Citing the “Prevention of Terrorism” act, British Police have arrested and interrogated three of the stars of the award-winning film “The Road to Guantanamo”, together with the three ex-Guantanomo detainees on whose story the film is based.
“The Road to Guantanamo” traces the true story of Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal and Ruhal Ahmed, three Muslim friends from Birmingham who were picked up as aliens in Afghanistan by US forces and ended up in Guantanamo for three years, where they suffered brutal and humiliating treatment.
Extensive interrogation established that they had no connection with al-Qaida, and despite their plight being ignored by British authorities, eventually they were returned home.
Last week the three ex-detainees travelled to the Berlin Festival with the Winterbottom party, and were arrested yesterday under the Prevention of Terrorism Act as they returned with the Winterbottom Party. They were held by Special Branch and questioned for several hours about where they had been and who they had met. They were also questioned on Michael Winterbottom’s politics.
Even more worrying, the three actors who portrayed them in the film were also arrested and questioned. The actors have no particular political or religious affiliation and were also arrested apparently purely on the basis that they were Asian. None of the white members of the group were arrested.
Translation: No criticism of the torture and illegal detentions at Guantanamo will be allowed if the British government can stop it. Because if people start asking about that, then they will ask about other things, like the UK permitting rendition flights, the US and Britian sending prisoners to Uzbekistan to be tortured, the insane war in Iraq based on lies., etc. ad nauseum.
But this attempt at repression is so clumsy and ham-fisted, well, they’re getting desperate, aren’t they?. Their edifice of lies is collapsing in front of them as the whole world watches.
I don’t see their actions as desparate, I see it more as arrogant confidence. They have got away with so much recently they probably don’t see the public getting too upset about what most of the public will see as a couple of “those muslim guys” getting questioned by the police again. Their propaganda is powerful and widespread and the general public don’t feel the pain yet.