Say Guantanamo, and most people will think of human rights abuses and prisoners in orange clothes being mistreated, maltreated, denied basic human rights and denied legal representation. All this by a free democratic country. Karen Greenberg (Executive Director of the Center on Law and Security at the NYU School of Law and is the co-editor of The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib and editor of The Torture Debate in America.) writes an interesting note on the blog TomDispatch about how Gunatanamo may be addressed by the media.
It is very difficult not to think Orwellian thoughts about the control of language being the control of society.
- Guantanamo is not a prison.
- Consistent with not being a prison, Guantanamo has no prisoners, only enemies.
- Guantanamo is not about guilt and innocence — or, once an enemy combatant, always an enemy combatant.
- No trustworthy lawyers come to Guantanamo.
- Recently, at least, few if any reliable journalists have been reporting on Guantanamo.
- After years of isolation, the detainees still possess valuable information — especially today.
- Guantanamo contains no individuals — inside the wire or out.
- Guantanamo’s deep respect for Islam is unappreciated.
- At Guantanamo, hard facts are scarce.
- Guantanamo houses no contradictions.
- Those who fail to reproduce the official narrative are not welcome back.
Feeling all warm and fuzzy inside – knowing that these are the people claiming to be fighting for freedom and democracy worldwide…
(via Markmedia)