Last night I watched Torture: Guantanamo Guidebook on Channel 4 and was shocked and appalled by it, more than I thought I would have been. I think having an introduction to each of the seven detainees rather than them being simply anonymous people I had more empathy for them than I had for the real detainees at Camp Delta in Cuba.
I’m really quite disturbed that people are suffering worse abuse than was depicted in the programme and have been for years with no end in sight no wonder the incidence of suicide is high or should I say incidence of ‘Manipulative self-injurious behaviour’ as the US Government has now termed it.
Even if I believed that the ‘ends justified the means’ this is wrong because I’m sure that the quality of information gained from the torture is far outweighed by the level of abuse required to extract it. Only a minority of detainees possibly had important information and after two years surely even those people no longer have information of any worth.
Interestingly whilst searching the internet for further information regarding this programme I discovered that one of the detainees is a professional kickboxer named Gary Turner who has written about his experiences here. He says that he found the experience uncomfortable but easy to get through.
I do really think that my sports training saw me through. Mental and physical strength. Discipline and fitness. Made it much easier to get through.
But thanks to my fight training, it was a surprisingly easy, although uncomfortable, thing to go through.
He goes on to say.
I too have no sympathy for the terrorists, only the innocents, who I feel real sorry for. I think I would have gone mad within a month. They’ve been there for years. Talking with the interrogators over dinner afterwards we were told of the real problem of Guantanamo Bay. That is resources – all the interrogators can earn so much more in the corporate world, like them, therefore leave the army! They say that without doubt there are innocents at Guantanamo Bay, but they just aren’t being processed due to lack of resources…they’re the ones I feel so sorry for.
Tags: torture
