A Prayer for Sami
As I sit on front of the computer I often think about the 335 prisoners at Guantanamo, almost none of which have ever been charged with any crime.
Here is the sad story of one of them, plus some insight into what prison is like (based on my own experience as a prison employee).
This post may seem depressing. I write in the hope that we think about these people once in a while.
Sami al-Haj, age 38, was a journalist for al-Jazeera.
In October 2001, he was sent to cover the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. He exposed several U.S. massacres of Afghans. Therefore the Bush regime vowed revenge.
After the fall of Kabul, Sami and his crew went to Pakistan.
In December 2001, Sami and his crew were given visas to return to Afghanistan. The following month, Sami tried to re-enter Afghanistan with his crew, but the USA ordered the Pakistani Army to arrest him.
Sami was taken to the US military dungeon in Bagram, Afghanisatan, then Kandahar, and finally to Guantanamo in June 2002.
He has been in Guantanamo ever since.
He has never been charged with any crime.
250 days ago he began a hunger strike. He has given up all hope, and now just wants to die. British and American psychiatrists say he will probably succeed.
Sami al-Haj is from Sudan. People in Sudan (especially women) who are caught in the Bush-sponsored terror campaign eventually give up. (The Bush regime sustains civil war in Darfur in order to steal the oil there.)
In the midst of rape, slow starvation, and abject humiliation, Sudanese women suddenly sit down under a tree with their children and wait for death. They just sit there, without emotion, and die.
In June 2006, two Arabian* prisoners and one Yemeni prisoner hanged themselves at Guantanamo. In June 2007 another Arabian* man killed himself. (The USA describes these acts of despair as “asymmetric terrorism.”)
* I decline to use the word “Saudi.” The al-Saud family is just one family in Arabia.
Sami’s lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, is British, but works in the USA. He is with Reprieve, an international network of non-profit humanitarian organizations. He has filed 128 lawsuits on behalf of Guantanamo Bay prisoners and other U.S. prisoners around the world.
He says Sami has endured months of brutal force-feeding (tubes jammed down his nose and throat). On several occasions the force-feeding tubes have been rammed into Sami’s lungs by mistake, almost killing him.
Sami has been interrogated 130 times. During 125 of these sessions, Sami’s torturers have asked Sami if “al-Qaeda” owns the al-Jazeera network.
[[Al-Jazeera is mainly owned by Hamad bin Khalifa, the Emir of Qatar, who cooperates with Bush. However, Bush considered bombing Al Jazeera's Doha headquarters in April 2004, when U.S. Marines were laying waste to Fallujah, Iraq. The UK Daily Mirror exposed this on November 22, 2005. Earlier, the USA asked the Emir to disclose where al-Jazeera offices were located. When the Emir did so, the USA blew up al-Jazeera’s offices in Kabul (2001) and Baghdad (2003), killing correspondent Tareq Ayyoub.]]
Blankets and clothing have been removed to prevent Sami from using them to asphyxiate himself.
Sami is married, and has a seven-year old son who was a year old when Sami was imprisoned. He says the worst part of his nightmare is that he cannot see his wife and son.
Dr. Mamoun Mobayed is a British psychiatrist based in Northern Ireland. He visits prisoners at Guantanamo. He says Sami’s wife is suffering from severe depression.
This is the kind of thing that talk show hosts like Sean Hannity delight in.
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Personal note
You might wonder what the U.S. guards at Guantanamo think.
Here is some insight...
I worked at a state prison for two years. I worked all levels of security, including death row.
Prison systems – military and civilian -- attract some of the lowest people I have ever met in my life. This occurs in all fifty states. (Trust me. I’ve communicated with prison employees in other states.)
Conditions for employees are awful. Morale is always at rock bottom. Most employees are always under investigation for one reason or another. Snakes and worms use the system for personal gain, and burn all the other employees.
People stay in state systems because it’s easy work and a steady paycheck. Soon they become too demoralized to look for a job elsewhere.
People in private-run prisons, however, can be fired instantly. (By the way, when an inmate files a lawsuit against a private prison, the public taxpayer must foot the bill.)
Here’s my point…
Guards deal with these horrible conditions by adopting a “macho” attitude. This includes female guards. Anyone who shows decency is denounced as an “inmate lover.” Guards who mistreat inmates are respected (unless they go so far that they cause a lawsuit). This was one reason for the Abu Ghraib nightmare in Iraq.
Does everyone who works in a prison system become sadistic?
No.
I did a personal study of this, and concluded that the statistical rule of “80-20” applies in prisons as it does elsewhere in life. Only about 20 % of the guards at any installation are truly sadistic. The remaining 80%, however, let it happen. If they speak out, they will be in trouble. This pattern is found everywhere and at all times. The statistical breakdown is mathematically "robust" (consistent and universal). For example, I am confident that only about 20% of israeli jailers are truly sadistic toward their Arab captives. The rest just "go along to get along" and allow torture to happen.
This is part of what Sami al-Haj must endure.
When outsiders ask why Sami is in prison, U.S. authorities say he is a “security threat.”
His “crime” is that he is a good journalist.
Is the following accurate?
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No such group as “Al-Qaeda” exists. It is a total fabrication.
If you were forming a terrorist group, would you call yourself, "The Toilet"?
In Arabic, "Ana raicha Al Qaeda" is colloquial for "I'm going to the toilet.” Many Arabic countries commonly use the word "Al-Qaeda" for the toilet bowl.
This name comes from the Arabic verb "Qa'ada," which means "to sit", pertinently, on the "Toilet Bowl".
In some Arabs' homes there are two kinds of toilets: "Al-Qaeda" (also called the "Hamam Franji" or foreign-style toilet), and "Hamam Arabi" or "Arab toilet" which is a hole in the ground.*
The potty used by small children is called "Ma Qa'adia" or "Little Qaeda".
Source:
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/fakealqaeda.html
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* Unrelated comment from THX...
Some Americans may consider a "hole in the ground" to be a primitive kind of toilet. Based on my travels, any time I saw a hole in the ground, or in the floor, I also saw a water source (such as a faucet) and a bar of soap.
Which is more hygenic and "primitive"--a scrap of paper, or soap and water?
..that's why it's polite to shake hands only with the right, lol..
..i thought you meant Sami Al-Arian when i saw the blog title..
..perhaps the zio-supremacists have made it 'iLLegal' to have an Arabic name now!! Marked for genocide by the most duplicitous, evil motherf*ckers that ever existed!
Thanks for sharing that humane article 1138.
"I may not agree with what you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it" Voltaire
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"Hey you, Whitehouse. Ha ha,.. charade you are" Pigs/Animals/Pink Floyd
and great observations.
Whenever I read these accounts of individual suffering, I can see and understand it better.
It is still true, that the suffering of so many will become a pure statistic, if we do not remember, that each and everyone of these many is an individual with feelings and a family crying for him.
Did you ever watch "the road to Guantanamo" about those Brits who were finally released.
The inhumanity of this illegal system becomes so clear. It is against all international laws, and in the long run, the way those prisoners are treated will hurt American soldiers in the future.
How can American soldiers expect that they are being treated in a lawful manner when taken prisoner, if they treat other people so badly.
But the people who control and created the system of Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib do not care about American soldiers either.
Thank you also for your accounts of the American prison system.
The reason, why the system is so abusive and made in the image of the brutal and corrupt 20% and not controlled by the 80% who have a conscience like everybody else, is most probably, because the authorities want it that way.
If you would look at the prison systems in western European countries you would probably see, that because rules against prisoner abuse (physical and psychological) are strictly enforced and prisoner on prisoner violence is most often prevented by single cells and supervision in areas where prisoners get together, the situation is very different.
in the US with no privilege of habeas corpus. We could all be arrested, imprisoned and tortured with no finding of guilt by a jury. That is why "the Great Writ" is said to be the cornerstone of democracy.
The story of Guantanamo is under-reported and is a black stain on the US. The MSM works hard to make sure we are all frightened and misinformed.
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"Stop judging by appearances, but judge justly."
Sami el Hajj and Tayseer 'Allouni are 2 important Jazeera journalists who were imprisoned for soley doing their jobs in Afghanistan. Tayseer is in a 'normal' jail at least..., but Sami is in Guantanamo and is being force fed through a tube from his nose to stomach because he decided to stop eating over 250 days ago. I think that what the US is doing to innocent people in Guantanamo will haunt the US for a very long time as I don't imagine that the families of these prisoners will ever forget what their loved ones were forced to endure by the "liberating" American forces. I saw a program some time ago that explained what physically happened to the prisoners on Guantanomo who went on hunger strikes and how they were tied down in order to be force fed. I personally could never forget this program and will never understand the cruelty involved in Bush's war on "terror". The way I see it is that the war on "terror" which is now being called "the war on fundamentalist Islam".., is a major cover-up for the activities of the real terrorists who are in Tel Aviv and Washington.
..the bastards' destiny, for what they've done to life on God's Garden Earth, is an eternity of torture, infinitely worse than is possible for us to imagine; in SHEOL.
..with these things going on, surely the wrath of God is just around the corner, for we are witness.