History Revisited?

international | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis Monday December 22, 2003 12:23 by Claire clairetreanor at hotmail dot com

Hitler and his Nazis would have been proud of Guantanemo Bay.

 
History Revisited? Claire Treanor

Here’s a quote: “ A national monument has been destroyed. Terrorism is threatening our democracy. We must do whatever it takes to overcome the foreign infiltrator and to defend democracy and freedom.”

Now, here’s a thing: that was Adolf Hitler speaking on February 28 1933. The national monument that he referred to was the Reichstag. It had been burned down the previous day.
Here’s another thing: almost immediately the Nazis began to indiscriminately arrest Jews and dissenters without explanation or charge. In short, they took immediate advantage of the Reichstag fire to further their own interests at the expense of their constitution and of civil rights.
And yet another thing: Many of those arrested simply vanished without trace. Many more were detained indefinitely without charge. Before long there were so many detainees that it became necessary to build camps in which to hold them all. History has since given these a nifty little title: Concentration Camps.
Here’s a thought: Camp Delta. And another: Camp Iguana. And yet another: Camp X-Ray.
For those of you that don’t know, these camps are holding ‘terror suspects’, many indefinitely and without explanation or charge. The detainees have no access to legal representation. When they are eventually tried, it will be by military tribunal.
BBC journalists Paul Welsh and Gordon Corera tell us that, while they await their fair and impartial trials (!) the detainees are confined in 8-foot cells. They get about 15 minutes exercise twice a week. All are manacled 24 hours a day. High wattage electric lights shine on them day and night. None have ever been told why they are there. Nor have their families. It is reported that the detainees are subjected to intense interrogation. In one case that we know about, this lasted fifteen days. It is reported too that an execution chamber is currently being built inside Camp Delta. Incidentally, four of the detainees are children. Remember the only reason that we know any of these details is because four British men are now detained there. Like a guard dog our media doesn’t bark until the threat is on its own doorstep.
We also only know what the Americans have chosen to let us know. We can only guess at what they have chosen not to let us in on.
One last quote: “Bad things happen when good people do nothing.”