Justice Denied: Voices from Gitmo

/35 Comments/in /by

ACLU just put together a video of some of the detainees who mistakenly ended up at Gitmo. The whole video is quite good–but these two lines should be read by all Americans.

Moazzam Begg: My experience of America prior to this was everything that I had seen in the films… the concept of the good guys, the concept of people trying to do the right thing…and, that was shattered.

Omar Deghayes: I want the people themselves, humans, the people in America, good people which I met many of, to realize how in their names those ugly people have done to others.

image_print
35 replies
  1. MadDog says:

    Good stuff! I had just got done viewing that over at the ACLU’s newly designed website.

    The bad news is that almost all my saved links to the hidden or obscure ACLU corners for their documents are all now broken.

    Boo-hoo! *g*

  2. ffein says:

    Wow. That’s really depressing. When people talk about Nazi Germany and ask “How could the people of Germany let that happen?” our behavior in the past 8 years should answer that question.

    • emptywheel says:

      Knew it was coming. Havne’t seen the bill yet though and I’ve been warned not to expect much.

      Also of note, Conyers is including State Secrets markup on Wednesday, so we might actually get somewhere with that.

    • LabDancer says:

      Sixteen links total, and one goes to: Anderson freaking Cooper.
      WTF is far too mild.

      If Congress passed a bill requiring every network & cable tv station to run that video once per hour on the hour for just one evening, Gutmo would get closed in a week.

  5. MadDog says:

    OT – Italian court to reach verdict in CIA kidnapping trial

    An Italian court is to reach a verdict this week in the landmark trial of 26 US secret agents in the 2003 abduction of a terror suspect from a Milan street.

    The trial, which opened in June 2007, is the highest profile case involving the CIA’s covert “extraordinary rendition” programme in which scores of terror suspects are thought to have been transferred to countries known to practise torture.

    The Milan court will reconvene Wednesday, when Judge Oscar Magi will invite brief final remarks before withdrawing to deliberate, with a verdict expected the same day, prosecutor Armando Spataro said in an e-mail to AFP…

  8. Leen says:

    You are right ew every American should have to watch this and look at pictures of the dead, tortured and displaced in Iraq.

    Moazzam held for 3 years
    “held without trial, without charge, without explanation”

    Omar held 5.5 years
    “cruelty in a depth I have never seen in my life”
    “people are sodomized inside Guantanamo”

    Bister held 4.5 years

    Ruhal and Shafiq held 2.5 years
    “our lives will never go back to normality”

    Do you think Rachel Maddow, Keith or any of the mainstreamers will show this clip on their shows. We know they have not touched the Lancet Report or the actual numbers of deaths, injuries, displaced in Iraq, Aipac espionage investigation the Goldstone Report.

    Will we see these clips anywhere in our MSM?

    • MadDog says:

      Getting some great shout-outs from both KO and John Dean about FireDogLake on the Cheney interview material, and I think that’s good.

      One minor (or not *g*) quibble is that most of that great work has been done by EW.

      I don’t mean to start an inter-family squabble, and in no way do I mean to downgrade FireDogLake because FDL stands firmly on its own fine merits.

      Just wish that EW gets the credit she is due.

      • Leen says:

        When will they bring Marcy on? I’m sure she will promise not to say that the media and congress is more interested in investigating a Presidents “blowjob” She can say it rhymes with the WMD intelligence snowjob. You know the snowjob that has resulted in hundreds of thousands dead, injured and millions displaced. You know those Iraqi lives that have been severely effected that our media never shows Americans any pictures of.

        lies about blowjobs = impeachment
        WMD Intelligence Snowjob = hundreds of thousands dead, injured and millions displaced

      • Loo Hoo. says:

        Well, they wouldn’t find EW independently of FDL. In short clips like that, it’s best imo if they just keep saying FDL. Soon as Marcy quits cursing, she’ll be the expert guest on many issues. ***G*** Or she could just say fuck it. READ, PEOPLE.

        • emptywheel says:

          Actually it wasn’t that I cursed. It’s that I accurately described the preference for prosecuting blowjobs over prosecuting torture. It’s not like I dropped a gratuitous F-bomb.

        • skdadl says:

          Exactly. You did not swear, as we normally understand swearing. You used the most basic anglo-saxon words available in the course of a description — that’s not swearing. It’s actually kind of elegant, in contrast to the evasive euphemisms of the puffed-up.

          Just watched the Olbermann-Dean YouTube. I thought it was quite funny when Dean admitted towards the end that there were weeds to get into further — he seemed to be admitting that even he doesn’t work at the level EW does. That was nice of him.

        • Leen says:

          I thought the same thing. One thing that John Dean said that really concerned me and I guess the lawyer folks and Marcy would know this. Has Cheney run out enough time for a “statute of limitations” no one can hold him accountable.

          He also asked out loud why Fitz had not gone further after it appeared he had the goods on Cheney?

          I distinctly remember Fitz stating at the Press conference after Libby was indicted that the ball was now in the court of Congress. Does this interview released open up the possibility of a new investigation by congress or a possibility that Plame/Wilson will go for another trial?

        • Leen says:

          “It’s that I accurately described the preference for prosecuting blowjobs over prosecuting torture.”

          And you said it on programs that have focused on those blowjobs far more than they have focused on accountability for the false pre war intelligence, torture, and the hundreds of thousands of dead, injured, millions displaced.

          You rubbed their shallow shit in their faces.

          Bingo.

  12. MadDog says:

    Totally OT – If anyone believes this, I’ve got some oceanfront property in Phoenix to sell you:

    Reid reassures the left Lieberman is on board

    Sen. Joe Lieberman has reached a private understanding with Majority Leader Harry Reid that he will not block a final vote on healthcare reform, according to two sources briefed on the matter…

    …Reid’s staff has told anxious liberals that Lieberman has given the Democratic leader assurances that he will not wreck the reform bill because of Reid’s decision to include the public option, according to two sources briefed on the issue.

    As a result, well-connected liberals inside the Beltway who are in touch with Reid’s office have taken a more optimistic view of Lieberman’s position, while activists and bloggers outside the loop have seethed over his statements from last week…

  13. Leen says:

    o.k. when will Keith have Marcy on. When I talked with Chris Matthews at the Libby trial I politely told him that he was missing the boat by not coming to Firedoglake and in particular Emptywheel’s

    John Dean

    “false statements to federal officials”
    “not clear why Fitzgerald did not aggressively pursue this”

    “beyond the statute of limitations” Does that mean that Cheney will never be held accountable?

    Based on Cheney’s interview can Valerie Plame Wilson open a new case against Cheney?

  15. LabDancer says:

    The concern on Olbermann must be that if anybody actually stated the name, there might be a clamor to have her appear on the show, which would aggravate Isikoff’s dyspepsia over whether she drops the flying tackle of justice on his slippery reportage, and give Olbermann’s floor director a conniption fit and thumb cramps from over-gripping the 5-second delay button to nip in the debut the MSNBC evening line-up’s very first expertly analysed B-word.

  17. freepatriot says:

    I want the people themselves, humans, the people in America, good people which I met many of, to realize how in their names those ugly people have done to others.

    in MY name

    to my great shame

    I am an aggrieved party in this too

    My good name, and my good country, have been DISGRACED

    I want JUSTICE too

Comments are closed.