Another Inmate dies in Guantanamo concentration camp.

I see that Awal Gul, a 48 year-old inmate at the Guantanamo Bay concentration camp in Cuba died Tuesday evening. He was in Guantanamo accused of being a Taliban commander. The Taliban are the former rulers of Afghanistan who folks may recall sent representatives to Texas to meet with Unocal executives when a central Asian gas pipeline though Afghanistan was a possibility. Up until 1999, the entire Taliban leadership was on the payroll of the US government; their abuses and treatment of women were not an issue then it seems.

US Southern Command officials say he died of natural causes. He certainly died in an unnatural setting.  It is criminal that anyone can be kept in prison as a "suspect" of anything for almost 10 years without a determination being made one way or the other.  Mr Gul was 48 and had been in Guantanamo for the last 8 years although no charges were ever brought against him other than being a Taliban commander. I think the people that accused him of being a Taliban commander are probably the same people that lied repeatedly to Pat Tillman’s parents and the US public about the nature of his death in Afghanistan and the the same people that have told us repeatedly that Egypt’s president Mubarak is a paragon of peace and stability; so two million Egyptians must be losing their minds, probably drunk with freedom.

The Taliban are undoubtedly a bunch of religious nuts with a 7th century mentality but I have no idea whether this man was or was not one of them, even so, this is not a crime in the US government's eyes, it have lots of friends with these qualifications.  I have never, as is the case with all Americans, seen any evidence that justifies keeping these people in this camp on occupied Cuba without trial for almost a decade.

And the Taliban have been fairly consistent; they have always held the views and philosophy that the finely dressed men and women in Washington and the Pentagon now find so abhorrent. They held these views, as did Bin laden, when the US government handed them a few billion dollars of US taxpayer funds, grenade launchers, missiles and other toys.  In fact, the folks in Washington are still as generous with the Taliban’s co-thinkers in Saudi Arabia. You can see why the workers of the world, particularly Arabs and Muslims have no respect for the US government. When the US mass media talks of them being anti-American, they do so purposely but I reject being thrown in the mix for propaganda purposes.

Mr Gul’s lawyer, Matthew Dodge, told the Associated Press that the allegations against his client were "outlandish" and that the military “had had no evidence to bring charges against him”.

"Mr Gul was never an enemy of the United States in any way." the BBC quotes Mr. Dodge as saying, and Mr. Gul was "kind, philosophical, devout and hopeful to the end", Mr. Gul is the seventh Guantanamo inmate to die in there. Of the other six, one died of natural causes and the others committed suicide.

No Guantanamo for this terrorist

It’s sickening when one thinks about it. Who are these people? I know that the US offered impoverished Afghans $100 per head if they handed over Taliban fighters and, sure enough, Taliban fighters were handed over. The corrupt Afghan Northern Alliance also rounded up folks for the US to bring to Guantanamo, including proven innocents so who they have there is anybody’s guess.*

The willingness among the US population to passively accept this situation is disconcerting for as the polarization between the classes here in the US intensifies, many of us may find ourselves in the same predicament including the Union leaders who’s silence on this issue is deafening. The politicians in the two capitalist parties are behaving as they should so there’s no surprise there.

The nature, crimes and evidence against the people in Guantanamo should be made public for the American people to see, put it on TV like they put all the other garbage they feed us. They should do this immediately and close the prison down; no concrete evidence of criminal behavior  no prison. (I don’t consider shooting back at someone who is shooting at you or bombing your home a crime).

Mr Gul is being sent back to Afghanistan in a box.  Apparently he had a number of children and grandchildren who have not seen him for a long time and will no doubt be looking  for the nearest Taliban or Al Qaeda, (whatever that is) recruitment center. The brilliant architects of US foreign policy might benefit from a few years in Guantanamo themselves.

And remember, Free Bradley Manning before they put him in there.

* See: The Road to Guantanamo