Guantanamo Voices: True Accounts from the World’s Most Infamous Prison

Disclaimer: I was given a free copy of this book in return for an honest review.

The editor's note that prefaces the galley copy of Guantanamo Voices claims the book does not justify or condemn the existence of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. But that's not true, it's a book designed to make you angry – quite rightly and quite well.

The choice of epigraphs – excerpts from the US Constitution and Geneva Conventions – immediately skewers the hypocrisy on which the camp was built and continues to be maintained. It's a story in which America is a champion of liberty, beacon of hope in one hand and sword of justice in the other. "Hey, what are you getting all up on us for? We're the good guys!"

What are frequently referred to as show more "American" values are in fact values shared by most of the Western world: they have democracy in Germany, you can get a fair trial in France, individual freedom is protected in Canada. So when America doesn't uphold hose values, it's not just failing to uphold its own high-minded ideals, it's using its position of cultural, economic and military dominance to excuse itself from the responsibilities it still claims to champion.

It's a book that makes you angry to remember there is no such thing as evil, but that there is a lot of motivated cruelty in the world. Motivated by fear, inadequacy and arrogance. It's doubtful anyone truly believes any of the men still held at the camp represents a significant threat to the United States, but plenty of people do have bases to motivate and faces to save. show less

An adherence to human and civil rights is an important distinction between us and terrorists. This book offers firsthand accounts of people who have run, been detained at, and/or opposed the disgraceful blot on America's reputation which is the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Important information illustrated well by eleven different artists.

Want a double-feature of misery? Team this with Guantánamo Kid: The True Story of Mohammed El-Gharani.

Firstly thank you to Abrams Publishing and NetGalley for this ARC.

I have always wanted to obtain some detailed information and knowledge about Guantanamo Bay, its history, formation and prisoners. And this book was just what I was looking for.

It is anthology of illustrated narratives by journalist Sarah Mirk about the prison,former prisoners, lawyers, social workers, and service members. It depicts the horror of the place and the lives that it has affected.

This book is so well written and it just invokes so much anger and sadness within you about the cruelty and injustice that the prisoners have faced. Im a believer of justice and I hope and pray these prisoners get justice because while it is important to punish the guilty, it is also show more equally important to protect the innocent. show less

A lot of awful things are documented here, as this is just a window into a very secretive place. The focus, however, is not just the torture, but the individual stories of those imprisoned and those who stand guard over POWs that have not been charged with any crimes. It is unjust how the law is bent and distorted to justify Guantanamo's existence.

A collection of interviews with a variety of people connected to the detainee prison at Guantanamo, including released prisoners, lawyers trying to get prisoners released, to prison guards or administrators. Each chapter/story/interview was illustrated by a different artist.

This one fell kind of flat for me: too repetitive and too superficial, except the statistics. The violations of civility and human rights at Gitmo were and are terrible, holding people indefinitely without levelling a criminal charge. There is little doubt that some of the people there were innocents, with the manner in which they were gathered. So too, was the contrived legal, possibly geopolitical, argument for holding "enemy combatants" without due process. A sad show more chapter in American history, similar in many ways to the Japanese internment camps during WWII. I preferred George Takei's graphic novel about that to this one. show less