Imagine living in a concrete prison. You are in a windowless cell for 22 hours a day, exercise briefly at night and can spend days without seeing natural light. Fluorescent lights are on 24 hours a day. The cell is too cold, but you only have your prison clothes to wear. You have to warm yourself by huddling into a corner and curling into a ball.

No radio, no TV, no Internet. Sometimes the guards post articles in English, but you don’t know English. You are put into shackles the few times you are allowed to leave your cell. Sometimes the guards, male and female, watch you use the toilet and shower. Contact with family and friends is nonexistent or censored.

It doesn’t seem like much of an existence. If you are a killer, a rapist, or a corporate liar, though, maybe you had it coming. What if, however, there is no proof that you have done anything wrong? What if you are not accused of a real crime? What if you are starting to lose your mind? What if there is not a thing in the world you can do about it?

Welcome to Camp 6 at the military facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, America’s main facility for suspected terrorists after Sept. 11, 2001. Many of them have no clue when they will be released, or if they will get a trial. Even though the United States is ready to release some prisoners, their home countries refuse to take them, leaving many in limbo at Guantanamo.

Amnesty International released their umpteenth report on the prison, detailing the conditions and providing a very clear set of recommendations that all have basis in international law. According to the report, there are approximately 385 men of 30 different nationalities imprisoned. In response to the report, several prisoners joined an ongoing hunger strike in protest of the facilities at Camp 6. They are being force-fed through tubes stuck into their noses. American officials have called these procedures “safe and humane.”

In the past, the Bush administration has called these reports “absurd” and brushed them off, falling back on hackneyed homeland security concerns to avoid confrontation.

While the rest of the world reads the report and reacts, the Bush administration is busy refining the art of hypocrisy. When Newsweek published a story in 2005 that pages of the Quran were allegedly being flushed down the toilet at Guantanamo, the report sparked riots and condemnation around the world.

After doubts about the accuracy of the report, Newsweek investigated and issued a meek apology after one of their sources fell through. In any case, other allegations of U.S. military personnel mishandling the Quran surfaced, and an extensive report in The Nation said that Defense Department officials were made aware of such defamations by the Red Cross.

“The report has had serious consequences. People have lost their lives. The image of the United States abroad has been damaged. I just find it puzzling,” presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said, referring to the Newsweek story. It’s too bad he wasn’t referring to the latest report from Amnesty International.

The report outlined several examples of horrifying treatment. Jumah al Dossari has attempted suicide at least 12 times during his imprisonment at Guantanamo, according to the report. He has spent over a year in a windowless cell in the mental health unit and told his lawyer that it is typically cold and dark in his cell. He is visited by the psychiatric staff each week and asked the same questions, but he says detainees have learned to say they are fine, because if they admit problems, they are held under stricter conditions.

A man who suffered cardiac problems was taken to the hospital for a procedure during which his hands and feet were chained to the bed at all times except for meals, when he was allowed one free hand. He later refused additional medical treatment from the facility. If this sampling of treatment doesn’t damage the image of the United States, I’m not sure what will.

Predictably, the report asks the United States to close the facility and give detainees fair trials. Meanwhile, the report asks the United States to ensure humane treatment of the detainees by providing sunlight, fresh air and the ability to communicate with their families, among other reasonable requests.

Guantanamo will be inherited by the next president, and that person will have to clean up the mess. Will the future president change how the United States deals with detainees in the future? With America extending its reach across the globe, can the United States expect that its citizens, if they are arrested or detained in a foreign country, will be treated humanely and given legal rights? Americans shouldn’t hold their breath.

Reach columnist Hanady Kader at opinion@thedaily.washington.edu.