Our friendly neighborhood terrorists have gone Gandhian in Guantanamo. Protesting against their ‘indefinite detention and inhuman conditions”, they have started refusing to eat food and water. Of course, they won’t be dying anytime soon.
According to Al Jazeera,
US military officials said detainees who refuse food are given medical treatment including intravenous hydration, water, the sports energy drink Gatorade, a nutritional supplement called Ensure and are admitted to hospital if needed.
As Ashok Kumar would say, while watering his plants “Ensure (Insure) and be secure.”
Come on people, these people *do* have human rights. Sure they do not recognize the human rights of Kafirs like us but that does not mean that we should not recognize theirs. I am sure there must be humane and polite ways of extracting information out of 9/11 conspirators—like saying “Please” and “Thank you”.
And what have we given them. Sleep deprivation, disorientation, exposure to the sun and none of the excellent food, water and shade they were used to in the caves of Tora Bora.
Mohammed Al Qhatani is your everyday Joe who oversaw the massacre of innocents on 9/11. He still has a lot of information on where the other sleeper cells are and who his handlers are. But for some strange reason, he does not want to talk much about it. So the US interrogators get dirty——-they grab him, poke him in the chest, pour water over his head, perform a puppet show for him (which devilish mind came up with this—Miss Piggy?) , show him pictures of 9/11 victims, a picture of a 9/11 victim is pasted on his trousers…
And then the true shocker….inhuman and cruel punishment if there is one.
He is made to listen , in loop, to Christina Aguilera’s “Genie In a Bottle” …………
Oh… I feel like I’ve been locked up tight
For a century of lonely nights
Waiting for someone
To release me
You’re licking your lips and blowing kisses my way
But that dont mean I’m gonna give it away
Baby, baby, baby (baby, baby, baby)
Oh whoa… My body’s saying let’s go
Oh whoa… But my heart is saying no (no)
And Qhatani asks himself—-are the virgins and young boys in heaven really worth this ? Please please……….RELEASE ME.
At least he did not have to hear “I am not a girl not yet a woman” by Britney or “My milkshake brings the boys to the yard” by Kellis………………I am sure if he had, he would be human jelly by now, and crying for a bullet through his brain. His wish would be granted.
But not the way he wants it.
He would then be assailed with a night of Ricky Martin singing “Like a bullet through your brain…….Upside Inside out Livin’ La Vida Loca”.
Point to note that so desperate was this man to get out, he even gave his gentleman’s word that if he was released, he would act as a double agent.
Somehow noone believed him.
Coming back to the Guantanamo prisoners, they are not giving up without a fight. They have decided to boycott showers and smell the US interrogators into submission. Some of them also refused to wear clothes——which just shows that listening to too much Christina Aguilera ultimately makes you behave like her.
What is outrageous is that these men do not know when they will be released. I mean that is so friggin not-on. When these men capture their enemies they never hold onto their prisoners for more than two weeks.
That’s human rights for you.
No puppets, no women invading your personal space. Bow in front of a camera, fall at their feet begging for forgiveness, tearfully bid goodbye to your loved ones and then be beheaded in front of the camera———-the protocol is simple and uniform—-no waiting for days and months for trials and lawyers.
Face it, a chop with a sword on your neck and a lawyer in a black suit—-which one would you like?
Things are better if you are not a Westerner and happen to be Indian. No public humiliation in front of a camera, no falling at someone’s feet. For Indians captured, it’s slow torture——blinding, amputation, castration (all this while being alive)——succintly referred to as the Saurabh Kalia treatment.
Again, castration vs muppet shows? Which one sounds more humane?
Yes the liberals agree with us. That’s why they jump up and down over US’s supposed excesses on the lambkins interred at Guantanamo———innocent sheep who if given half a chance would not hesitate to maim and kill and violate the most fundamental human right—–the right to live. And yet the same liberals ascribe gentle castrations to the overall brutality of war (and therefore not the fault of a particular side in this war)———-note the identification of the enemy in the first case and a principle in the second.
Pump up the Aguilera baby.
The Greatbong Blog & Podcast 
Awesome piece.
You presume that all the people in Gitmo are guilty of conspiring to kill people .Yes they should be treated with dignity.Frankly many of them went to afghanistan to fight the american invasion .I see nothing wrong in this
If they are guilty of killing civilians then by all means
try them and then punish them.
Thanks Priya.
history_lover, There maybe innocent people in Gitmo and determining culpability is a whole different process. I am merely defending the existence of such a facility as a necessity in these times.
Firstly Qhatani *is* guilty of killing civilians. And NO he and his friends should not be treated with dignity….well let me take that back. They should be treated with the same dignity they accorded the innocents at WTC. They should be treated with the same dignity they accorded Daniel Pearl.
As it is they are getting wayyy more slack than these subhumans deserve.
I have a principle—if you do not recognize my fundamental human rights to live then I am under no compulsion to recognize yours.
Now as to enemy combatanats in Afghanistan—-anyone who fights for a regime that openly finances terrorism (ie the Taliban) *is* a terrorist—–not a Geneva convention enemy combatant. They have aided/abetted and fought for those who killed civilans and hence by your own logic, deserve to be punished.
However these people are not being “punished” for punishment’s sake alone…many of them hold vital information and as the attacks in London and Egypt have demonstrated their friends who are yet to be caught are very much at large.
As history_lover said, many of these people are not terrorists, just innocent people who were picked up from the street in Afghanistan and Iraq by mistake (not even fighters). In fact, the government periodically frees many of these people, finding that they in fact had nothing to do with terrorism. Keeping that in mind, torturing anyone who is later found to be innocent is outrageous. Even if you say screw these people who cares, the moment you justify locking up innocent people with no access to legal recourse and expose them to torture, you are destroying democracy. And I dont think the war on terror can be won by destroying our democracy in the process.
@Gawker, The problem you have identified is a genuine one—innocent people being caught in the dragnet and getting “tortured”. However, such is the nature of terrorism that one cannot be over-cautious and such things , regrettable no doubt, are *bound* to happen. That’s just reality.
Having said that, our enemies do not make any distinction between innocent and guilty, noone gets released with his head on his shoulder—-and as long we maintain a morally higher ground in our treatment I think we have done pretty good.
Which is why the cops in London made a mistake of shooting the Brazilian guy but you cannot blame them for being cautious—here is a guy wearing a jacket in July, coming out of a house which is being watched by the cops, who refuses to stop and starts running, and jumps the fence trying to go to a subway——–I mean yeah sure he was innocent but can you really blame the cops for “subverting democracy?”…….
Same logic applies for Gitmo…yes some innocent people get drawn in…but such is the war at hand that such things become inevitable.
I am merely defending the principle behind having a Gitmo and of adopting non-Geneva-convention methods to gain information from scum.
@greatbong
If Qhatani is guilty then bring forth the evidence and then punish him and even give him the death penalty if required
You say that he was a associate of the WTC attackers and Daniel Pearl killers.
Was he directly involved in them all ? If no and you say he was of their kind and perhaps tangentially involved in those activities (or activities similar to them). then it is different.
Frankly this is loose logic.
This is the same twisted logic used by aL-qaida :
The US is a democracy What is democracy ? Government by approval of the people .So american civilians are complicit in the thier governments policies so they (al qaida )are justified in attacking civilians…
As gawker said many people just got picked up.Others went went there to fight on a principle – that if a Muslim land is invaded they will help thier fellow Muslims.You can get insight into thier thinking such people if you have read M J akbar’s latest book
The problem is it has been proven that any evidence obtained from torture is not reliable evidence anyways. The guy is gonna tell you anything you want to hear just to get you to stop. Secondly, I dont think flushing korans down the toilet or forcing the detainees to do “unislamic things” is tantamount to torture. The damage from these activities is more in the area of increased terrorist recruitment than human rights, and that is a different story. But, there are more serious human rights abuses that are taking place in Gitmo, even murder, which I dont think should occur, speaking as a human. Thirdly, the US cannot practice relative morality in the war against terror. This is just going to come back and bite it in the ass. And call me a bleeding heart liberal, I sincerely think the war against terror is not just about killing a lot of people, it is about winning hearts and minds. (cliched, but true. Think about all the people who were with the US on 9/11 and who are with us now). Unless of course, the objective is to use mindless brute force, basically kill terrorists, torture everyone who lives, thus increasing recruitment, then kill those, just creating a vicious cycle. Unless the US wants to eradicate all muslims, it has to have some public image concerns.
@history_lover: Qhatani IS guilty. He has several times accepted (as a matter of pride) that he was involved in 9/11 and regretted not having died like Atta. The people who killed Daniel Pearl are part of the same organization. As to the Al Qaida logic…..the US does not take ppl off the streets intentionally (mistakes yes…but not as a matter of principle)….the US would be like Al Qaida if they just went to the nearby mosque and firebombed it during azaan.
And Muslim land was not being invaded it was being cleaned of scum….the Taliban’s biggest victims were Afghani Muslims forced to grow poppy, Afghani women who were treated worse than animals—-now how come none of your brave fellow Muslims fought the Taliban because of the hardships they imposed on Muslims? How come none of you fought them when they put identification marks on Hindus? How come none of you fought when they tore down historical Buddha statues?
Which shows that fighting for Muslim land is baloney….the guys whom you support dont even care for real suffering Muslims. Nor do they care for humanity. All they want is blood of Kafirs.
Ergo they are nothing but terrorists.
Principle…hah dont make me laugh.
@gawker,
Yes the hearts and minds is a big cliche…and its not possible. There are historic forces of intolerance at work here and winning hearts and minds is a two way street—and the Muslim world has done nothing. Nyet.
So the only thing that remains is to make it tough for terrorists to ply their trade and that means harsh measures and places like Gitmo—yes recruitment does increase…but what else is there to do ? (And no group hugs dont work with castrators and fanatics)
I oppose flushing the Koran down the toilet because it gives the impression that this is a war against Islam……..which it absolutely is not. The terror-mongers want it to be….it helps recruitment which is why such acts are just plain despicable (if it happened)
If I heard that someone flushed the Gita down the toilet, I *would* interpret it as an attack against me…and I dont even believe in God or religion.
@greatbong
There were many people who went off to fight on principle just like many socialists went off to support the Republican Government in the spanish civil wars of 1930s.
@greatbong please check your facts first
On the contrary , the taliban greatly reduced the cultivation of poppy .
They were yes narrow and sectarian
and influenced by tribal pakhtun ideas specially about women.
Also the Taliban financing terrorism ? They were too dependent on to finance terrorism ….
About Hindus wearing distinguishing marks
They wanted to enforce the Islamic injunction of doing good and forbid evil on Muslims only but since there was no system of identity cards they chose this rather crude way to avoid enforcing it on non muslims .
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/Taliban/talebanlec.html
@history_lover,
ROFL….your source is the speech of an advisor to Mullah Umar. You need to get your sources straight….
Actually I love your comments….the one justifying the pre-genocidal marking of Hindus is one for the ages.
And FYI Taliban sponsors terrorism by providing a safe haven for scum like U-know-who…..and the poppy trade was Taliban’s chief source of income and something which was done along with the logistic support of ISI.
Again have to hand it to you…
Fact: Taliban reduced poppy production.
Source: Mullah Omar’s advisor.
Thank you history_lover for giving me a good mid-day laugh.
Taliban reducing poppy cultivation that is a FACT
Google around and then come back …
Even Western sources acknowledge it
See for instance :
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/newsletter_2001-06-30_1_page002.html
Also look at the wikepidia article on taliban
Frankly why should I believe the Western version of events more than that of the Taliban ambassador ? Also how do you suppose that they were genocidal towards Hindus ? That is just a supposition .Prove it by facts (by their recorded statements) that the taliban had a genocidal intent towards hindus
Have you heard about the Star of David? History_lover? Do you know what they led upto?
And hoohah…prove by their recorded statements? As in the Taliban will say they did that in preparation for genocide? Also those Buddha statues….they were brought down to protect the people living in the caves from possible falling pieces of Buddha’s nose….
Frankly why should I believe the Western version of events more than that of the Taliban ambassador ?
Cause the Taliban were scum thats why. I know it breaks your heart but thats what they were—scum.
I am sorry the discourse came down to this level…in fact it took me some time to recognize you were a Taliban-loving, pan-Islamist yourself…..specifically the kind of people I personally detest. Your previous postings had logic..but it does not take long for the mask to come off does it?
@greatbong
You seem to be going off on a tangent and getting angry
You hate the Taliban I disagreed with many of their policies that’s all to it.They were very narrow minded and self -righteous
All I say provide facts
For instance when I provided the link about poppy you stopped arguing about that.
About hindus
http://www.hvk.org/articles/0501/96.html
Your analogy of Star of David is thin and invalid here because the nazi scum had been making threatening statements about jews for long .
The link about the poppy is from a bloody Taliban official…dont u even understand that I stopped arguing cause once you quote the Taliban to back your claims, your argument becomes infantile.
It’s a pity you find that so difficult to understand.
And Islam has making threatening statements about everyone else for centuries…how they will make Kafirs pay jeziya or convert them forcefully…so dont BS me into saying that there was no intent.
The Taliban were more anti -shia than anti Hindu
As for poppy google and read it man than come back
It was from a UN Agency and not a Taliban spokesperson.
You believe Taliban were pure evil.
I don’t.End of the story.
Anyway there are three sides to a story Your side,my side and the RIGHT side 😉 We can agree to disagree.
Before it degenerates into name calling I agree that we should stop.
Dont worry it wont degenerate to name calling…..and as you saw in our last discussion on patriotism, your last comment remained unanswered…because I had no desire to continue the discussion.
good one again bandhu
on another note
all these sleepdeprivation & other things dont really seem to have an effect on them , send in the mumbai police i say , let em have some dandas on theri asses whichll get em talking
***Rest has been removed by blogowner*****
ABSOLUTE RUBBISH….anon…..I have removed the last part of your comment because racial/religious hate speech wont be tolerated on this blog
@greatbong
You seem to be all for prisons like Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib.And if I have understood you correctly you would not like an individual’s human rights to be respected if the concerned individual does not respect the rights of other human beings.Surely terrorists fall in this category.What about ordinary murderers?Surely they also did not respect the rights of their victims while killing them.So should we engage in Taliban like justice and ask the relative of the victim to kill the guilty in broad daylight and make a public spectacle out of that by holding the execution in a football stadium?Also why not extend this kind of retributive justice to other criminals and start cutting off hands of thieves?Also you seem to be quite ready to forget and forgive the crimes committed against innocent civilians by the security agencies worldwide in their war on terror.I wonder if you could have been so complacent if the Brazilian guy killed by the London police had been your close friend!
@arka!
You talk of public executions and chopping of hands as though they are inhuman punishments.
How dare you mock the holy Shariah – Divine Laws sent down for eternity by the Almighty – by insinuating it as barbaric and cruel !
Repent openly, or I will ensure you are deep-fried on the Day of Judgement! 😉
Peace !!!
@greatbong,
What history_lover says IS true about taliban being more anti-shia than being more anti-other religion.
please try reading khaled hosseini’s ‘kite runner’ and/or ‘thousand splendid suns’ for REAL insight into taliban’s twisted logic.
here’s some of it in short way:
when russians left afghanistan, nizbullah took over . but he was just like a puppet to russians. he was overthrown by warlords like masoud,dostum etc who treated afghanistan like urabn gangs treating their turf and killed each other witout mercy.nizbullah was granted sanctury in UN mission.
Due to continuous fighting lots of young people migrated to pakistan and lived in utter poverty with hate in their minds. Now that hate was utilised by saudis and pakistanis to create a fighting force called taliban which defeated other warlords swiftly and took over kabul. They hanged nizbullah publicly.
After the victory was achieved , they didn’t know what to do and THAT’s when the real trouble started. they obviously looked towards saudis masters who told them that sharia was ultimate rule and then shit really hit the fan( line borrowed shamelesly from comic books).
We both know talibans to be real scum , but by some twisted logic, they thought opium trading was against law and they DID reduce the output while they were in command. please don’t let your emotions make you blind to the facts.
@Yogi,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_production_in_Afghanistan#Rise_of_the_Taliban_.281994-2001.29
“Some local opium dealers, looking for a safe operational hub, joined forces with the more fanatic sections of the Mujahideen supported by Arab extremists like Osama bin Laden as well as the Pakistani secret intelligence service ISI to form the Taliban movement towards the end of 1994[7] — see also BBC report here [8].”
Also read:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/10/04/MN67246.DTL
with the rather damning headline:
Drugs fuel terror campaign
Opium trade keeps Taliban in business, experts charge
The “ban” on opium production (after a bumper crop that took place, surprise of surprise when the Taliban was in power) was instituted in order to increase the price of opium (supply-demand). Read the wikipedia entry quoted above and the references.
Thank you.
Arre baba,
How do i put it?
You expect BBC to give realistic report?
These are the guys who passed “irish voilence scene” as a “kashmir scene” a while back (that was a jolly good time of having only doordarshan for getting all your info).
There was big brouhaha and Beebs had to tack it back.
It was a big (na)paki propoganda ( i know it’s a slur but hell i love to use it).
Looks like things have not changed a lot.
Now I don’t have exact info about hte whole deal but I am trusting my memories for the even because i’s only after that incident I stopped watching Beebs.
As far as taliban is concerned, they really meant what thay said about opium and all, but the real culprit here is not them but saudis/pakis masquereding as alquaida et al. who led them to do all the nasty stuff and enjoyed the show from the sidelines.
I am certainly NOT an authority in these matters but I do reearch things once I get inerested in specific subject.
OFF-TOPIC:
If you have time, please try reading ” kite runner” by khaled hosseini( himself a vistim of afghan war) and you will realise how exellent afghan life was before US and USSR started their ‘great game”.