After years of fading public interest in Guantanamo Bay and its prisoners, recent events have refocused our attention on the situation the United States has created there. More than 100 Guantanamo detainees are engaging in life-threatening hunger strikes, widely acknowledged to be the result of despair over their uncertain fates. In the months since the hunger strike was made public, politicians, non-governmental organizations, clergy, lawyers and military officers have called for the closure of Guantanamo now.
Of the 166 men still held at the island prison, 86 long ago were cleared for release by an inter-agency task force convened by President Barack Obama. Recently, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called for closing down Guantanamo, calling it a "clear breach of international law." The High Commissioner called for the immediate release of every detainee who has been cleared, and said that if the remaining detainees are charged they should be tried in a civilian court and not by the controversial military commissions first established by President George W. Bush.
