Enemies of Reason Poundshop potshots at the media moral maze.

Some hostages are more equal than others

"The taking of hostages is completely unjustified, wholly unacceptable and we are making it clear they will not change our policy in any way"

said Gordon Brown about the five Britons unlawfully held against their will in Iraq.

However, when it came to the Britons unlawfully held against their will in Guantanamo, it was a different story. It's taken him a good six years to have the testicles to do anything about it at all - presumably he forgot to mention his feelings on the subject to Tony Blair while he was Prime Minister, or was just completely ignored. And when the Americans say no, sorry, you can't have the other Briton released, there's no evidence to charge him, but we just want to keep holding him against his will? Gordon drops his pants again and takes it like the arsehole he is.

And even though these people have never been charged with any crime and have been held in contravention of the rule of law for the past few years, often being denied medical attention and in the case of Omar Deghayes being blinded by his captors, they may even be subject to police-state control orders when they return. Just to make sure that their unlawful captivity, deprivation of human rights and misery continues when they return to a 'free' country. I bet they can't fucking wait to come back to a country where they can be imprisoned for thought-crimes, for owning books, for looking at things on the internet; where young Asians are put in targeted by the security forces; where they can be detained for 42 days without charge, despite there being no evidence whatsoever to justify a change in the law. In fact, you could say that a few years in Guantanamo will have prepared them for the Britain to which they are returning.

A country in which the Tories may soon be coming to power. And have they welcomed the fact that British citizens have been freed from a concentration camp? Er, no. Dave Cameron's caring, sharing cuddly Tories have decided that these men, against whom there is as usual no evidence except confessions extracted under torture and duress, might pose a danger to society. Or as I like to paraphrase: 'They are a bit foreign looking and we want to pander to the racists a bit'. If this had been five white men held in a concentration camp, would the reaction have been the same from the Conservatives? When it comes down to it, the Tories don't really change, do they: they're still the racist, hatemongering motherfuckers they always were, no matter how much they might pretend to have shifted into the centre ground.

So it comes back to what Brown said at the beginning: "the taking of hostages is completely unjustified". On what grounds? He thinks it's OK to detain people without trial if it's the US state doing it. He thinks it's OK to deprive people of their freedom in his own country, through control orders, once again not letting them have a fair trial. So why should he start getting upset if other countries follow our lead? The Iraqis are simply learning all about democracy from the UK and the US. We should be flattered that they're paying us such a compliment. Maybe this imperialism lark isn't such a bad thing - they're very fast learners!

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