The prison at Guantanamo Bay houses 166 prisoners. Of those, 86 have been cleared for release, but the U.S. government has refused to do so. And now, more than 100 are participating in a hunger strike in protest of their treatment.
Guantanamo Bay began housing prisoners in the War on Terror in 2001; however, many of the prisoners there have never been charged with a crime and are not slated to be charged or tried at any point.
Yet the government has kept them in Gitmo, some for as many as 11 years. Recently, a hunger-striking prisoner died of medication overdose; others weigh under 100 pounds.
“I don’t want these prisoners to die,” President Barack Obama told reporters recently. It’s time for him to act on that statement.
See the story at The Nation.
