The national shame that is Guantánamo Bay

Tomorrow, January 11, The ACLU is calling on everyone opposed to torture and indefinite detention to WEAR ORANGE to symbolize their sadness and disgust with the national shame that is Guantánamo Bay.

Missing from the headlines these days (the pundits and the politicians don't find it "sexy" anymore I guess), this year marks the 6th anniversary of the first prisoners arriving at Guantánamo. Yet hundreds of people remain in legal limbo there, away from family, jobs, and homes. From the ACLU website:

After hundreds of detentions and two Supreme Court decisions rejecting the administration's detention policies at Gitmo, the legal status of the detainees there remains unresolved and the fight continues to end unlawful detention and the denial of due process.

The ACLU has continued to hold government leadership accountable by filing Freedom of Information Act requests for documents that reveal systemic torture to prisoners held in U.S. custody. So far, more than 100,000 pages of government documents detailing the torture and abuse of detainees.

In addition, the ACLU and Human Rights First have charged that former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld bears direct responsibility for the torture and abuse of detainees, and filed a complaint in federal court in January 2006 on behalf of nine men subjected to torture and abuse under Rumsfeld's command.