clipped from: www.washingtonpost.com Like his fellow prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Kuwaiti detainee Fayiz Mohammed Ahmed al-Kandari hoped that President Obama's election would finally bring justice. Judges, not political appointees, would prevail and restore the rule of law.
According to Fayiz, the "human" guards -- those who have typically shown respect for the prisoners -- have been warned to stop any interaction with detainees. A few guards who have been more aggressive toward the prisoners have been promising detainees "a farewell to remember," Fayiz told me ruefully this spring.
Guantanamo has become a dark symbol of the standard of justice the United States has meted out in the "global war on terror." Protecting American lives is paramount, but it is not true that we can be safe only by ignoring our country's values and imprisoning people for the better part of a decade without their legal rights.