Huffington Magazine Issue 52 | Page 64

THE HUNGER GAMES AT GUANTANAMO victims in the World Trade Center, which attendees said left many participants in tears. Additionally, guards at Guantanamo — like all other members of the military — are barred from doing their own research on WikiLeaks, and in theory any news websites that present information from WikiLeaks. Such research may tell them more about the detainees. The consequence of accepting the government’s side of the story and excluding everything else is a strict us vs. them mentality. “Many of the guards are not informed about the details of the sit- HUFFINGTON 06.09.13 uation at Guantanamo or the legal process of it, that there are some people who are cleared for release. They’re kept away from all that,” said Omar Deghayes, a former detainee who was released in 2007 after a five-year incarceration. “They tell them these are the worst of the worst. All they know is ‘Oh, these people are connected to Sept. 11.’ That’s the mindframe.” “We have the keys at the end of the day, they are on the other side of the cell,” states a sign hanging in the Camp Six observation room, where guards monitor detainees via cameras. Zak, the Muslim adviser, said the hunger strike began when a small group of detainees he described as A cell block sits empty in Guantanamo Bay’s Camp Five.