American Justice

Link via TalkLeft.
The Observer | UK News | How we survived jail hell is a two part series that is essential reading for anyone concerned about the direction Bush is taking this country. David Rose spoke with three British nationals who were just released from detention at the Guantanamo camp for "enemy combatants." One small problem: they weren't combatants.

Nor were they terrorists. In fact, they simply were three young men caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, and nearly became casualities themselves. Between the hellish experience of confinement in a semi container, to detention camps in Afghanistan, then off to Cuba, Asif Iqbal, Ruhal Ahmed and Shafiq Rasul are living examples of a policy gone mad. And, they assert that most of the Guantanamo detainees are similarly confined without cause:

(from part two of the series of articles):

All are convinced that there are no 'big-time' terrorists at Guantanamo: arguably the most dangerous, in American eyes, says Ahmed, is a group of Taliban mullahs. American intelligence sources have confirmed this view to me. The 'big-timers' - men such as Khalid Shaikh Mohamed, architect of 9/11, have never been near Guantanamo. One source says: 'Guantanamo may even be a bit of a front, designed to divert al-Qaeda's attention. It takes everybody's attention away from more important matters and locations where big fish are being held. The secrecy surrounding it makes everybody think that very serious stuff is going on there.'

There's a word for the camp at Guantanamo and the actions of those who created it--shameful.