Human Rights Groups Slam Obama Over Guantanamo Bay

Prison still operating

Leading human-rights groups accused President Barack Obama on Monday of not following through on a commitment to shut down the prison at Guantanamo Bay, the controversial U.S.-run military detention center in Cuba that has seen a mass hunger strike among its detainees in recent months.

In a letter to the president, 16 human-rights and civil-liberties organizations expressed deep concern that he has failed to fulfill commitments he made during a major counterterrorism speechearlier this year to tackle the issue of the prison, where the vast majority of inmates are being held without charge or prospects of release even though many have been cleared to be transferred or set free.