Three Scenes From a Detention Camp:
In honor of the Bush administration's seeming reversal of policy on detainees and the Geneva Conventions, as well as a deep appreciation of California Republican Duncan Hunter, chair of the House Armed Service committee, who says that detainees have been treated in too lax a fashion, here's some excerpts from the report by the Center for Constitutional Rights on what the detainees and others say happens to prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. In poetic form:

Mopping Up
First they cuffed him with his arms in front
of his legs. After approximately half an hour they cuffed him
with his arms behind his legs. After another half hour they forced him
onto his knees, and cuffed his hands
behind his legs. Later still, they forced him on his stomach,
bent his knees, and cuffed his hands and feet together.
At some point, O.K. urinated on the floor and on himself.

Military Police poured pine oil on the floor and on O.K.,
and then, with O.K. lying on his stomach and his hands and feet
cuffed together behind him, the Military Police dragged him
back and forth through the mixture of urine and pine oil
on the floor. Later, O.K. was put back in his cell,
without being allowed
a shower
or change of clothes.
He was not given a change of clothes for two days.

Prayer Pants
Knowing that Arab men are required to be clothed
While praying, military police ordered all 48 prisoners
In Romeo Block to give up their pants.

Mr. Ait Idir told the guards that, as a Muslim,
He would be unable to pray without his pants on,
And so he beggd them not to force him to undress...

A colonel - with a flower on his hat - spoke with him
And demanded the pants. The officer told him the IRF would
Forcibly take the pants. The Colonel would make no accomodation

To allow Mustafa to pray in his pants. Mr. Ait Idir offered to
Give up the pants if the officer promised to return them for prayers.
The officer said the pants would not be returned for prayers.

When the officer left to summon the IRF, Mr. Ait Idir feared the soldiers
Would leave him naked. He tore off a portion of his pants
And left it in a corner of his cell...

The IRF came. Before entering they sprayed tear gas into
His cell...After the spraying stopped, the IRF - in full protective gear -
Charged into the cell...

Fake Limbs
The plight of people
Who have had limbs amputated
Is among the saddest of the
Conditions of this
Ugly camp.

I have twice been housed
Next to prisoners with
Prosthetic limbs. It was one of
The most depressing experiences
I have endured.

The prisoners were effectively
Blackmailed by their interrogators
Who said that they
Had to cooperate in order
To get their prosthetic devices back.

They are denied the toilet chairs,
The sticks they need to walk
And even the cream they need
To ensure that the wound will not
Become infected and inflamed.

The pain is apparently particularly
Great when they are denied
The necessary prosthetic socks,
So that the the wounds are exposed
To the extreme cold

Of the cells.