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Friday Night Open Thread

By Jeralyn

I'm so glad it's the weekend.

In the news: NPR has a new report on "Guantanamo North: Inside Secretive U.S. Prisons" focusing on CMU's (Communications Management Units.) The surveillance and restrictions are over the top.

Guards and cameras watch the CMU inmates' every move. Every word they speak is picked up by a counterterrorism team that eavesdrops from West Virginia. Prison officials budgeted more than $14 million for the snooping operation last year, according to appropriations documents and congressional testimony.

The Center for Constitutional Rights has been representing the inmates in a civil lawsuit. They say:

"6 percent of the national prison population is Muslim, and somewhere in the neighborhood of between 66 and 72 percent of prisoners at the CMUs are Muslim."

Of the 100 inmates NPR was able to identify who have been housed at the units in Terre Haute and Marion, IL, it says 2/3 are American citizens. (John Walker Lindh is at the unit in Terre Haute.) BOP says there are 81 inmates in CMU's.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on March 04, 2011 (boomark / email).