Guantanamo Bay Prison: Part Two: The Prisoners Speak

From the depths of human depravity comes this shining light: A collection of poems written by the detainees at Guantanamo Bay Naval Prison, entitled Poems from Guantanamo: the Detainees Speak. The collection will be published later this year by the University of Iowa Press.

Because of the stark conditions at the facility, many of the poems were written on pieces of Styrofoam cup and smuggled out. According to The Independent, "The thoughts of the inmates are considered so potentially dangerous by the US military that they are not even trusted with pen and paper. The only exception is an occasional 10-minute period when they are allowed to write to their families via the International Red Cross. Even then the words they write are heavily censored."

Humiliated In The Shackles
By Sami al Hajj

When I heard pigeons cooing in the trees,
Hot tears covered my face.
When the lark chirped, my thoughts composed
A message for my son.
Mohammad, I am afflicted.

Sami al Haj, a Sudanese national, was a journalist covering the war in Afghanistan for al-Jazeera television, when, in 2001, he was arrested, stripped of his passport and press card, and handed over to US forces. He was tortured at both Bagram air base and Kandahar before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay. The US military says he was a financial courier for Chechen rebels and that he assisted al-Qa'ida, but has offered no evidence to support the claims.