Clearance by the government is a step in the process of getting released from Guantánamo, and Mr. Hamdoun's clearance is welcome news. However, it is hardly sufficient. Of the 93 men still detained at Guantánamo, 35 are cleared for release, many of them for years.
"I have become a body without a soul. I breathe, eat and drink, but I don't belong to the world of living creatures. I rather belong to another world, a world that is buried in a grave called Guantánamo," says Zahir Hamdoun, a Yemeni citizen held without charge in Guantanamo since 2002. "I fall asleep and then wake up to realize that my soul and my thoughts belong to that world I watch on television, or read about in books. That is all I can say about the ordeal I've been enduring."
The Center for Constitutional Rights is prepared to offer years of long-term support for their client, ranging from "financial assistance and referrals for needs large and small, ranging from live-in interpreters and mental health care, to laptops and language CDs."
For being cleared to mean anything, it must lead to actual release.
