Three men who were being imprisoned indefinitely and illegally at the US's concentration camp in Guantanamo Bay have committed suicide.
This is a portion of the US's response:
Military officials on Saturday suggested that the three suicides were a form of a coordinated protest.People in a state of hopelessness, frustration and despair choose death, seemingly their only exit. And they are waging war against us.
"They are smart, they are creative, they are committed," Admiral Harris said. "They have no regard for life, neither ours nor their own. I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us."
And you want to know why I moved to Canada.
14 comments:
I cannot believe you are asked that question! I should think most would be asking specifics as to how difficult etc. etc. but I have not yet explored your blog sufficiently to know. I have you on my desktop thinking I will go to your blog when I want to scream why can't I learn to tolerate cold better (I am almost seventy!) and give it more serious thought.
Anyway, crap like you posted that the government calls reasoning sends me around the proverbial bend.
Maybe most have never learned to think/walk for even a moment in another persons moccasins. How sad.
Well, it all depends who's asking. Many folks, like you, understand immediately.
Thanks for stopping by, Vanished. Your blog looks really interesting. There's a similar quote from Marian Wright Edelman: "Service is the rent we pay for being."
I hear it's pretty warm in Vancouver.
The twistedness of the response is so evil that I'm agape once again. These are likely three of the many prisoners whom the US earlier had force-fed with TUBES RAMMED UP THEIR NOSES AND DOWN THEIR THROATS, causing vomiting of blood and damage to their nasal passages and throats. These prisoners, many likely innocent, have been tortured for so long that they'd tried many times to kill themselves and been treated so sadistically when they did so that they'd given up. My first response when I heard about the suicides of these three was one of relief that they'd at least let three succeed. Makes me wonder why they let them: Was it looking like international pressure might finally force their release and the US didn't want more ex-prisoners to talk about what was done to them?
Considering these men probably had years and years of torture ahead of them at the hands of the US military and its friends, and very little hope of release -- or even a trial/hearing on whether they are guilty of anything except having dark skin (that only happens in a democracy, silly!) -- relief is probably the right response.
Speaking of exploding heads, check out this quote from USAToday:
"The Pentagon is refusing to release data on how many soldiers have suffered brain injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan. It says disclosing the results would put the lives of those fighting at risk."
In Canada, we have three men in the Kingston penitentiary under "security certificates", which enable us, as a country, to keep them imprisoned without charge indefinitely (although the certificates have to be renewed, I believe, every five years) for suspicion of involvement with terrorist organizations.
We, as a country, can do better. We can help by encouraging our MPs to reopen this issue and end the injustice.
I annoy my MP regularly with questions, requests for information, and demands for explanations. Maybe I've worn out my welcome with him. But I imagine I'm the exception rather than the rule. Ask your MP what's going to be done in the current parliament about this.
Luckily our detainees aren't about to commit suicide. But let's live up to our self-perception, as a nation, and help end this injustice.
It's not a usual position for me, to raise consciousness, to rouse the rabble, what have you. But this is just too wrong.
I think I saw an article about the family of one of these men, in this week's Star.
How fucking hard is it to understand? Bring criminal charges or let them go.
In Canada, we have three men in the Kingston penitentiary under "security certificates", which enable us, as a country, to keep them imprisoned without charge indefinitely (although the certificates have to be renewed, I believe, every five years) for suspicion of involvement with terrorist organizations.
We, as a country, can do better. We can help by encouraging our MPs to reopen this issue and end the injustice.
M@, thank you for reminding me of this. I read about it briefly, but put the thought aside.
I don't know if my MP will care about my opinion, as I'm not a voter (yet), but I am a future citizen, and a concerned taxpayer, so perhaps that is enough. I've put it on my list to do post-deadline, post-party. I'll also blog about it urging others to do the same.
This just in:
[White House Press Secretary Tony] Snow said it was during his daily intelligence briefing just afterward when the president voiced his concern over the incident and directed that the bodies be "treated humanely and with cultural sensitivity" to show respect for Muslim traditions regarding the dead.
Too bad it didn't occur to him to treat them humanely when they were still alive.
He just thinks of this as a PR problem.
Too bad it didn't occur to him to treat them humanely when they were still alive.
Huh. Yes.
This is so sad. It infuriates me.
One of the three men -- Yasser Talal Abdullah Yahya Al-Zahrani-- was imprisoned when he was 17. He was 22 when he died.
I keep thinking that someday it must come.
That moment.
You know, like during the McCarthy hearings when he of so little heart was finally asked....
"Do you have no decency, sir?"
Is it not here?
(and I agree with James that what Snow had to say may have been the vilest cut of all)
One of the three men -- Yasser Talal Abdullah Yahya Al-Zahrani-- was imprisoned when he was 17. He was 22 when he died.
I can't even describe how I feel reading this.
It's America's eternal shame.
I keep thinking that someday it must come.
That moment.
You know, like during the McCarthy hearings when he of so little heart was finally asked....
Yes. We've been waiting for that. I believe James has quoted that excellent question on this blog, maybe more than once. It's so often appropriate.
It's interesting that M@ brought up the security certificates. I was just reading about that very issue in the Globe and Mail. Apparently the discussion on their constitutional validity begins today in the Supreme Court. Speculation is that recent events may put pressure on the court to let them slip under the radar. I agree with M@; we can do better than presuming guilt and disappearing people like some Latin American dictatorship, no matter how candy-striped the detention supposedly is.
Apparently the discussion on their constitutional validity begins today in the Supreme Court.
Must blog...
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