You Have The Right To Have No Right

I stumbled upon this video yesterday. I watched it to the very last second.

 Here`s the synopsis:

 “In March 2013, reports of a hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay, the US detention camp in Cuba, began to surface. Details were sketchy and were contradicted by statements from the US military. Now, using testimony from five detainees, this animated film reveals the daily brutality of life inside Guantanamo. Today there are 17 prisoners still on hunger strike, 16 of whom are being force-fed. Two are in hospital.

Warning: contains scenes some viewers might find disturbing.”

I`ve never been down there, at Guantanamo Bay. And I hope I never do, not even as a visitor. This video shook me to the core, and it`s just an animated film. Seeing this horror with my own eyes would probably break anyone in his right mind (and heart) to pieces.

Now, I`m not being absurd. I know there are many scumbags imprisoned there. I know a lot of them have or had some sort of connection with Al-Qaeda. But I also know there are too many innocent people detained there for absolutely no reason whatsoever. As you`ve seen in the video, there are detainees that have been signed for release… and are still in Gitmo, due to various “technicalities”.

And while I understand it is safer to keep terrorists locked up and prevent attacks instead of dealing with another 9/11, I believe the U.S. government has taken this too far. The current administration has instituted a reign of terror, using the fight against terrorism to cover very illegality they commit. But instead of creating a safe and healthy environment, they`re using fear mongering to turn Americans into their puppets.

Nationwide spying programs, international espionage, drone killings, old wars, new wars, cyberwars, secret prisons, kill lists, “terrorist threats”… this is what America is made of nowadays. Literally anyone can become a suspect. Based on some joke you told your aunt on the phone last Sunday, you could be accidentally considered a key element in an Al-Qaeda plan to kill the president. The feds could be kicking down your door tomorrow and throwing you in Gitmo without ever saying a word to you.

Just picture that: being arrested tomorrow, for charges you do not know (and will never know, because no one will bother to tell you anything), thrown in a prison cell and forced to answer questions you do not even understand. You ask about your kids every day, they say it`s none of your business anymore. You`re there to stay. Indefinitely. You ask for a lawyer. Your record is crystal clear, your lawyer tells you the good news: you`re free to go home. Today. Tomorrow. Next week. Next month. Maybe next year. Maybe never.

There are innocent people sitting in Guantanamo for over a decade. More than ten years of dealing with a crime they`ve never done. A crime they haven`t even heard of. Maybe a crime others have already done, while he was imprisoned for it. These people are still hoping Obama will keep his promise and set them free.

I think that`s how you can tell the innocent from real terrorists in Gitmo. The innocent ones have to deal with the hope — the unbearable hope — that someday, someone will see the awful mistake that`s been made and will let them go home. Finally. They`ll get to see their kids again. And that`s why they`re hunger striking. That hope, the one that never seems to come true, is killing them. Literally.

The U.S. government, however, chooses to deal with this major problem the way they deal with all problems in this country. They chose the easiest, quickest and most intrusive “solution”. Force feeding. A painful, degrading, and illegal procedure that should only be considered after everything else fails. This was the government`s first choice. FORCE-feeding.

This is why I`m more and more afraid of living in this country. Of my government. Of the police. Of the feds. Of walking down down the street. Of talking on the phone. Of writing an e-mail. If I`m ever suspected of plotting against the U.S. (and my website isn`t helping me much, let`s be honest), there will be no rational talking between consenting adults. There will be no trial. There will be no way out. It`ll just be FORCE. Because that`s all the government can do.

By Alec Deacon