The Guantanamo Tragedy

The above video is a shortened version of a documentary aired on Al-Jazeera, based on CCTV footage captured while interrogators quizzed Canadian Guantanamo child inmate Omar Khadr. Omar was just 15 when captured in Afghanistan by US troops, before being shipped off to the infamous post-911 Guantanamo Bay prison. 


Much has already been written on Guantanamo Bay, and the stain it continues to leave on the USA's human rights record - but something about this short film, struck me. I guess the innocent pleas of Omar, the utter despondency in his voice, once he realises that his fellow Canadian secret agents were not the original saviors he thought them to be. I tried to put myself in his shoes and imagine what it must have been like being tortured by US agents the likes of Joshua Claus, who was later convicted of torturing an Afghan Taxi driver to death. And then I remembered our Dear sister, Aafia Siddiquie, still incarcerated in a US prison for a crime that not even the sentencing judge was sure she had committed. It struck me that these two unfortunate people's only crime, was being on the wrong end of an angry post-911 USA. A USA that was hell bent on wreaking revenge for the September 11 attacks, at any cost whatsoever. 


This was the country that popularized the "Bill of Rights". This was the country that advertised itself as the "Land of the Free". And has spawned many success stories of people achieving the "American Dream". 


But something has gone awry somewhere along the way. Even before 9-11, USA was already involved in numerous wars across the globe. And now we have this blemish called Guantanamo Bay. I'm sure many people see it as a necessary evil to combat the "terrorists". But what about when the line between terrorist and the average kid on the block gets so out of focus, like it has with Omar, that all sensibility and compassion goes out the window. Where are we headed to as humanity, when we see no wrong in locking up a 15 year old kid, in a dark solitary confinement cell, for months on end? Where are we as people of the world, when a female detainee, is not safe from being stripped naked, repeatedly raped by her captives, made to stand on their holy scripture, as in Dr Aafia Siddiquie's case? 


Is this the kind of legacy every American wants to leave behind? Is this what you want to be remembered for? I don't imagine anyone with half a brain would. Let's hope we all get to see a better world... soon. It's up to each one of us, in our own little way, to make a difference. Maybe by just writing a blog, or sending a message of peace and love, or just helping the little homeless child on the street. But it's up to us, to try and get back our humanity, so that we can close this chapter of history, like any good novel would, with a happy ending.