"WHO'S IN CHARGE AROUND HERE?"

BUSH AND GUANTANAMO BAY

22-06-2006

President Bush says that he wants to close Guantanamo Bay. Then why doesn't he?

As the President of the most powerful nation on earth there's nothing stopping him - unless he's got puppet-master secretly pulling his strings.

Either that, or he's a liar.

The truth is that Bush and his cronies set up an illegal camp four years ago, and have determined that inmates should be locked up indefinitely without the benefit of a trial - or even access to a lawyer guaranteed to all prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention.

Oh yes, I was forgetting - these men aren't “prisoners of war” at all, but “enemy combatants” who happen to have been captured.

So that's all right then.

For a man so frequently mocked for his poor grasp of English, this is one occasion when George W Bush has certainly risen to the semantic challenge.

And just to make sure those college geeks with their fancy degrees can't find any loopholes “Two Brains” sited the whole operation in the legal no-mans land of a US military base in Cuba.

An impressive achievment for a man so dumb he can't even spell “potatoe” (sic).

And even moreremarkable when you remember that his mission is to spread democracy and human rights around the world.

The Stirrer has spoken to all four of the most prominent British detainees who have been released from Guantanamo - Moazzam Begg from Birmingham, and the Tipton Three - Shafique Rasul, Ruhal Ahmed, and Asif Iqbal from the Black Country.

In varying degrees they had the haunted, broken air of men who know they will forever be tainted with suspicion.

Yet although the quartet were subjected to long periods of interrogation they gave up no information which led to a trial.

Instead, they were released without trial - but needless to say have so far received no apology or compensation.

In fact only ten of the camp's 460 prisoners have been charged, and it's expected that many more will eventually be setfree withoutdue legal process.

Until then they are forcedto live in conditions that Amnesty International compared to the Russian gulags and where torture and beatings are commonplace.

No wonder that three inmates committed suicide a fortnight ago.

In typically sympathetic mode, one Bush official described it as “a good PR move” (what for? A career in snuff movies?).

Meanwhile the commander of the camp reckoned it was an act of “asymmetrical warfare” by Al Qaeda.

Not just three desperate blokes at the end of their tether then.

Only one personhas the power to end this nightmare now and the close the camp that shames America - theman who authorised the damn thingin the first place.

So go on George - prove that you really are engaged in a War on terror, and not just a War on Democracy or a War On Human Rights.

Charge those who you think are criminals under America's legal system.

And set the rest free from the stinking hell-hole you've created in the name of freedom.