Victims of Guantanamo

By Will Hardiker

ccun.org, January 25, 2009
 
 
In a parting comment in defence of Guantanamo Bay, former President George W Bush warned that those detained (untried and in legal no-mans
land) were "a bunch of cold blooded killers".
 
For any number of reasons ranging from the abuse of basic human rights to torture, it is worth noting exactly how the majority of "enemy combatants" happened to end up in Bush's "Gitmo" .
 
In the early years of "the war on terror" the US air-dropped leaflets throughout Afghanistan offering twenty five thousand dollar plus bounty's or rewards for information leading to the capture of al-quiada operatives and other such 'enemy combatants'.
 
Information gained under the US freedom of information act, reveals that 85% of Guantanamo detainees were in fact captured and handed to the US military by regional Afghani warlords and Pakistani special forces.
Obviously a cynical exercise devised to exploit the baser side of human nature for blatant political reasons.
 
Afghan-American defence lawyer Mahvish Khan worked as an interpreter at Guantanamo and interviewed many detainees. She subsequently travelled to Afghanistan to investigate individual claims. Her conclusion was that "many, if not most" of those captured were in fact innocent victims.
 
Taking into account such considered, objective and impartial information whilst recognizing the relentless propaganda that drove "the war on terrorism", leaves little room for doubt  that Guantanamo Bay prison constituted extremely serious abuses of human rights by a nation extolled for thier protection.
 
Given that Australia supported the establishment and operation of this draconian institution and one assumes now joins the new US administration in condemming and closing down, it is not fitting that it also make reparation and agree to all requests to re-settle any victims.