The Guantanamo detainees have finally been released. Without charge; Without trial; Without proven guilt -therefore we can be reasonably led to the assumption that they must be innocent?
The media has inevitably vultured in on this story and covered it to the point where even I thought that some reform would follow. As it happened this was not the case.
If they did commit such a sinister crime then justice should prevail and punishment must follow.
What is not acceptable and should openly be condemned by our silent leaders is this assumption that they are already guilty.
When you consider the torture that they say they have endured (by the US military), the loss of freedom that they experienced (because of the US Military) not to forget the psychological and mental trauma suffered (as a result of US treatment), we must all ask the question were they the guilty ones or was it the great United States of America?
George W Bushs irrational antics to date and his cunning ability to hypnotise the rest of the world might explain why some liken him to a modern day Hitler.
Absurd? Well, it is as direct result of the US Foreign policies and wayward way of thinking that these innocent men (because they have not been found guilty of any crime yet) have been trapped in limbo for almost 3 years.
To make matters worse, when they had sniffed the scent of freedom they found themselves being released from one cage and caught in the British equivalent. Questioned. Probed. And detained at Her Majestys pleasure. If MI5 were present at Guantanamo and had the opportunity to question them there why arrest them here and question them further?
Their photographs were plastered across newspapers and now their faces and names will be common to everyone. Will they be placed under a government protection programme? Where are ideals such as human rights at times like this. Answer: the government claims European human rights law can be departed from when it is found to be incompatible with domestic law. But are they not human? Or do they simply not have rights?
The families anguish cannot even be contemplated by us. Even more sadly, we cant even imagine how the released men must be feeling. I have to try not to refer to them as detainees, but it is clear that this is a name that will stick by them for years to come. This label that they are guilty will also remain with them. If you think that just because they have been freed from Guantanamo, they are now free, you must think again, because that is no way true.
The Sun newspaper printed pictures of the four and asked members of the public to ring them if they had been seen in their neighbourhoods and towns.
Their lives will be subject to surveillance. This is by no means the end of their capture. Merely the beginning.
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