Posted on 02/27/2006 12:19:31 PM PST by LibWhacker
So, Guantanamo Bay is an "anomaly" is it Mr Blair? Caging, manacling, beating, isolating, threatening, terrorising, torturing 500 - fathers, brothers, husbands, sons - seems to you just an oddity, an eccentricity, a peculiarity then? How could you not choke on your own words and splutter with shame even as you uttered them?
For four years they have hovered between life and death, some now praying for the latter, as I would too. They have to endure existence without time and reason, submit to brute power, pray in open enclosure while they are bitten and burnt, denied basic human dignity. Only nine inmates have thus far been charged. Having won their right to Habeas Corpus and to make their pleas in the US Supreme Court, that other dishonest charmer, Senator John McCain had that right removed. You, Mr Blair, know evil and collude with it. Your faithful oligarchy and obliging journalists are no better.
Human rights lie bloody and tattered in the US, Iraq, Israel, Afghanistan, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Pakistan, secret "extraordinary rendition" centres on the European mainland and in our own prisons. And all the while you swish the cloak of virtue. If it wasn't such a scandal it would be funny, Bush and you, as Batman and Robin, flying through the skies to save the world.
This week, I have been at three events where the majority of people in the audience were educated, sharp Muslims, some exceedingly rich and good friends with key politicians and Prince Charles. Guantanamo Bay and the civil strife in Iraq are topics that now madden even these establishmentarians.
One gentleman took my elbow, shuffled me to a discreet corner and whispered: "I have been here for 40 years, dined with royalty. Today if I was young, I would go straight to Bin Laden. Mr Blair is a war criminal. Don't put my name down, but tell him we detest him." He then said my watch was too cheap and that he would be honoured to give me one more befitting my status. No thanks I said, I didn't need a bribe to say what I feel more every day.
What a waste of hope. Remember the idealistic young Prime Minister? We believed he would take us into a more equal, ethical and accountable Britain. He did deliver in some areas of social policy but all of that now hardly matters as Guantanamo Bay (and Iraq too) once again rise, refusing to be buried by good news. A searing new film, Road to Guantanamo, by Michael Winterbottom (to be shown on Channel 4 on 9 March) tells the story of three young, innocent British Muslim men from Tipton in the West Midlands who spent time in that hell. Their ankles still show indentations from the shackles.
Many people, including me, have asked, how could British citizens bomb London? Not enough have asked that other equally disturbing question: How can Britain consent to this violent injustice meted out to its citizens and others? For Blair the answer is obvious. it is payback for 11 September, when "everything changed" and presumably anything goes. A man fond of targets and numbers, he has not yet told us how many lives need to be paid for each of those poor people blown up in the US. How much bloodshed before the blown up are appeased?
We, the people, witness this arrogance and incessant dissembling and are helpless. Is it any wonder millions have lost faith in politics, honour, in language itself?
Today, Baroness Kennedy's Power Inquiry releases its findings on the democratic health of the nation. It is the biggest-ever national study of political engagement. Britons are not apathetic but are disengaging from a democracy which has turned into its own enemy. Real democrats are protecting themselves from the diseased body politic and its raving behaviour that is spreading a pandemic of fear. Guantanamo Bay is the boil. Never mind bird flu, it is Bush and Blair fever we must contain before it ravages the world.
It boggles my mind that people actually believe this crap. They are either completely insane or they are total morons.
One gentleman took my elbow, shuffled me to a discreet corner and whispered: "I have been here for 40 years, dined with royalty. Today if I was young, I would go straight to Bin Laden. Mr Blair is a war criminal. Don't put my name down, but tell him we detest him." He then said my watch was too cheap and that he would be honoured to give me one more befitting my status.
Am I the only one who thinks this might be parody?
You just did. I do. It's a movement!
Yasmin is a typical Islamic hypocrite. She (I presume) thinks that of all the problems in the world, all the prisons, all the suicide bombings, all the dictatorial governments, all the terrorism, the bombings, the beheadings, all pale before the imprisonment of ex-Talibanis at Guantanamo. In the last two weeks, her heroic holy warriors have committed acts of murder and destruction 1,000 times worse than anything that happened at Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib.
All I could think about after reading this was, "Batman and Robin can FLY?"
Wow. You learn something new everyday.
The problem is that they think Britain should be an Islamic country, and it is their duty as Muslims to make that happen.
Well, I think they are caged and manacled and isolated. That's what a prison is. Are conditions any better in any Islamic-run prison in the world?
"Now moderate Muslims are angry too."
Geez, imagine that. Who wudda thunk it.
Everyday just seems to bring more surprises doesn't it.
An "angry" Muslim Islamofascist, isn't that a given? Isn't that redundant?
She was probably talking to Galloway.
Muslim prison are called "graves."
Wow torture and beheadings? Isn't this the staple of any Muslim prison?
The prisoners in Gua get prayer rugs, korans and religiously tolerant meals ALL AT THE EXPENSE OF AMERICAN TAXPAYERS. Where is the "Separation of church and state" crowd? Shouldn't they be outraged? But they're not.
How many middle eastern prisons would you get a bible in? How many middle eastern prisons will you get non offensive food in (assuming you're fed at all)?
Yeah I'm so offended that this PRISON isn't Club Med.
Much kinder then I would be. But I don't care to get put in time out by some moderator.
A rant from a perpetually unhappy woman.
YAB has long had, er, issues.
Bingo!
Puh-leeze! Giving them Korans, prayer mats, calls to prayer, an arrow showing them where Mecca is and giving them Islamic-friendly meals is torture? Sheeesh!
Well, one does not exclude the other.
Indeed, to be a muslim, both are required.
Put the whole lot of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay to work breaking rocks 12 hours a day in the Sun and maybe their attitude will be modified. They get better treatment by far that prisoners in our jail system who are there for possession of or sale of pot.
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