Wednesday, 11 January 2012
Today marks the 10th anniversary of the opening of the U.S. military detention camp for terrorist suspects at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval base in Cuba.
The U.S. government, under former President George W. Bush, set up the camp after U.S.-led forces invaded Afghanistan to attack the Al-Qaeda network blamed for carrying out the hijacked plane attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in the U.S. on September 11, 2001.
The camp was set up to hold and interrogate detainees suspected of links to Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and other groups seen by the United States as terrorist organizations.
Human rights groups have denounced the U.S. for running the camp, claiming that blatant human rights violations occur there on a daily basis.
President Barack Obama, after replacing Bush in the White House in 2009, indicated that he wanted the camp to be closed by January 2010, but missed this deadline.
The Reuters news agency says 171 prisoners are currently held at Guantanamo. |
Wednesday, 11 January 2012
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