Former Guantanamo Detainee Speaks
Mourad Benchellaili, writing in the NY Times: Detainees in despair:
I believe that a small number of the detainees at Guantanamo are guilty of criminal acts, but as analysis of the military’s documents on the prisoners has shown, there is no evidence that most of the 465 or so men there have committed hostile acts against the United States or its allies. Even so, what I heard so many times resounding from cage to cage, what I said myself so many times in my moments of complete despondency, was not, “Free us, we are innocent!” but “Judge us for whatever we’ve done!” There is unlimited cruelty in a system that seems to be unable to free the innocent and unable to punish the guilty.
This entry was posted by jbc on Saturday, June 17th, 2006 at 12:55 pm and is filed under the_usa, the_world. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
June 19th, 2006 at 4:28 pm
Wow, that’s incredibly surprising! I never expected to hear anything like this from a semi-secret federal prison with little or no oversight where “detainees” (not inmates) can be held indefinitely without being charged.
Oh wait — I misspoke, that is what I expected from semi-secret federal prison with little or no oversight where detainees can be held indefinitely without being charged. That’s why we have the protections that we do under the constitution — because we know that this is exactly what happens. Governments (or to be more specific, certain elements within) are not trustworthy, and we absolutely need protection from that. That’s why people like me aren’t willing to permamantly give up any civil liberties (even when they say that they only want them temporarily).
What’s surprising is that this guy still has all of his toenails left after his captivity.
June 21st, 2006 at 10:18 am
Remember when the United States used to lead by example? I miss them days.
June 23rd, 2006 at 10:39 am
Some interesting background on Mourad Benchellali at Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mourad_Benchellali
June 23rd, 2006 at 10:50 am
This is interesting as well:
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/06/14/france.attack.ap/
June 26th, 2006 at 9:02 am
I am very interested in this upcoming documentary about this horrible prison.
The Road to Guantanamo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_to_Guant%C3%A1namo
Could you imagine being held for years without charge, in a secret prison with no rights at all? And then can you imagine that the country that is doing this to you is the US, supposedly the most just societly on the planet?
Scary stuff.
Talk about creating enemies. The tactics deployed by this administration’s “War on Terra” will haunt America for a very long time.
June 29th, 2006 at 8:10 am
I guess that the Supreme Court seems to think that it’s a bad idea to detain these guys as war criminals…although they didn’t really say much about detention: http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/06/29/scotus.tribunals/index.html
June 29th, 2006 at 1:10 pm
Except for these three…Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.
Big shocker there.
July 6th, 2006 at 10:37 am
“The Road to Guantanamo” isn’t a documentary. It’s a “docudrama,” which the Guardian has already criticized for “an insane lack of cool perspective,” even while giving it three stars.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docudrama
July 6th, 2006 at 12:25 pm
I’m sure the right will be quick to discredit all the created footage, while completely ignoring the real footage. Same thing happend with Fahrenheit 9/11. But real footage doesn’t lie and the point got across to millions.
Oh, the Guardian also gave a “The Matrix” a shitty review as well. So I think I’ll judge this documentary for myself.
July 6th, 2006 at 8:12 pm
The Matrix was a great documentary, and deserved better from the Guardian. As for “Guantanimo, ” three stars out of five is a pretty good review, but l think I’ll hold my judgement on its authenticity ( the trailer I’ve seen suggests more something more on the drama end of the docudrama spectrum, and there is nothing in the Wikipedia article, or anything else I’ve read personally to suggest there’s a wealth of “real footage” in the film) or its relative worth until I actually see the movie.
We should plan a documentary film festival some night, you and I. I’ll bring my VHS copies of “The Longest Day,” “The Last Temptation of Christ,” and “Donnie Darko.” You wouldn’t have a copy of “Loose Change,” “The Road Warrior” or “Watership Down,” would you?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_film
July 11th, 2006 at 11:29 am
Ah, huh?