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| Proletarian issue 4 (February 2005) |
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| Guanatanamo Bay: US has feet of clay |
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| Four British prisoners of war are to be released from the US’s prison camp in Cuba. Far from closing down Camp Delta however, the US plans to create more torture camps in which to hold the freedom fighters of the world – indefinitely, illegally and without charge |
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"Freedom at home is best served by freedom elsewhere in the world." Well who could object to such an idea? The answer, of course, is at least 5.5bn inhabitants of our small blue planet, when those words issue from the lips of George W Bush. For, shorn of euphemism, it is a clear message that the world can expect more of the same "idealistic" treatment meted out to Afghanistan and Iraq.
'Freedom' US style means the right of workers to be exploited by US capital, and the right of every nation to have its mineral wealth expropriated by US monopolies, the latter being ever ready to install compliant ('democratic') regimes to ensure the free flow of tribute. The most favoured vehicle for the delivery of this great 'freedom' is the US military, who have amassed unsurpassed experience in the art of bestowing freedom from 30,000ft through bomb doors. It seems they will be paying regular visits for the foreseeable future to states that may 'roguishly' have differing 'undemocratic’, ‘tyrannical’ or ‘terrorist' priorities.
Having appointed itself ‘world policeman’, ie, given itself the right to rain death and destruction at will on all independent nations, the US military has apparently been astonished to encounter hostility and even unfathomable resistance to its generous distribution of ‘democracy’ at great expense to the American taxpayer: “These people aren’t even grateful,” is the GIs’ lament!. Quickly realising that their enemy in Iraq (and elsewhere) has a name (‘Satan’) and a face (Fallujah), new methods have been sought by the invaders to deal with the brave heroes of the resistance. The US now plans to become the world’s jailer.
Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, Bagram air base (Afghanistan), ships in international waters – these are just the start. The US plans to ‘outsource’ more torture centres to be run by ‘friendly’ regimes, and in this way wash its hand of the responsibility for what goes on inside.
Here, says Uncle Sam, there is no international law, there is no Geneva convention, there are no human rights monitors. Tiny defiant Cuba raises its lone voice to point out the emperor is wearing no clothes. For how fond is the US of haranguing all and sundry for their alleged human rights abuses? Its most rabid campaigns are always reserved for the places its tentacles cannot reach, noticeably the truly free (from exploitation of man by man and nation by nation) socialist states.
Kate Allen, director of Amnesty International for Britain, relates that "more than 500 detainees from around 40 countries remain in legal limbo", imprisoned in the now infamous Camp Delta military gaol in Guantanamo Bay, subject to mental and physical tortures day and night to the point where, according to “a senior US official … ‘three-quarters of the 550 prisoners at Guantánamo Bay no longer have any intelligence of value’. But they will not be released out of concern that they pose a continuing threat to the US. ‘You're basically keeping them off the battlefield, and, unfortunately in the war on terrorism, the battlefield is everywhere.’” (Jonathan Steele in The Guardian, 14 January 2005)
Of nine Britons interred, five were released in 2004 and the British media have made much of the recent announcement that four remaining prisoners (Feroz Abbasi, 23, Richard Belmar, 23, and Martin Mubanga, 29, all from London, plus Moazzam Begg, 36, from Birmingham) are due for release in the next few weeks. Two more British residents are not to be released and the four men mentioned above face arrest and questioning under the Terrorism Act of 2000 upon their return to Britain. Little is made of the fact that these unaccountable torture houses are set to unroll across the globe.
Little or no evidence has been found to implicate the British internees in any crime. The point, however, is that the US seeks to delegitimise the act of resistance. The desperation of their means highlights the extent of their isolation and the ultimate futility of their actions. Here then ‘mighty’ empires show their feet of clay! British workers must defend the right of our brother and sister nations to self determination, including their right to militarily resist the onslaught of ‘our’ imperialist armies against them. After all, they have not crossed the seas and travelled thousands of miles to rain death from our skies and steal our resources, though given the British record in Iraq and beyond they have had more than enough justification.
In Gobbelsian propaganda, flouting of all norms of international law and the sheer magnitude of their murderous war crimes, US/British imperialism surpassed Hitlerite fascism long ago. |
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