Write a letter today

Project Hamad reports that it is possible that Adel Hamad may be on the list for release from Guantanamo Bay. It’s great news, rather ameliorated by the fact that he may have been on that list for some time, and he may be released with a status of “enemy combatant”.

I am appalled that a country which lays claim to democracy and freedom allows Guantanamo Bay to exist. I am appalled that my own country regards America as an ally while Guantanamo Bay exists. I am appalled that my own country detains people without recourse to trial or even charges in the same way. All in the name of the fight against terrorism.

I cannot think of a more terrorising activity than for a state to take innocent people from their bed and to incarcerate them for five years without trial, without the right to know the charges against them. Honestly. Britain has lived under the shadow of terrorist activity for years, and I travelled through London on the tube during the IRA bombing years. It scared me that people unknown might set bombs in the trains I travelled in. But this scares me a whole lot more. I thought Americans would rise up and declare Guantanamo illegal, indefensible, contrary to everything that I once understood to be American. They haven’t.

I believe Guantanamo is wrong and against everything I understand to be just and fair, and I think we have damaged our spirits, as nations, in abusing human rights in the way they are abused there. If you do too, please visit Project Hamad, join the group, and send letters to the people listed on the blog page, to exhort them to release Adel Hamad urgently and to release him without enemy combatant status.