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
US President Donald Trump confirmed on Wednesday the upcoming start of ground strikes against drug cartel targets in Latin America.
He made the remarks during Christmas greetings to the military.
Trump said the United States was "now going after the land" in its fight against drug cartel targets, noting that drug trafficking by sea was down 96 percent.
The U.S. president also extended special congratulations to the crew of the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, currently deployed in the Caribbean.
BEIJING (Sputnik) - China has begun operating the world's first intelligent ultra-large oil tanker powered by methanol, the China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Monday.
The tanker, designed to transport crude oil, was successfully put into operation in the city of Dalian in China's northeastern coastal province of Liaoning, the report said. State-owned company Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co Ltd independently designed and built the vessel, it added.
The tanker is approximately 333 meters (1,092 feet) long and can carry around 2.1 million barrels of crude oil, the CCTV reported. Designed to produce low emissions and having intelligent control capabilities, the tanker will serve the route to the Middle East, among others, according to the report.
The vessel is powered by a dual-fuel methanol engine, which reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 92% compared to conventional fuel, the CCTV reported. It is equipped with an intelligent ship platform, an intelligent liquid cargo ...
A car bomb has killed a senior General Staff member, officials have confirmed
Source: The Investigative Committee
A Russian general has been killed in a car bomb blast in Moscow, the Investigative Committee has reported.
Officials identified the victim as Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of operational training at the General Staff. According to the statement, an explosive device had been planted beneath the vehicle he was traveling in, and detonated on Monday morning in the southern part of the Russian capital.
The blast also damaged several other vehicles and seriously injured Sarvarov’s driver, media reports stated.
Russian officials said one line of investigation is an assassination carried out by Ukrainian intelligence services, noting that Kiev has previously used explosive devices in targeted killings of officials and public figures.
Last December, a bomb hidden in an e-scooter killed Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, commander of Russia’s Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense ...
