Guantanamo Lawyer Cites 'Ramping Up in Abuse' Since Obama Took Office

On Monday, the Department of Defense released a report claiming that conditions at our prison camp at Guantanamo Bay have improved and are, in fact, in line with international human rights standards. That rather dubious conclusion was sharply rebutted by the Center for Constitutional Rights, which, on the same day, issued its own report, titled "Conditions of Confinement at Guantanamo: Still In Violation of the Law."

According to CCR Executive Director Vince Warren: "The new report details the inhumane conditions at the base that persist despite President Obama's Executive Order of January 22, 2009, requiring humane standards of confinement at Guantanamo. These include ongoing, severe solitary confinement, other psychological abuse, incidents of violence and threats of violence from guards, religious abuse and widespread forced tube-feeding of hunger strikers. In contrast to the military's report, which appears to include very little testimony or reports from Guantanamo detainees themselves, CCR's report offers multiple cases of abuse in the last two months directly from detainees' experiences."

In a disturbing development, today Reuters reports that, in fact, conditions for Guantanamo prisoners have "worsened sharply" since Obama took office "as prison guards 'get their kicks in' before the camp is closed, according to a lawyer who represents detainees."