, otherwise we’d be oblivious.
The USA has camps like this all over the world, last time I checked it was 800 or so. We’ll never know how many have “prisons”, but I’d guess all of them as needed. Most camps have a “brig”, to turn it into a “prison” you just change the plaque on the door from “brig” to “prison”. (a little joke, there is no difference).
There’s only one thing for certain; bOtH sIdEs are fine with these illegal holes that employ torture, regardless of claims to the contrary. It is not the Trump admin, the Bush admin, the Clinton admin, the Obama admin, the Biden admin.
It’s every admin in our lifetime. All of them.
Obama signed an executive order to close Guantanamo bay. Congress signed a veto proof funding bill that kept it open. So yes both Democrats and Republicans wanted to keep it open at that time, but the “Obama admin” made it clear it was supposed to be closed.
The Senate voted 90-6 against the funds they requested to move the prisoners to actual u.s. prisons in the states.
Edit: In 2015 he vetoed another bill permanently banning the prisoners being moved to the states, congress over road him with the NDAA and sent it back with once again non-veto-able numbers
This always pisses me off about Obama. He ran on closing Guantanamo. If Congress would not provide funds to move the prisoners to the USA, he should have released them.
Same situation as it was with universal healthcare, Obama wanted the appearance of caring about his voters but he was never willing to actually fight for them when the rich and powerful opposed something. He made more attempts at Social Security than he did at closing Guantanamo.
both sides are fine with these illegal holes that employ torture, regardless of claims to the contrary.
But surely voting for my favourite politicians (class traitors) will change the nature of a genocidal police state…? /s
Yeah, like we said - it was never about “if they’re doing it the right way, we are fine with immigrants” - modern Republicans are racists, and bigots in general. We said that consistently and consistently got push back saying that kind of rhetoric was divisive and incendiary. Turns out ramping up violence, pain, death, and fear was exclusively the plan all along, just not from people warning everyone what was coming.
The entire idea behind the ICE saga is to create an under-underclass. There is already a permanent underclass of people who will never get the same economic chances those at the top get. This debacle aims to create another one under the current one to keep the poors in line.
Basically: “So you’re already barely surviving working three jobs, but don’t forget - we could always deport you or your family as well!”
