Ten years ago this week the world was shocked by images of terror suspects locked in cages on a remote US base in Cuba.
The failure of the US government to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay is leaving a toxic legacy of human rights
Today 171 men are still there, despite vows to close the notorious Guantanamo prison.
And the situation has profoundly damaged the US reputation in the world as a defender of human rights, says the American Civil Liberties Union.
A report by Amnesty International to mark the 10th anniversary of the opening of the camp, entitled Guantanamo: A Decade Of Damage To Human Rights, states:
“The failure of the US government to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay is leaving a toxic legacy for human rights.”
On January 11, 2002, about 20 prisoners arrived at the base, hooded, handcuffed and clothed in distinctive orange garb.
They were put on display at the prison erected on the military base rented from Cuba under a deal stretching back to 1903.
US President Barack Obama’s unfulfilled promise to close Guantanamo Bay is a lesson in how soaring campaign vows can wilt in the partisan stew and entrenched obstructionism of Washington politics.
Stalled efforts to close the war on terror camp also reflect the intricate, and often immovable homeland security state built by former President George W. Bush which endures even as memories fade of the September 11 attacks of 2001.
Quickly Guantanamo became a notorious symbol for the worst of the US excesses in the war on Al-Qaeda launched in the days that followed the September 11 attacks.
A decade on, 171 prisoners remain, most in legal limbo, some awaiting transfer abroad and at least 40 may never face justice but are deemed too dangerous to ever be freed.
Those detainees still remaining have greater freedom than in the early days, with access to newspapers and televisions, some phone calls home, and with 80 per cent of them allowed to mingle in common areas.
“Although President Obama remains committed to the goal of closing Guantanamo, the US Congress has taken action to prevent steps that would assist in the realisation of this goal,” Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Todd Breasseale was quoted as saying.
But Mr Obama’s room for manoeuvre has been severely curtailed. A controversial law, which the President himself signed at the end of December after bitter partisan infighting, de facto prevents the prison from closing.
Only six detainees have been found guilty by military commissions, according to the Pentagon, and seven others, including the self-confessed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, will appear before the tribunals in the coming months.
Some 89 inmates have been cleared of all charges, but pose a headache for the Obama Administration which cannot find nations to take them in amid fears they will face persecution and oppression in their own countries.
Among them are some Uighurs, part of a group of 22 from Turkic-speaking northwest China, arrested at a camp in the mountains of Afghanistan after the US-led invasion of the country began in October 2001.
Some campaigners hope that if Mr Obama wins a second term, he may try again with Guantanamo. But he might judge four more years to be better spent in bolstering his economic legacy.