“The three British al-Qaeda suspects being held at Camp X-Ray in Cuba have ‘no complaints’ about their treatment, according to British officials who have seen them,” the BBC reports. “The three are in ‘good physical health’ and are being treated well, they reported.”
The long-awaited assessment of conditions at the base comes amid fierce criticism of the US’s treatment of the prisoners, who are held in small cells open to the elements.
Photographs of detainees chained and blindfolded, published at the weekend, heightened concerns that the US was flouting international law.
[…]’We said people should not rush into judgement and now we know the facts,’ the spokesman said.
The three British nationals in the camp were ‘able to speak freely and without inhibition,’ he added.
‘There is no sign of any mistreatment.”
And yet, here’s the The Mirror chooses to frame the story, headlined “STOP THIS BRUTALITY IN OUR NAME, MISTER BLAIR”:
THIS is what is being done in the name of humanity, civilisation and the British people.
These prisoners are trapped in open cages, manacled hand and foot, brutalised, tortured and humiliated.
We are assured they are cruel, evil men, though not one has been charged, let alone convicted, of any offence.
Yet that does not justify the barbaric treatment they are receiving from US forces. Barbarism which is backed by our Government.
Tony Blair says he is standing shoulder to shoulder with President Bush. Not on our behalf, he isn’t.
Mr Bush is close to achieving the impossible – losing the sympathy of the civilised world for what happened in New York and Washington on September 11.
Blah blah blah….
Typically hysterical bluster based on the kind of haughty and forced sanctimony we’ve come to expect from the equivalency crowd, which never misses an opportunity to trot out its obsequious “outrage.”
Both the “starvation” and “civilian casualties” stories conjured up by this crowd as a way to bring about public pressure to stop the bombing in Afghanistan didn’t play well outside of certain circles (because starvation and civilian casualties never materialized to the extent these terror apologists seemed to be hoping for — a sad statement, that), so now it’s the terrorists themselves who are being championed by these “reporters”; Al-Qaeda members are the victims, we’re to believe — the recipients of “barbaric treatment” (like, for instance, being provided with culturally-appropriate meals, Korans, prayer cloths, etc. — not to mention de-lousing, medical attention, and regular hygiene). One wonders: just what torture will the barbarous and bloodthirsty yanks think of next? Cable television? Hugs?
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