[Dryerase] The Alarm!--Eye on the INS--Snapshots from the war on terror

[The Alarm!Newswire]

Eye on the INS 11-15-02

Snapshots from the War on Terror

By Michelle Stewart
The Alarm! Newspaper Collective

“Anonymous mailer sends us photos taken inside a military C-130 
transporting POWs,” reads the headline on the website of radio host Art 
Bell. For those unfamiliar with Mr. Bell, on this website you will also 
find many stories and/or photos that are “evidence” of alien life on 
earth. However, in the case of these photos, there has been an 
authorized voice that verified their authenticity, as well as a 
firestorm of response—both from the Federal government.

“We have very very tight restrictions on any images of the detainees 
for security purposes and because we have no interest in potentially 
holding detainees up for any kind of public ridicule,” said Victoria 
Clark at a Pentagon press conference the morning after the photos first 
appeared. Clark announced that the Pentagon was mounting an 
investigation to determine who in the plane took the photos, because 
the release was unauthorized and perhaps the photos themselves were 
unauthorized.

Does the Pentagon want to keep these photos from the public to insure 
the detainees are not subjected to “public ridicule,” or rather to 
insure that the Pentagon itself is not subject to public scrutiny? The 
answer seems obvious. In looking back over the past few months, perhaps 
the chain of events has forced the Pentagon to try and avoid this type 
of scrutiny.

Early in the summer, a certain photo of John Walker Lindh surfaced. In 
the photo, Lindh was heavily restrained, blindfolded and appeared to be 
strapped to a carrying board, naked. The Pentagon was challenged about 
the way Lindh was being handled. The Pentagon responded to the 
criticisms by stating that Lindh’s restraints and lack of clothing were 
part of their security measures. It later surfaced—according to Lindh’s 
defense attorneys—that he’d been ridiculed by officers, and that his 
body had both pro-America and homophobic language scrawled on it in 
marker. Despite initial concerns, the public soon forgot these issues, 
along with concerns about the initial photo and the way Lindh was 
treated.  Lindh eventually took a plea bargain and was sentenced to 20 
years in prison.

Earlier in the year, the US government released photos to the press of 
some of the first detainees arriving at Guantanamo Bay. The government, 
expecting a reaction of adulation from a fearful public, was surprised 
when the photos were greeted with horror and questions were raised 
about the treatment of US-held prisoners in the “War on Terrorism.”  
The chief concern surrounded the ways in which the prisoners were 
uniformly transported with eye goggles and ear muffs as well as 
shackles and often surgical masks. The government responded that these 
were security measures taken to insure the safety of all involved in 
the transport (even the safety of the prisoner). Over time, this 
outcry, too, was silenced. People seemed to “accept” that the US had 
the right to snatch up whomever it wished (no trial, no public proof 
offered) and schlep them off to an island (Guantanamo Bay) in another 
country (Cuba), bound, gagged and goggled for an indeterminate amount 
of time (the joys of being labeled a material witness, not a Prisoner 
of War)—in the name of security, of course.

With the photos on Bell’s website, here we are again. The only 
difference this time is that the US didn’t officially release the 
photos—probably sick and tired of defending itself, it is keeping the 
photo album closed to the public. So, aside from the occasionally 
leaked photo, what will the public do now?  We have proven ourselves to 
be rather accepting of these disturbing pictures.  Over time we seem to 
silence our complaints and outcry. Without the photos as reminders, are 
we simply going to become absolutely compliant with the way in which 
events play out in this endless and ambiguous “War on Terrorism?”

I fear we are. Lost in this latest round of discussions about the 
photographs of detainees is the fact that they are being treated as 
human cargo. And consider for a moment the timing. What have we been 
hearing about Guantanamo Bay  lately? Well, in October, the government 
prided itself on releasing prisoners; it was expelling those prisoners 
who were not deemed adequate material witnesses. For all intents and 
purposes, the government has not talked about bringing in more 
detainees; rather it has only spoken of releases. Of course this was 
coming up on the elections where, perhaps, it did not want to be seen 
as “collecting” detainees and thereby spending American tax dollars on 
a program that is not precisely collecting terrorists. Material 
witnesses are not very exciting, and cost a lot of money to house and 
feed.

But whether we have photos—officially released or not—I am left with 
the sneaking suspicion that people are largely undisturbed by these 
pictures or the general landscape of this “War on Terrorism.” That the 
mantra of homeland security has finally taken hold, and the treatment 
of anyone who is suspected of terrorism is inconsequential. Do we care 
that the CIA is sending out unmanned drone missiles to kill people 
“believed to be” members of al-Qaeda, that the attack in Yemen did kill 
an American, that we are killing suspects? And those we don’t kill we 
strap into cargo planes, bound and gagged?

Is this what we are agreeing to? Whether it is the nearly 600 detainees 
at Guantanamo Bay, or the hundreds still held in INS detention, the War 
on Terrorism is very tangible,  and yet we don’t seem to respond. The 
War on Terrorism is not just about bin Laden (or nowadays Hussein), it 
is about treating people as cargo, about assuming the guilt of all 
suspects, about treating Arabs or Muslims as guilty and about the 
pretense that in the name of “security” we must accept these violations 
of decency.

So, do we respond or do we just shake our heads at these photos? Do we 
dismiss the photos—when they surface—and ignore the INS’s detainees; 
just sit back, and turn our collective attention to the upcoming 
“holiday season?”

Your comments are encouraged and welcomed at michelle at the-alarm.com
 
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