What Makes a Terrorist
May 8, 2008 by Joshua Davis
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp should be shut down. But what will become of the prisoners, many whose only contact with Americans was at the hands of torturers? At least one man turned his anger at Americans in to a terrorist act reports the BBC News:
A former Kuwaiti detainee at the US camp at Guantanamo Bay carried out a recent suicide bombing in northern Iraq, the US military has said.
A spokesman for US Central Command told the Associated Press that Abdullah al-Ajmi took part in an attack in Mosul on 29 April that killed several people.
Ajmi and two other Kuwaitis blew up two explosive-packed vehicles next to Iraqi security forces, media reports say.
Conservative pundits are sure to use this as an excuse for why Gitmo detainees need to be tried and executed in these monkey trials, now referred to as milatary tribunals. American policies has surely deranged the prisoners at Guantanamo, and what are we to do with these ex-prisoners that are sure to hate Americans with a new vengeance? Surely we should let the innocent ones go, but we have potentially made an angry man ripe for terrorism.
But this raises two other points a liberal would surely agree with. One, apparently torture wasn’t effective in getting information from Abdullah al-Ajmi. Two, his experiences at Gitmo only served to reinforce his anger towards America for being an imperialistic nation, and encouraged this event.
The Guantanamo Bay torture center proved ineffective in stopping terrorism, so why heap abuse on suspects, while tarnishing America’s image as the center of the free and civilized world?
Photo by Ed Jones
Torturing people in Guantanamo Bay (and other prisons) is ridiculous, especially when many of the prisoners kept there are held in prison for years without being charged with a crime. I don’t know if you’ve heard about Al Jazeera Cameraman Sami al-Haj. He was released from Guantanamo Bay recently, after spending six and a half years there without ever being charged with a crime or being allowed a trial. All of this business with secret prisons and torture and so on…I’ll be glad when we’re well shot of it.
That’s one of the reasons that I support Mike Gravel for President: he has stated that his first act as President would be to have Guantanamo Bay blown up (after being emptied, of course), while he was taking his Oath of Office and being sworn in. Anyone who is elected ought to do that, and with Gravel’s motives: to resoundingly show to the world that he is a completely different president, on Day One, than the previous president. A president who values the civil liberties of the people.
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