Orwell's Guantanamo

[unhappycamper]

Orwell's Guantanamo
EDITORIAL
Translated By Jan de Nijs
June 13, 2006

Through newspaper columns and TV-reports, George Orwell has made a comeback. The "Newspeak" he described in his anti-utopian masterpiece "1984" has been revived, this time by the commander of the American prison for terror suspects at the Guantanamo Bay naval base. Rear Admiral Harry Harris stated that the suicide of the three prisoners last Friday, "I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us." In Washington, a spokesperson for the American State Department had to outdo this by calling the deaths, "a good PR move to raise attention."

"War is peace," Orwell wrote. With that statement he showed that language is also a weapon of war. His 1948 book has lost none of its topicality, as these latest word games demonstrate. An act of despair, is portrayed as just the reverse. And even if the American claims were true, that would be more than enough reason to close Guantanamo. This "modern day Gulag," as the base is called from time to time, puts the spotlight on the United States as a gross violator of human rights. The three suicides underline this once again, with much negative publicity as a consequence.

At Guantanamo Bay, terror suspects are imprisoned and interrogated without due process for indefinite periods of time without any regard for American or international law. That these are al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters that pose serious threats to Western society is beside the point. These are prisoners with legal rights, and the conditions of their incarceration are widely and rightfully condemned. But despite increasing pressure from American political figures and the public at large, four years after opening the base is remains open. In fact, a speedy closure is not even under discussion.

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