The Pentagon has decided that any art by detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba is property of the US government. The Department of Defense probably didn’t like the fact that prisoners’ works were offered for sale in New York.
Photo: Miami Herold
The department's representatives refused to explain what caused the decision to stop the years-long practice of releasing artworks after inspection by prison workers schooled in studying material for secret messages under the rubric of Operational Security.
The exhibition at New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice featuring works by former and current Guantanamo detainees provoked interest in the international media and apparently caught the attention of the Department of Defense. The website of the exhibition Ode to the Sea offers an email address for people “interested in purchasing art from these artists”.
Attorney Beth Jacob, who defends some of Guantanamo prisoners, said to Miami Herald that a former prisoner now residing in Oman wanted to sell his artwork to help his ailing mother in Yemen.
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