U.S. public radio show covers Guantanamo

international | anti-war / imperialism | other press Tuesday March 21, 2006 04:47 by Our Los Angeles Correspondent - IMC Internationale

This American Life (from WBEZ Chicago)

This American Life is an audio chronicle of the weird, the prosaic, the extraordinary, the beautiful and the disgusting in the massively diverse country called the United States of America. It is frequently an amazing show, containing memories of disturbing childhoods, hilarious miscapades and cunning hipster pranks. But no episode has reached the level of the 10th March 2006 episode "Habeas Schmabeas".

Interviewed are 2 of the released Guantanamo detainees, and the show sets out to explain how people can be locked away basically for ever even when the (US) governments own files say those people are not threats. One of the interviewees is one of two Pakistani publishers of a satire magazine are among the detainees. They seem to have been turned in by corrupt politicians for satirising them and for issuing a satirical "Wanted" ad for US president Bill Clinton (5 million rani = US$130).

Only 5% or the detainees at Guantanamo are captured from the battlefield. Only 8% are classified by their captors as "Al Qaeda". 86% of the detainees were handed over by the "Northern Alliance" or the Pakistanis.

Discussed is the Geneva Convention (interviewee Brian Boyle, Attorney General for President Bush during the period when the majority of detentions are believed to have occurred). It discusses the principle of _habeas corpus_ and why the US fought a major war to establish this right.

Listen to this show. It's completely mind blowing. We already know the essentials, but this is a powerful presentation of how crap this "War on Terror" is. (It's a real audio link). You can also buy the show episode instead of streaming it by going to http://www.thislife.org

(there's also an extended version here: http://www.thislife.org/ra/310_bonus.ram )