Sami Al-Hadj and his son last week:
The Al-Jazeera
cameraman was arrested in Pakistan on December 15,
2001 and incarcerated in Guantanamo. He was finally
released on May 1 -the only journalist so far held
there.
Le Quotidiend'Oran, Algeria
The American Law of the Jungle
"The United States is indeed a democracy: Within its own
borders, the rule of law is enshrined. But beyond its walls, only the law of
the jungle prevails."
"Democracy, a free press and the rule
of law - all that the grandeur of the United-States was once based upon - has been
swept away in the name of a tragically absurd vision of politics."
Why was Sami Al-Hadj, a Sudanese cameraman for Al-Jazeera,
detained six years ago in the gulag at Guantanamo? The question makes little
sense, as it would lend credence to the idea that he might be suspect. He is
not. Sami Al-Hadj was
imprisoned at this camp that sits outside the law for one reason: the Americans
decided to make it so. That’s all. The rest, all of it, are just lies and
fabrications. Propaganda and disinformation. Just like
the phantasmagorical weapons of mass destruction that Saddam Hussein was going
to deploy in fifty minutes (dixit Tony Blair) and the
aberrant permanent state of self-defense of the criminals of Blackwater - mercenaries under contract with the U.S. government who kill for pleasure and are
unaccountable under any law.
The United States is indeed a democracy: Within its own
borders, the rule of law is enshrined. But beyond its walls, only the law of
the jungle prevails. Guantanamo is a tropical gulag born of Bushian dementia fed by the war-ideology of the neo-cons. Sami Al-Hadj, like most of Bush’s
forced pensioners, is innocent, one of many classified as collateral damage that have been victimized by imperial paranoia
and hegemony. A young man at the time of his arrest, he's now nearly an old man
as a result of the business of systemic destruction imposed in the name of a
disfigured civilization and in utter defiance of the central principles of
democracy.
One of Sami al-Hajj's
drawings from a series entitled, Sketches
of My Nightmare.
In Washington, Commander Jeffrey Gordon, a spokesman for
the Pentagon, expressing himself perfectly in the Newspeak of George Orwell ,
"justified" the cameraman’s detention: "he was designated an
enemy combatant by the Department of Defense." This is the glibbest
explanation for a long incarceration under the most shocking conditions we've
ever heard. "Enemy Combatant." In the dark
mentality of America's neoconservatives, all Arabs are
potentially "enemy combatants," which is all it takes for the
Pentagon and CIA to draw up lists of unfortunates who are
forever denied the possibility of correcting this status. In the case of Sami Al-Hadj, he was added to the
list by vicious intent to build a "case" against Al-Jazeera. Democracy, a free press and the rule of law - all
that the grandeur of the United-States was once based upon - has been swept
away in the name of a tragically absurd vision of politics.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
Video
on Sami Al-Hadj's release
from Al-Jazeera.
While welcoming the release of Sami Al-Hadj and his
companions-in-misfortune, we mustn't forget that the camp continues to host
individuals outside of the elementary rules of law, and in complete disregard
for international conventions. We must also be grateful to the Sudanese
government for not playing the pathetic American comedy, which is to believe
that citizens handed over to their home countries are nonetheless guilty and
deserving of surveillance. For it is shameful that Guantanamo is managed by a state that had kidnapped
individuals, subjecting them to harsh interrogation, sleep deprivation and
humiliation.
Due to a lack of evidence or confession,
prisoners are sent back to their home countries which must in some way justify
their incarceration or placement under surveillance. These are methods worthy
of the darkest totalitarianism … Is it any wonder that today provokes such
aversion - and not only in the Arab-Muslim arc? And is it at all surprising
that in the eyes of many, it no longer represents the country of freedom and
law but one of violence and arbitrariness?
[Editor's Note:
Reporters Without Borders rates Algeria's media as "Situation Difficult "].
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