A secret unit housing up to 14 prisoners at the U.S. base in southeastern Cuba has been closed and the prisoners moved to other quarters, where a total of 40 remain, almost 20 years after the terrorist bombings of 9/11. The U.S. Southern Command says the building, always meant to be temporary, is now unfit for habitation, so the prisoners were moved next door. Many of the prisoners were taken in violation of international law and held in a network of CIA detention facilities known as “black sites” in third countries, where they were often subject to torture and other brutal forms of interrogation. At the height of “war on terror” hysteria, Congress passed a law prohibiting the prisoners from being incarcerated on U.S. soil, so they’re held offshore in a hostile country. Four successive presidents, including Joe Biden, have said they “want to close Guantanamo,” that the U.S. justice system is entirely capable of handling their cases – but Guantanamo stays open anyway. (Brennan Linsley/AP)
