Foreign inmates who have been held captive for many years without trial in the US military prison and torture facility in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba are showing signs of "accelerated ageing," the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has unveiled.
"We're calling on the US administration and Congress to work together to find adequate and sustainable solutions to address these issues," said ICRC's head of delegation for the United States and Canada, Patrick Hamilton.
"Action should be taken as a matter of priority," he further emphasized nearly a month after visiting the military prison back in March following a long, 20-year absence from the infamous American torture facility despite rigorous human violations there.
Most of these violations were attested by numerous US military officers appointed to represent the inmates in court with very limited access to legal resources and "classified" documents to adequately defend the inmates or make a legal case against US military and spy agencies involved in the illegal capture and imprisonment of most of the captives held in the Guantanamo base.
Hamilton said he was "struck by how those who are still detained today are experiencing the symptoms of accelerated ageing, worsened by the cumulative effects of their experiences and years spent in detention."
The senior ICRC official called for detainees to receive adequate mental and physical health care and more frequent family contact, basic rights that US military has brutally refrained to provide for the Guantanamo prisoners.
A Pentagon spokesperson said the department "is currently reviewing the report," without elaborating.
The Guantanamo camp was established by hawkish President George W. Bush in 2002 to hold captive and interrogate under torture foreign terrorism suspects following the highly suspicious September 11, 2001 terror attacks which killed nearly 3,000 people.
The appalling treatment of the foreign captives in Guantanamo came to symbolize the excesses of the purported US "war on terror" because of harsh interrogation and torture methods widely censured by critics......more below
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) warns the enemies that any act of aggression against the Islamic Republic will not go unanswered.
In a statement on Thursday, the IRGC issued a “stern warning” to the enemies after US forces launched strikes against the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas.
Following the US military attack on a point on the outskirts of Bandar Abbas Airport with aerial projectiles, the IRGC carried out new strikes targeting the US air base from which the attack originated in the wee hours of Thursday, it added.
“This response is a serious warning to the enemy that they should know the act of aggression will not go unanswered,” the IRGC emphasized.
The elite military force warned of a “more decisive” response if the enemy repeated any act of aggression.
It also said the responsibility for the consequences of any IRGC response lies with the aggressor.
The statement comes after the IRGC Navy on Thursday forced an American tanker to turn back. The tanker ...
Volker Turk has warned that efforts to advance reparatory justice are facing resistance in “certain quarters,” and urged countries to back Africa’s push.
Reparatory justice for historical crimes, including colonialism, enslavement, and the trade in enslaved Africans, is crucial to dismantling systemic racism, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has said.
Speaking at the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent on Tuesday, Turk linked present-day discrimination against people from the continent to the enduring legacy of colonialism and enslavement.
”Racism and dehumanizing rhetoric continue to permeate public institutions, communities, and online platforms,” he said, according to the UN Press Service. Turk noted that “digital technologies, including AI, are reproducing and amplifying existing biases against people of African descent.”
The remarks come weeks after the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring the transatlantic slave trade “the gravest...
The US VP had to defend President Trump’s Gaza policy at a rally on a Georgia college campus.
US Vice President J.D. Vance was forced to defend Washington’s policy in Gaza after he was booed and heckled at a key MAGA event on Wednesday.
Co-founded by the late Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA (TPUSA) is a conservative student group that has long been seen as a strong support base of President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement but is now showing apparent cracks.
Less than 15 minutes into a TPUSA event at the University of Georgia on Wednesday, Vance was interrupted by hecklers over US policy in Gaza, with one audience member shouting, “Jesus Christ does not support genocide!” As he attempted to respond, others shouted, “You’re killing children!” and “You’re bombing children!”
Vance replied by referring to Trump’s achievements as president, including securing a fragile ceasefire in Gaza, something he said the previous administration of Joe Biden failed to do.
“I ...
