“Guantanamo Bay represents a legacy of shame for US”
Last week, The National published my essay on Jonathan Hansen’s book, “Guantanamo: An American History.” I’m surprised that this book hasn’t gotten more attention in the US; it’s really worth your time.
If you want to understand Guantánamo in the age of the War on Terror, you need to understand it in the age of Clinton and Bush Senior. In the early 1990s, the American naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, became home to thousands of refugees fleeing from Haiti. Parts of the base were converted to refugee camps, where Haitians lived in squalor, and awaited permission to emigrate to the United States. The problem only got worse when several hundred refugees tested positive for HIV. At the time, federal law prevented anyone with the virus from moving to the US.
Read the rest here.
7 Notes