June 23, 2008
Real Life Story of a Sirius Black
There are those in what I like to call the Vernon Dursley Alliance who don’t like that the Harry Potter Alliance has taken a stand against prisoner abuse in Guantanamo Bay. Dedicated to the preservation of the STATUS QUO, NORMALCY, and MEN WITHOUT NECKS the Vernon Dursley Alliance doesn’t believe that any individual or group of individuals should ask questions or agitate whatever the authorities say is okay. The Harry Potter Alliance on the other hand believes that the status quo should be challenged, particularly when that status quo allows for stories like the one below, that I just received from Amnesty International.
This is the story of a real life “Sirius Black” or “Stan Shunpike” – an innocent man imprisoned and tortured even when the “authorities” knew him to be innocent for four years – knew that he was nothing more than someone who was kidnapped and sold to be a prisoner in the war on terror. I wish the Vernon Dursley Alliance would get it:
the kind of prison abuse we have seen at Guantanamo Bay has been nothing short of criminal and treasonous to the ideals that the United States of America has laid it’s foundation on.
The Vernon Dursley Alliance counters back that if we don’t torture terror suspects (even ones we know are innocent) that this will strengthen terrorist organizations. What they don’t seem to realize is that it the horrendous actions that have been happening in Guantanamo that has strengthened terrorist organizations. They use the images and stories of what the US has done to innocent people as a way to recruit more people into their fold. So take that Vernon Dursley Alliance!
The story is below in email form from Amnesty International. Jo Rowling recently said, “Amnesty mobilises thousands of people who have never been tortured or imprisoned for their beliefs to act on behalf of those who have. The power of human empathy, leading to collective action, saves lives, and frees prisoners. Ordinary people, whose personal well-being and security are assured, join together in huge numbers to save people they do not know, and will never meet. My small participation in that process was one of the most humbling and inspiring experiences of my life.”
Below is the email from Amnesty International:
Murat Kurnaz’s story reads like a Hollywood screenplay, but, as he told 60 Minutes recently, it was a real world hell he endured for five years of his life.
Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, Kurnaz—a Turkish citizen and legal resident of Germany—was abducted while traveling in Pakistan with a group of missionaries. Sold as a terror suspect for a $3,000 bounty, Kurnaz was handed over to the U.S. military and shipped to a secret prison in Afghanistan. Two months later, he was flown to Guantánamo. Kurnaz reports that while in U.S. custody he endured hundreds of interrogations and various forms of torture – including electric shocks, beatings, extreme temperatures, and being forced to hang by his hands for hours at a time.
Kurnaz eventually won his freedom in 2006, prompted by letters from Amnesty volunteers and personal pleas from German Chancellor Angela Merkel to President Bush—even though official documents show that U.S. and German authorities concluded back in 2002 that he should be released!
Your and my tax dollars paid the bounty that cost Murat Kurnaz five years of his life—and we must let U.S. officials know that we refuse to underwrite this illegal and un-democratic practice any longer.
Sincerely,