With all the overheated claims (thanks to EPG for the link) that have been made about conditions at Guantanamo, it is refreshing to hear this from an inmate: “We were not like prisoners there. We were not tortured. They didn’t tie our hands. And they gave us education.” What does this have to do with global jihad? Everything. Naqibullah was not part of the general prisoner population, but nevertheless, he was in Gitmo, at the mercy of the Americans. Maybe it will dawn on at least some people that something is off-kilter when the Great Satan keeps behaving humanely — more humanely than its opponents. From the BBC, with thanks to Elisot:
An Afghan boy has told the BBC he feels no bitterness about being held in the US Guantanamo camp for terror suspects.
More than a year after being captured by US troops fighting members of the Taleban and al-Qaeda, Naqibullah, 13, is back home in eastern Afghanistan.He spent much of his time in captivity in Camp Iguana, the children’s section of the US detention centre on the tropical island of Cuba. . . .
“I hadn’t done anything, but they suspected me because I was standing next to some men who had guns,” he said.
“I told them I was innocent. I don’t even know how to use a gun.” . . .
Unlike most of those in Guantanamo Bay, he was not forced to wear an orange boiler suit, or shackled and hooded.
In fact, apart from the two other boys released with him, he says he saw no other detainees.
He even says he was treated like a guest of the US forces.
“We were not like prisoners there. We were not tortured. They didn’t tie our hands. And they gave us education,” he said.
There is no bitterness or anger, but the boy learned enough English to make this one demand of the Americans: “I want the Americans to pay me because I was not a criminal. I want them to help me become a doctor.” . . .
You might think he would be angry with the Americans. Actually he thinks they have done Naqibullah a favour.
“He has learnt to speak English. He has come back with an education. He knows about things,” Gul Mohammed said.
“He behaves better with his sisters and brothers, he shows me more respect, and he has been to big places like Kabul, and the rest of the world.”
But it could be difficult for Naqibullah now. As I leave his village, he says: “I want to go to the city.”