In 2007, Kenyan citizen Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu was detained by the United States and illegally transferred to Guantánamo Bay, a notorious U.S. detention facility in Cuba. They accused him of being a dangerous “terror suspect,” but haven’t even charged him with a crime!
And he’s not the only one.
Currently, 40 prisoners remain locked up, but Guantánamo Bay once held 780. The prison is globally notorious for brutal tortures like sexual assault, canine attacks, waterboarding, and Islamophobic abuse.
After Obama and Biden both failed to shut it down, detainees say conditions have gotten much worse.
Suffering from dilapidated facilities, medicine refusal, and more guard abuse, detainees began a unified hunger strike. “It [doesn't] matter who the president is – Biden or Trump,” says detainee Asadullah Haroon Gul. “We are the victims always.”
For Bajabu, it’s been over a decade since Kenya asked the U.S. to send him home. He wants to return to his diving and fishing business – and his family, who filed a lawsuit on his behalf when he was captured.
Other detainees also wish to be reunited with their past lives.
When it comes to inflicting terror, the United States is the one that's doing it. From Rikers Island to Guantánamo Bay, the U.S. continues to torture and kill – and neither Obama nor Biden has stopped it.