Meanwhile, approximately 270 people our government kidnapped (or paid or otherwise persuaded others to kidnap) suffer in Guantanamo Bay. How many more are languishing in prison ships, in Afghan prisons, and rendered to even more brutal torturers? We do not know. Our government generally will not disclose who it kidnaps or where they are held. These kidnap victims have also not been able to hold their loved ones or speak to them, some for over six years.

More than 90% of the remaining detainees at Guantanamo have not been charged with any crime. About 500 were released, which indicates there was no credible evidence they were guilty of a crime against the US. The US kidnap victims have been subject to appalling conditions. In the case of Binyam Mohamed, this included multiple razor blade cuts to the penis over 18-months while he was rendered to Morocco to be tortured. In many, many cases, it included horrific beatings, and "anal probes." It also included sensory deprivation, sleep deprivation, extremes of cold, 20-hour interrogations, excruciating "stress positions," and many other torture and ill-treatment techniques.

Those 26 or fewer Guantanamo prisoners who have been charged or are expected to be charged are charged in kangaroo courts called "military commissions." These make a mockery of the US Constitution, and the Geneva Conventions, in short the rule of law. They allow "evidence" to be used that is extracted from "coercion"/torture, such as false confessions.

The New York Times recently revealed that the institution of torture implemented in Guantanamo was lifted word-for-word from a US graph of tactics used by China during the Korean War against US prisoners. The US military study of those tactics that the chart was lifted from was titled, “Communist Attempts to Elicit False Confessions From Air Force Prisoners of War.”

That's right. The US military document from which the tactics were taken says these are tactics designed to elicit FALSE confessions. I imagine some of the detained are guilty of a crime. But this system is designed to lock people up based on FALSE confessions, or nothing at all. Our government was giving $1,000 - $5,000 bounties in a destitute county to hand over "terrorists." So, we got people whose neighbors had a grudge against. The vast majority of those who were held in Guantanamo seem to have done nothing wrong -- indeed, most have been released.

It is common sense that most people will say anything to make torture end. If you were tortured until and unless you said, "the sky is green" or "I am a lizard," you would probably eventually say that not because it is true, but to make the torture stop.

Please call your senators and representative to demand that they grant our government's kidnap victims a fair trial if they are charged with a crime -- not a sham military commission. If they are not charged with a crime, they must be swiftly released to their own country, unless it tortures, in which case they must be released to a country where they would be safe (which should include the US giving asylum).

All renditions must end, as must detention without charge, secret detention, ill-treatment and torture, and detention facilities outside the rule of law, including the one at Guatanamo.