Yesterday, chuckle-nuts rambled on without any sense of irony once again about the so-called British “hostages” captured by Iran recently.
“The Iranians must give back the hostages. They’re innocent.
“The Iranians took these people out of Iraqi waters. It’s inexcusable behaviour.
“I strongly support the Blair government’s attempts to resolve this peacefully. And I support the prime minister when he made it clear there were no quid pro quos.”
15 seasoned British soldiers detained in a region that is rife with conflict and paranoia.
The irony that I referred to was well below the sycophant U.S. media radar less than a month ago when a 9 year old Canadian boy was held for MORE THAN A MONTH in a former maximum security prison in Texas with his parents.
Of course, the Canadian government didn’t make an international scene out of it similar to what is going on now — even though the Bush administration has broken international law far more than Ahmadinejad could even dream of. Where was the “international condemnation” then?
For a background on this “inexusable behaviour” by the U.S. government I refer you to this piece on Democracy Now! (VIDEO AND AUDIO there as well) Here’s an excerpt for the background…
AMY GOODMAN: …Majid, your story is quite a remarkable one. Can you tell us how you ended up at this Texas jail?
MAJID: Hello. Thanks for taking my call. I was on my way to go to Toronto, Canada, and my plane was — after three hours in the flight, somebody died on the plane and had an emergency landing to Costa Rica. After that, they said everybody should come out. After that, we went out. Immigration, they said you need to have American visa. We had no American visa. And they hold us over there —
AMY GOODMAN: Now, just to be clear, you were never planning to end up in the United States, is that right? You were flying to Canada, but another passenger on the plane had a heart attack, and so you guys had a forced landing in Puerto Rico, and when you had to come out of the plane, while he was taken off the plane, that’s when they took you?
MAJID: Yes. This happened, yes — was a Canadian Zoom Airline, and our ticket was direct from Guyana to Toronto. And this happened. They hold us — my son is Canadian — hold child is nine-and-a-half years old, and they put us in detention in Puerto Rico. And from Monday to Friday, I was in the jail in Puerto Rico between criminal people, and my wife and son was other place. We had no news from each other from Monday morning until Friday at noon, until we see each other in a Puerto Rico airport. After that, they brought us here to Hutto Detention Center, and here we are in same part, but different room. My wife and my son is room, but it’s totally inside the room, uncovered toilet. My son has asthma, and he’s very bad and still comes here. It’s very horrible here. And we are in very bad situation. We need help. We need the people help me —
JUAN GONZALEZ: Majid, in other words, basically, what reason did they give you for holding you if you never intended to enter the United States at all? What reason did they give for locking you up?
MAJID: Because they said, “You have an American visa?” That’s why you have to stay here. Just plane was waiting one hour for us, but they didn’t let us pass. A few officers came. They said Immigration officers — six, seven — they said, “We’re going to send you, but let us make decision.” After that, they called the police chief. He came there. He said, “Let me think five minutes.” After five minutes, he came, he said, “I’m going to send you to Canada, but I’m afraid to lose my job. But usually we have to send with your plane, but we keep you here. America is much better than Canada. Here you have safer place. We send you to hotel, and after a few days, you’re going to be free.” But they broke their promise. That’s why they keep us here, and we have very bad situation here.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Do you know whether any other passengers on your plane were also detained in the same way, or was your family the only one, as far as you can tell?
MAJID: Only my family. No other passenger.
Got that?!
An Iranian family — who posed absolutely no threat to the United States of America — (and who’s 9-YEAR-OLD son is a Canadian citizen) were treated like criminals after the plane that they were on was diverted to Puerto Rico due to another passenger dying of a heart attack.
They were detained in what was once a maximum security prison for about 1 month. That’s right! ONE MONTH.
Here’s the 9-YEAR-OLD boy’s account of his stay as a “hostage” of the American governmnet. Funny, we didn’t hear this audio on any major media in the states, eh?!
AMY GOODMAN: Thank you. We’re talking to Majid and Kevin in the Hutto Detention Center that’s run by the Corrections Corporation of America in Taylor, Texas.
KEVIN: Hello.
AMY GOODMAN: Hi, Kevin. How are you?
KEVIN: Not good.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you tell us the situation you’re in right now and what you want to happen right now?
KEVIN: Excuse me, I didn’t hear you.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you describe where you are right now?
KEVIN: I’m in US jail right now.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And Kevin, where are you staying at night? Are you with your parents, or are they locking you up separately?
KEVIN: I’m with my parents, but we’re in separate rooms.
JUAN GONZALEZ: In separate rooms?
KEVIN: Yeah.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And are they letting you — are you getting any kind of education, or are you just sitting in your cell all day?
KEVIN: We’re sitting in the cell all day.
AMY GOODMAN: What do you want to do now, Kevin?
KEVIN: I want to be free. I want to go outside, and I want to go to school. I want to be in my homeland: Canada.
AMY GOODMAN: You want to go home to Canada?
KEVIN: What?
AMY GOODMAN: You want to go home to Canada?
KEVIN: Yeah. My home is in Canada.
.
.
.JUAN GONZALEZ: How are the other children there? Are you spending time with any of the other children?
KEVIN: No.
AMY GOODMAN: They don’t let you spend time with the other children?
KEVIN: No. I’m sleeping beside the washroom, and I can’t — and I’m upstairs. I can’t go to the washroom all the time. And there’s a lot of smell coming out from the washroom. And the food is garbage. And the school is very bad. I can’t learn anything good. And I have asthma, and I got sick in here. I can’t stay here anymore.
AMY GOODMAN: Kevin, you said you’re sleeping next to the bathroom?
KEVIN: Yeah. And it’s not a separate room. It’s right beside the bed. And I’m sleeping beside the wall, and my back gets sick and it hurts.
AMY GOODMAN: How is your mother?
KEVIN: My mother is sick.
approximately 3 weeks later — after the Canadian Government gave them temporary residency certificates (due to mass anger out of this situation by Canadians everywhere), the Yourdkhani family arrived in Toronto. The father repeated the treatment at the “hostage” location.
“It was miserable condition they had over there,” Majid Yourdkhani said, standing by his wife as he spoke to reporters at the Toronto airport.
“There are almost 200 children that live there in very bad conditions. Now most of the children there have chicken pox, eye infections, flu.”
Got that?!!! The U.S. government is holding 200 children at a former maximum security prison. RIGHT. NOW!
Drawings from other children held at this detention center (courtesy of ACLU):
– The former “hostages” of the U.S. government arrive in Toronto
I won’t even reiterate the attrocities committed at Abu Guraib or at Guantanamo or at the many secret CIA interrogation camps around the world that have sacrificed many innocent souls in deplorable fashion.
So, you’ll exuse me if I don’t react in quite the same way to the 15 British military hostages (as sympathetic as I am to them), when I see them eating comfortably and smoking cigarettes.
You’ll have to excuse me for not reacting the way the corporate media would like me to react.
BTW, for a great analysis of this situation with the British hostages and the over-the-top outrage that is being generated by the corporate media, we again have to read the words of a comedian. This time it’s Terry Jones from Monty Python fame:
I share the outrage expressed in the British press over the treatment of our naval personnel accused by Iran of illegally entering their waters. It is a disgrace. We would never dream of treating captives like this – allowing them to smoke cigarettes, for example, even though it has been proven that smoking kills. And as for compelling poor servicewoman Faye Turney to wear a black headscarf, and then allowing the picture to be posted around the world – have the Iranians no concept of civilised behaviour? For God’s sake, what’s wrong with putting a bag over her head? That’s what we do with the Muslims we capture: we put bags over their heads, so it’s hard to breathe. Then it’s perfectly acceptable to take photographs of them and circulate them to the press because the captives can’t be recognised and humiliated in the way these unfortunate British service people are…