Philosophy, et cetera 2008-06-15
Guantanamo
This may be old news to some, but if you haven't heard the 'Habeas Schmabeas' episode of This American Life, I highly recommend it. It describes how innocent people were turned over to U.S. authorities as alleged "Al Qaeda agents" in exchange for bounty money. They were transported to Guantanamo, tortured, eventually found to be innocent, and sometimes still not released nonetheless. From the transcript [pdf]:HITT: As best as we can tell, Badr Zaman Badr and his brother were imprisoned in Guantanamo for three years for telling a joke. Actually, for telling two jokes. They ran a satire magazine in Pakistan that poked fun at corrupt clerics. Sort of the Pashtu edition of “The Onion.” [...] So after hearing the punch line explained 150 times, we finally got the joke, and sent Badr and his brother home. It had been ...
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