I've Got the Gitmo Suicide Blues
I'm still trying to process the horrifying news of the three Guantanamo Bay "detainees" who committed suicide last week. Complicating matters is the way the regime's officials handled the stories initially. Although the regime backtracked as soon as rational people started parsing the comments from the officer in charge of Gitmo and the State Department functionary, their efforts were (as I noted earlier) like trying to unring a bell. And the rest of the world, including some allies, jumped all over the story.
First, from an editorial in the Netherlands' NRC Handelsblad:
Through newspaper columns and TV-reports, George Orwell has made a comeback. The "Newspeak" he described in his anti-utopian masterpiece "1984" has been revived, this time by the commander of the American prison for terror suspects at the Guantanamo Bay naval base. Rear Admiral Harry Harris stated in regard to the suicides of three prisoners last Friday, "I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us." In Washington, a spokesperson for the American State Department had to outdo this by calling the deaths, "a good PR move to raise attention."
... This "modern day Gulag," as the base is called from time to time, puts the spotlight on the United States as a gross violator of human rights. The three suicides underline this once again, with much negative publicity as a consequence.
...The eventual dismantling of Guantanamo is the only way to end an unacceptable situation that has been going on for too long, and which has had the unintended consequence of serving as a rallying cry for terrorist networks. Lawlessness is unacceptable. The base must be closed. [Emphasis added]
Next, from Switzerland's 24Heures:
This triple suicide is the logical consequence of the very special method of incarceration at this Naval brig in Cuba. Shackled and often detained in cages, the suspected terrorists with their orange jumpsuits have no idea how long their detention will last. Guilty or innocent, they don't even know the charges held against them. Prisoners of a so-called War on Terrorism, they nonetheless are accorded no protections under the Geneva Conventions, which would at least grant them some form of legal status.
Since 2001, Amnesty International, the International Red Cross and the European Union have denounced the legal limbo of this prison, but in vain. Despite the pressure, the United States has always sought to justify its running of Guantanamo. [Emphasis added]
Even one of the few Latin American countries who have not balked at US demands weighs in. From Columbia's El Tiempo:
The death of the three supposed terrorists was a setback for Washington, which since January 2002 has held over 460 prisoners in the prison, where national legal guarantees and international human rights treaties have been forgotten. To counteract any indignation over the deaths, U.S. officials made statements sure to go down in history as some of the most cynical ever expressed. Admiral Harry Harris, Commander of the Guantanamo base, said "They have no regard for human life, neither ours nor their own. … It was an act of asymmetric warfare against us."
The United Nations, European leaders and dozens of Congress members have protested the legal vacuum and the proven torture that is perpetrated at Guantanamo. By what authority does the United States judge the human rights conduct of other nations, when it not only maintains a prison that never should have existed, but treats a horrible event like Sunday’s triple suicide with such cynicism? [Emphasis added]
These comments were not made by the French or the Russians or the Venezuelans, people who have made it clear that the current regime is no friend to world peace. These are from countries that have tried to cooperate with the US when we have done things that actually are intended to promote world peace (and weren't those the days!). This is horrifying, to be sure. But do you know what really ripped my guts out? A poem, one written by a Middle Eastern citizen and published in Okaz. The poet is Hashem Alghdli, and the translator is Nicholas Dagher.
Between defending freedom and human life
And violating it
Stands America
As a beacon of light
Or the beginning of the end
She rules the World
With her economic, political and military might
She strikes at the heart of every human agreement
From refusing to ratify Kyoto
To abandoning UNESCO
By subverting the global consensus
On almost every matter
America … America
Therefore what happens at Guantanamo
Must not be overlooked by the honorable
Starting from inhumane imprisonment
On an occupied island
To people being killed
or even committing suicide
Under pressure from global terror
America … America
She is fighting terrorism
And practicing it herself
Will we hear today the voice of the excluded
outside the circle of power?
Will they confront America?
The violations of America
The injustice of America
So the world does not become a jungle
And America remain lawless
Pretending to protect the world
But living by the law of the jungle.
I am deeply ashamed of my country's government.
First, from an editorial in the Netherlands' NRC Handelsblad:
Through newspaper columns and TV-reports, George Orwell has made a comeback. The "Newspeak" he described in his anti-utopian masterpiece "1984" has been revived, this time by the commander of the American prison for terror suspects at the Guantanamo Bay naval base. Rear Admiral Harry Harris stated in regard to the suicides of three prisoners last Friday, "I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us." In Washington, a spokesperson for the American State Department had to outdo this by calling the deaths, "a good PR move to raise attention."
... This "modern day Gulag," as the base is called from time to time, puts the spotlight on the United States as a gross violator of human rights. The three suicides underline this once again, with much negative publicity as a consequence.
...The eventual dismantling of Guantanamo is the only way to end an unacceptable situation that has been going on for too long, and which has had the unintended consequence of serving as a rallying cry for terrorist networks. Lawlessness is unacceptable. The base must be closed. [Emphasis added]
Next, from Switzerland's 24Heures:
This triple suicide is the logical consequence of the very special method of incarceration at this Naval brig in Cuba. Shackled and often detained in cages, the suspected terrorists with their orange jumpsuits have no idea how long their detention will last. Guilty or innocent, they don't even know the charges held against them. Prisoners of a so-called War on Terrorism, they nonetheless are accorded no protections under the Geneva Conventions, which would at least grant them some form of legal status.
Since 2001, Amnesty International, the International Red Cross and the European Union have denounced the legal limbo of this prison, but in vain. Despite the pressure, the United States has always sought to justify its running of Guantanamo. [Emphasis added]
Even one of the few Latin American countries who have not balked at US demands weighs in. From Columbia's El Tiempo:
The death of the three supposed terrorists was a setback for Washington, which since January 2002 has held over 460 prisoners in the prison, where national legal guarantees and international human rights treaties have been forgotten. To counteract any indignation over the deaths, U.S. officials made statements sure to go down in history as some of the most cynical ever expressed. Admiral Harry Harris, Commander of the Guantanamo base, said "They have no regard for human life, neither ours nor their own. … It was an act of asymmetric warfare against us."
The United Nations, European leaders and dozens of Congress members have protested the legal vacuum and the proven torture that is perpetrated at Guantanamo. By what authority does the United States judge the human rights conduct of other nations, when it not only maintains a prison that never should have existed, but treats a horrible event like Sunday’s triple suicide with such cynicism? [Emphasis added]
These comments were not made by the French or the Russians or the Venezuelans, people who have made it clear that the current regime is no friend to world peace. These are from countries that have tried to cooperate with the US when we have done things that actually are intended to promote world peace (and weren't those the days!). This is horrifying, to be sure. But do you know what really ripped my guts out? A poem, one written by a Middle Eastern citizen and published in Okaz. The poet is Hashem Alghdli, and the translator is Nicholas Dagher.
Between defending freedom and human life
And violating it
Stands America
As a beacon of light
Or the beginning of the end
She rules the World
With her economic, political and military might
She strikes at the heart of every human agreement
From refusing to ratify Kyoto
To abandoning UNESCO
By subverting the global consensus
On almost every matter
America … America
Therefore what happens at Guantanamo
Must not be overlooked by the honorable
Starting from inhumane imprisonment
On an occupied island
To people being killed
or even committing suicide
Under pressure from global terror
America … America
She is fighting terrorism
And practicing it herself
Will we hear today the voice of the excluded
outside the circle of power?
Will they confront America?
The violations of America
The injustice of America
So the world does not become a jungle
And America remain lawless
Pretending to protect the world
But living by the law of the jungle.
I am deeply ashamed of my country's government.
posted by Diane at 10:19 AM
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