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<font size=3><br>
</font><font size=4><b>Shaker Aamer’s 3000 Days In Guantánamo: Moazzam
Begg Speaks<br><br>
</b></font><font size=3>By Andy Worthington<br><br>
03 May, 2010<br>
<b><a href="http://www.andyworthington.co.uk%20">Andyworthington.co.uk</a>
<br>
<a href="http://countercurrents.org/worthington030510.htm" eudora="autourl">
http://countercurrents.org/worthington030510.htm<br><br>
</a></b>All week, the journalist Paul Cahalan has been writing articles
about<a href="http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2009/03/11/forgotten-in-guantanamo-british-resident-shaker-aamer/">
<b> Shaker Aamer</a></b>, the last British resident in Guantánamo Bay,
for the Wandsworth Guardian (in Shaker’s home borough). Shaker, who has a
British wife and four British children, continues to be held at
Guantánamo, despite being cleared for release in 2007.<br><br>
Shaker’s story features in the new documentary film,
"<a href="http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/outside-the-law-stories-from-guantanamo/">
<b>Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo" </a></b>(directed by
filmmaker Polly Nash and myself), which is currently on a UK tour, and I
have also reported his story at length in a number of articles (see, for
example,<a href="http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2010/01/18/murders-at-guantanamo-scott-horton-of-harpers-exposes-the-truth-about-the-2006-suicides/">
<b> here</a></b>,
<a href="http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2010/02/11/shaker-aamers-wife-speaks-since-he-has-been-away-there-is-no-colour-in-life/">
<b>here</a></b>
and<a href="http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2010/02/12/torture-in-afghanistan-and-guantanamo-shaker-aamers-lawyers-speak/">
<b> here</a></b>). In these articles, I have cast doubts on the British
government’s assertions that they have done all in their power to secure
his return, for the simple reason that Shaker as the foremost advocate
of the prisoners’ rights in Guantánamo knows so much about what has
taken place at the prison (and in the prisons in Afghanistan where the
men were held beforehand) that when he is finally released his accounts
will prove profoundly embarrassing to both the British and the American
governments.<br><br>
To mark Shaker’s 3000th day in Guantánamo (which is today, according to
his lawyers), and which
<a href="http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2010/04/22/3000-days-in-guantanamo-shaker-aamer-protest-at-10-downing-street-saturday-april-24-2010/">
<b>was marked by a protest outside Downing Street</a></b> last Saturday,
Paul Cahalan asked former prisoner Moazzam Begg to write about his
friend, and I’m cross-posting the article below. As I
mentioned<a href="http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2010/04/26/tonight-london-international-documentary-festival-screens-outside-the-law-stories-from-guantanamo-plus-report-on-saturdays-shaker-aamer-protest/">
<b> in my review of last Saturday’s protest</a></b>, the plight of Shaker
Aamer has slipped off the radar completely since the General Election was
announced (as
have<a href="http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2010/02/19/will-parliament-rid-us-of-the-cruel-and-unjust-control-order-regime/">
<b> Britain’s unjust counter-terrorism policies in general</a></b>). I
added:<br><br>
[W]hoever is in 10 Downing Street on May 7 needs to press the US not only
for Shaker’s return, but also to offer new homes in the UK to other
cleared prisoners who cannot be repatriated because they face the risk of
torture; in particular, Ahmed Belbacha, an Algerian (represented by the
legal action charity Reprieve and also cleared for release in 2007), who
is terrified of returning to Algeria, and who lived in the UK for nearly
three years until he was kidnapped in Pakistan and sent to Guantánamo,
but also other cleared prisoners, who have no connection to the UK, but
who will not be freed until third countries offer to help out, as has
happened with Albania, Belgium, Bermuda, France, Georgia, Hungary,
Ireland, Palau, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and Switzerland.<br><br>
Whoever is in 10 Downing Street on May 7 needs to understand that trying
to take the moral high ground, as David Miliband has done by hectoring
other countries to take cleared prisoners, while claiming that the UK has
already played its part in helping to close Guantánamo, is both dishonest
and disgraceful. Britain has only taken in its own citizens and
residents, and should follow the example of the countries mentioned
above, if only to show some willingness to atone for the government’s
enthusiastic embrace of the Bush administration’s "War on
Terror," which has recently been exposed in the British
courts.<br><br>
On Friday, I’ll be writing about how those of us concerned with this
ongoing travesty of justice can put pressure on the new government
(updating the letter to foreign secretary David Miliband that is
available here), but for now, here are Moazzam’s comments about Shaker.
For Paul Cahalan’s other articles this week,
see<a href="http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/8129006.Foreign_Secretary_defends_Government_stance_on_Shaker_Aamer/">
<b> this exclusive interview with David Miliband</a></b>, and also
see<a href="http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/8128996.3_000_days_of_Guantanamo_Bay_imprisonment_for_Shaker_Aamer/">
<b>
here</a></b>
,<a href="http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/8129148.Bush_kept_prisoners_to_avoid_embarrassment__claims_former_official/">
<b>
here</a></b>
,<a href="http://www.wandsworthguardian.co.uk/news/8131385.Concerns_over_Guantanamo_Bay_interrogation_methods/">
<b> here</a></b> and
<a href="http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/8131507.COMMENT__What_will_it_take_to_make_us_shout_/">
<b>here</a></b>.<br><br>
<b>Friend of Shaker Aamer reveals personal message of thanks<br>
Wandsworth Guardian, May 2, 2010<br><br>
</b><i>Former Guantánamo detainee Moazzam Begg reveals a personal message
of thanks from his friend Shaker Aamer as he talks about his capture and
daily routine in Guantánamo.<br><br>
</i>I have known Shaker since 1997 when he came to the UK and got
married. He was working a translator in a legal firm. I knew him
on-and-off until the time we both went to Afghanistan to build a school.
We had seen postcards of the school and both helped in the project,
raising funds, speaking to teachers. We both lived in the same house in
Kabul. At the time we were with our wives and children. When the attacks
of September 11 happened, Shaker was very upset and shocked. We evacuated
the region outside Kabul. We heard the shells coming and we were
separated. The next I heard of him is when I was in Kandahar as a
prisoner.<br><br>
It is clear US soldiers were impressed by him but I believe his personal
character and charisma is what keeps him in Guantánamo as opposed to
anything he has been accused of. At the same time everyone who has met
him interrogators, soldiers have really liked him as an
individual.<br><br>
When I speak to former detainees they say I have a message from Shaker. I
ask, 'How is he?’ He has gone through all sorts of trauma for standing up
for the rights of prisoners. Recently some prisoners were released to
Albania, and Shaker sent a message [often messages are shouted across the
camp] saying he appreciates all the campaigning and he wants to come back
home.<br><br>
He is seeing all these people released and he is still being held. People
have been released to Ireland, Portugal detainees who have no
connection to those countries, being accepted as refugees in Europe and
elsewhere. For Shaker it is devastating.<br><br>
His family hasn’t received a letter from him for a very long time. I
think about him every day. I was there for three years he has been
there nearly three times that.<br><br>
I’m not sure about his routine, it changes, but based upon what I know,
his routine is: he would wake up in the morning, have morning prayer,
have breakfast handed over to him through a beanhole in the door. I
believe he is in the maximum-security camp, Camp 6, which has all
isolated cells. Which would mean he spends most of the time in that cell
with no communication with any human being and that they would take him
out into the recreation yard at the end of the day where he would see a
little bit of light.<br><br>
There will be [electric] light in his cell 24 hours a day. They may dim
it a little bit at night. He will be sleeping on a metal bunk. His
physical make-up would change. Shaker was a big man but from what I have
been told he has lost a great deal of weight. His mental state is up and
down but remains strong and that is one of the reasons he continues to
get punished.<br><br>
Despite what he has gone through he still stands up for people’s rights.
The prisoners love him as an individual. He is communicable and funny and
talks with the Americans on their own terms. He will speak out and that
is why there is a fear he won’t return.<br><br>
I know he knows enough that would embarrass British and Americans. He was
involved with high-level discussions with the colonels about breaking
hunger strikes and he has information about the intelligence services
that people don’t want heard.<br><br>
All basic human rights only get given to you as much as you co-operate.
You get no doctor, no proper communication with your family you give
them to the worst convicted prisoners on the planet, but not those in
Guantánamo.<br><br>
Somebody has to recognise this is wrong and common sense has to prevail.
Shaker has never been tried, let alone charged. It makes no logic or
sense. There is no justice. The campaign to free Shaker needs to get that
out.<br><br>
<b>Andy Worthington </b>is the author of
<a href="http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/the-guantanamo-files/"><b>The
Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal
Prison </a></b>(published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the
US, and available from Amazon click on the following for the US and the
UK). To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to
my<a href="http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/feed/"><b> RSS feed</a></b>
(and I can also be found on
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=738143803"><b>Facebook</a>
</b> and <a href="http://twitter.com/GuantanamoAndy"><b>Twitter</a></b>).
Also see my
<a href="http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2010/01/04/guantanamo-the-definitive-prisoner-list-updated-for-2010/">
<b>definitive Guantánamo prisoner list</a></b>, updated in January 2010,
details about the new documentary film,
<a href="http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/outside-the-law-stories-from-guantanamo/">
<b>"Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo"</a></b>
(co-directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, and
<a href="http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/outside-the-law-stories-from-guantanamo-uk-tour-dates-2010/">
<b>currently on tour in the UK</a></b>), and, if you appreciate my work,
feel free to
<a href="http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2010/03/01/fundraising-week-please-support-my-guantanamo-work/">
<b>make a donation.</a><br><br>
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