Brodner's Cartoon du Jour: Sami Al Haj
May 6, 2008
Sami al-Haj, an innocent Al Jazeera camerman who was held for more than six years at Guantanamo Bay under the inhumane conditions he touches on in his statement from his hospital bed in Sudan. I suspect that this is the image of America that the world takes away from the Bush years.
SAMI AL-HAJ: [translated] I’m very happy to be in Sudan, but I'm very sad because of the situation of our brothers who remain in Guantanamo. Conditions in Guantanamo are very, very bad, and they get worse by the day. Our human condition, our human dignity was violated, and the American administration went beyond all human values, all moral values, all religious values. In Guantanamo, you have animals that are called iguanas, rats that are treated with more humanity. But we have people from more than 50 countries that are completely deprived of all rights and privileges, and they will not give them the rights that they give to animals.
For more than seven years, I did not get a chance to be brought before a civil court. To defend their just case and to get the freedom that we're deprived of, they ignored every kind of law, every kind of religion. But thank God. I was lucky, because God allowed that I be released. Although I'm happy, there is part of me that is not, because my brothers remain behind, and they are in the hands of people that claim to be champions of peace and protectors of rights and freedoms.
But the true just peace does not come through military force or threats to use smart or stupid bombs or to threaten with economic sanctions. Justice comes from lifting oppression and guaranteeing rights and freedoms and respecting the will of the people and not to interfere with a country's internal politics.
Person of the Day Archive
Thank you, thank you!
Let him try litigating in the US Courts.
This guy is FAR from the only victom of our screwed-up system.
I personally know a Jewish fellow who was arrested at age 18, WITH NO ONE HAVING ACCUSED HIM OF ANYTHING and though hypnosis and hypnotic suggestions of potential witnesses (some minors), the State was able to coerse a few accusations. He spent 11 years in a high-security prison, getting routinely raped and beaten. At least the Muslims being incarcerated at GitMo do not have to endure homosexual rape. I actually do feel bad for this guy but I am tired of all the attention that Muslims get when they are victomized, even when they are vicariously being victomized by each other. 3+ million Christians were butchered in Southern Sudan and no one paid any attention, until the killing moved north to Darfour (Same Black Africans--but in Muslim neighborhoods), at which time all the celebrities came rushing into the circus.
Do NOT read my lipe:
Its the OIL!
Its been the OIL since WW1.
It was the OIL in WW2.
It is still THE OIL.
Moral of the story - Damned if you detain them, damned of you don't.