Amnesty Calls Guantanamo A 'Gulag'

Rights Group Says The Human Rights Failure Invites Abuses By Others

(CBS/AP)  Amnesty International branded the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay a human rights failure Wednesday, releasing a 308-page report that offers stinging criticism of the United States and its detention centers around the world.

"Guantanamo has become the gulag of our time." Amnesty Secretary General Irene Khan said as the London-based group launched its annual report.

Amnesty International called for the Guantanamo camp to be closed down.

The annual report accused the United States of shirking its responsibility to set the bar for human rights protections and has instead created a new lexicon for abuse and torture.

"Attempts to dilute the absolute ban on torture through new policies and quasi-management speak, such as 'environmental manipulation, stress positions and sensory manipulation,' was one of the most damaging assaults on global values."

Some 540 prisoners from about 40 countries are currently being held at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. More than 200 others have been released, though some are now jailed in their countries, and many have been held for three years without charge.

"We are still looking at an extremely serious situation at Guantanamo which we would very much like to see closed — people held without charge or trial, going before special military tribunals at which they are not even allowed to hear the evidence against them," said Amnesty International spokesman Brendan Paddy.

The U.S. government says it continues to be a leader in human rights, treating detainees humanely and investigating all claims of abuse, according to Navy Lt. Cmdr. Joe Carpenter, a spokesman for the Department of Defense. He had not seen the report and declined comment on it.