News Stories That Make Me Angry

US government urged to free Al-Jazeera cameraman in Ramadan gesture

Joint appeal with International Committee for Release of Sami Al-Haj

oday, on the first day of Ramadan, Reporters Without Borders reiterates its appeal to the US authorities to free Al-Jazeera cameraman Sami Al-Haj, a Sudanese national who has been held at the US military base at Guantanamo, Cuba, since 13 June 2002 without being tried and without any precise charges being brought against him.

Al-Haj has tried to stage several hunger strikes since January and his physical and psychological condition has deteriorated a great deal. His lawyer, Clive Stafford-Smith, is due to travel to Guantanamo on 26 September.

“Ramadan is traditionally the month of self-denial and forgiveness and for the individual to confront his own humanity, but how much humanity remains when someone is detained arbitrarily and deprived of all contact with his family for more than five years?” Reporters Without Borders asked. “And what remains of the rule of law, when a prisoner is denied a fair trial, denied treatment and tortured? The Al-Haj case is a legal scandal, as is the Guantanamo prison camp itself.”

The press freedom organisation added: “Together with the International Committee for the Release of Sami Al-Haj, we call on the United States to free him immediately. We also urge the US congress, where the camp’s existence is increasingly criticised, to press for his release. And we call on the US federal courts, which have ruled that it is unconstitutional to try the Guantanamo ‘enemy combatants’ before military tribunals, to impose their decisions.”

They haven't even charged him with anything or shown any proof and the poor guy remains locked up.

It makes me so angry when I read news stories such as these, cause to me it shows the US and UK have forfeited whatever political and moral responsibility they had. What a sad state of affairs we have today when torture has become the norm and governments had no qualms about locking people up without trial.