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I think the main problem for the UK in dealing with Guantanamo and other acts of US hostility to human rights, is the lack of a sutible frame of reference. So the fact that the three main characters are just standard English boys, who we all know, with thier rap music and swearing, and can understand them culturally, helped me to get into thier headspace. The thing that struck me about the whole episode was how unfair this was on the boys, how the system at Guantanamo is based on extracting the "correct" answers from prisoners, as opposed to the truth, and how ineffectual the whole system was. For example, the three british characters are thought to have been at a rally in Afghanistan attended by Osama Bin Laden in Jan or Aug 2001, when two of them were doing community service for fraud and violent behaviour, and one was working in Currys in Tipton.
It was very moving, in the way that prison dramas are. Also, the way in which the characters were debased and such was harrowing, but one scene really did me in. A US officer showed one of the inmates how well known he was by prinitng out a google search of his name, and while looking through the prisoner discovered his nephew had died while he had been in Guantanamo, something he had no idea about as he'd been denied any access to his family, either in person or writing. Also, the UK consulte was a fucking joke who just allowed this to continue for months and did nothing to help. |
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