I urge you to read Kevin Drum's new piece in the Washington Monthly, which summarizes the cover story of the National Journal. According to this account, many of the prisoners held in subhuman conditions at Gitmo were detained for reasons that were not just hazy, not just unproven, but downright false.
The Americans had a collaborator -- presumably, a well-paid collaborator -- who labeled quite a few Arabs in Afghanistan as participants in terrorist training exercises, even though the individuals in question had not yet entered the country at the time of these alleged sessions. The same all-too convenient accuser pointed the finger in some 60 very dubious cases. Those few of you old enough (or well-read enough) to recognize the name "Harvey Matusow" may understand the methodology.
Worse, these detainees were rounded up in more-or-less random sweeps. Most Americans believe, erroneously, that these men had taken up arms against our soldiers.
What on earth is the purpose of rounding up dozens of men based on false accusations?
2 comments:
I am reminded of Captain Renault's line in Casablanca-- "Round up the usual suspects."
As there, so with the War on Terrorists. Guilt, or even plausible suspicion, is wholly irrelevant. What matters is that it look like a serious effort at catching the culprits is being made.
Two reasons why this might be so.
One, the administration has no intention of catching the real bad guys, because they are them.
Two, the administration actually believed, in the beginning, that they could catch the bad guys, and has since discovered the task to be futile, but won't admit it, and so keeps the poor suckers it has grabbed in permanent custody, even while knowing they are likely innocent.
You guys do have quite a memory for obscure trivia. I feel someday, we could have a very interesting conversation over a joint or two.
Harvey Matusow – a name to conjure with. He was a man of many contradictory worlds:
It seems to me that Harvy Matusow was (he died in 2002) a Zelig-like character. First a member of the Communist party. Then a major informant for Joe McCarthy. Then a jailbird when he was busted for perjury. His cell was right next to Weilhelm Riech’s at Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary when Reich died in 1957! and… Finally he became a sixties flower-child/confidence-man/sycophant. Always the inveterate con-man, He claimed to have invented the hoax concerning the smoking of banana-peels to get high. My only (indirect) connection with him was when I produced an in-house multimedia presentation for Chess Records in 1968 which included the premier of his record album “The War between the Fats and Thins – Harvey Matusow and his Jews Harp Band.” People alternately loved and hated him and simultaneously loved and hated him. One of his friends summed up his life in following eulogy:
Yes… I knew him well. Though many of note would scream at me for saying so - in the end Harvey Job Matusow was a socially generous, good-natured sweetheart of a man (though always Harvey). In his later years H. Job Matusow tried to atone for some of his earlier misdeeds by unselfishly helping others - most notably - homeless Native American survivors. I can not (I would never!) attempt to defend or explain the reasons why for his infamous activities with McCarthy, HUAC, FBI, or any other Orwellian intelligence branch or underground publication.) - nor can I offer any insight whatsoever into his (at times comic) habit of creating extravagant situations from whole cloth. The best that I can offer is that he started out as a stand-up comic, but so many of his self-incriminating routines have fallen flat, and at times quite hard upon their lies. What I can and will say, is that over the course of our knowing one another, Harvey was (as best as I can determine), open, warm hearted, infinitely creative, jovial, generous and generally forthcoming when put to press by his friends. Who I am to your readers is quite up to them. – Anonymused
http://www.emptymirrorbooks.com/thirdpage/leteramort.html
Also for a brief flavorful description of the man’s life – check out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Matusow
I swear, if you made it up, no one would ever believe you.
Note:
As those of us who lived through the singularity that was the 60’s are so fond of saying:
Nostalgia sure ain’t what it used to be!
Peace,
Bob Boldt
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