A paradox - that a volume of poetry, the voices of the incarcerated at Gitmo who can't even get their cases heard, can get a poem published. What is even more sad is that we don't know why this book was published - was it to give voice to a forgotten piece of humanity, so that we may know their despair since their voices have been effectively silenced by the manipulations of our government? Or, more sadly, for nothing more than entertainment value? By the grace of God, this poetry will remind us that there are people locked away by our government for years, incommunicado, with no legal recourse, and who have not been charged with any crime.

Mariam,

At this link you can read more on this collection:

<link>

by Dan Chiasson, another "up and coming poet" in the poetry world.

I think its an attempt by the lawyer for the detainees, who has been working pro bono and is the editor of this book, to get some money for his efforts. Also, to try to elicit sympathy for them. This seems to be what O'Rourke thinks. On the other hand, Chiasson seems to think that it is Pentagon propaganda to scare readers with how evil the detainees are.

What I have always found suspicious, as have many others, is that they are kept in Cuba. Why? To keep us safe from them escaping into the US? Or to keep Americans and the press away from where it is illegal for Americans to go?

Seems most likely the latter.

That many of the detainees are innocent and are being tortured is a disgrace to this nation that someday in history textbooks will be put on par with interning Japanese-Americans during WW2.

Cutter