Shackled, hooded, sedated. Taken to a remote corner of the world where they may be executed, where the laws of human rights are suspended. Shackled, hooded, and threatened with death by "courts" that would give no leeway to defense or innocence. In fact, it sounds like Beirut in the 1980s.
I’ve written this story before. Last time, I remember writing about the threats to my kidnapped journalist friend Terry Anderson of the Associated Press, tied up, hooded, always threatened by his captors in Lebanon.
That was between 1986 and 1991 and Terry — let us remember this distinction — was no man of violence. He was a journalist, a comrade, and a friend. But he was most cruelly treated, allowed no contacts with his family, held in cold confinement, threatened with death every bit as absolute as the American military courts that know they hold the fate of Al-Qaeda’s men in their hands.
And then I remember the revolting prison of Khiam where Israel locked up its Lebanese adversaries — real and presumed, none tried by a court — and where prisoners were brought, shackled, hooded, sedated, for questioning. Their interrogation included electric torture — electrified metal attached to sensitive body parts (there were women prisoners, too) — which could never happen at Guantanamo Bay, as America’s Israeli allies taught their Lebanese militia men in 1980. They in turn taught it to their Lebanese militia enemies who used electricity on their captives.
America, Israel’s friend, could have closed down this sick, disgusting prison if it had insisted. But Washington remained silent. The Lebanese prisoners were left to face the men who applied electrodes to their private parts. The nation that would later declare a war of good against evil didn’t see much wrong at Khiam.
And now, a trip down memory lane. In the 1980s, when I was covering the war in Afghanistan between the brave Mujahedeen fighters and the Soviet occupiers, Arab fighters — armed by the Americans — would occasionally be captured by the Russians or by their Afghan Communist satrap allies. For the most part, the Arabs were Egyptians. They would be paraded on Kabul television and then executed as "terrorists". We called them "freedom fighters". President Reagan claimed that their masters were not unlike the Founding Fathers.
From time to time, these revolutionary forces would sally forth across the Amu Darya river to attack the Soviet Union itself. The "Arab" Afghans would attack a foreign country from Afghanistan. They would do so in their war against occupation. We supported them. For, yes, they were "freedom fighters". Now, having opposed America, having dared to oppose US forces inside Afghanistan in order to destroy US forces "occupying" part of the Arab world they have become "unlawful combatants", "battlefield detainees".
That, in essence, is what the Russians called them in the 1980s. It justified their detention in the hideous Pol e-Chowkri prison outside Kabul, their incarceration like animals — partly exposed to the elements — before their appearance in front of unfair, drumhead courts.
Now we learn that US troops arrested six Arabs when they were released from a prison in Bosnia. The Bosnians announced that, since the Americans would not disclose the evidence that might be used against them in a trial — to protect US "intelligence sources" — the men should be released from their Bosnian prison. Which they were — only to be seized by the Americans. And what did the Washington Post tell us in all seriousness? That, the operation was reportedly conducted by US troops acting independently of the NATO-led force (in Bosnia)."
Really? Is the Washington Post that stupid? Are we? Is that what law and order is all about? Yes, the West is fighting a cruel enemy. Anyone who has read the full video statement by Osama Bin Laden in December must realize that the war against him — indeed the conflict in Afghanistan — has only just begun.
But already we are turning ourselves into the kind of deceitful, ruthless people whom Bin Laden imagines us to be. Shackled, hooded, sedated. Prepared for a trial without full disclose of evidence. With a possible death sentence at the end, we are now the very model of the enemies Bin Laden wants to fight. He must be a happy man. (The Independent)