Recruiting from the Darkside
- 11 Oct 07, 10:53 AM
A remarkable new documentary from the 大象传媒鈥檚 Storyville strand once again prompted me to ask the question: what turns a British citizen into a potential suicide bomber, mentally prepared to murder fellow civilians to 鈥減lease鈥 God and further an Islamist cause?
There are many factors at work: religious conviction, alienation (but not poverty), and the secrecy and seduction of being part of an anti-establishment cult. But the most fiercely debated question is the extent to which fallout from the so-called "war on terror" has motivated attacks. And that is where the Storyville film comes in.
The documentary tells the story of the brutal treatment of an Afghan man who was detained without trial by the US military at Bagram airbase near Kabul in 2002. It shines a penetrating light on human rights abuses linked to the "war on terror" which have undoubtedly been a gift to terrorist recruiters.
Dilawar suffered terribly at the hands of his American captors who are interviewed in the film. They describe how he was a victim of a new 鈥済loves off鈥 approach to interrogations which had been endorsed by senior ranks. Pumped up by tough words about the war on terror, Dilawar鈥檚 military interrogators were convinced 鈥 on no evidence it seems 鈥 that they had in their hands someone who represented a direct link to the attack on the twin towers in New York.
They treated him accordingly. He was hung for hours from the ceiling by his wrists, deprived of sleep and repeatedly struck. According to a US army pathology report this abuse 鈥減ulpified鈥 his legs. He died from his injuries and even his death certificate issued at Bagram stated 鈥淗omicide鈥 as the cause of death.
The lead interrogator was later redeployed to Iraq to take charge of interrogations at where other well publicised abuses took place. Many of Dilawar鈥檚 tormentors were eventually prosecuted. But the film noted that no senior officers were convicted of abuse.
Taxi To The Darkside is - as the film-makers claim 鈥 a definitive documentary charting the abuse of a man detained without trial. But crucially it also reveals how the American political elite sowed the seeds for his treatment through new legal rulings which re-categorised what constituted torture and what did not. As Vice President Dick Cheney said in the early days after 9/11: 鈥淲e have to work the dark side if you will鈥ou have to spend time in the shadows. A lot of what needs to be done here will have to be done quietly without any discussion, using sources and methods that are available to our intelligence agencies.鈥
After which criticised the new approach to interrogations, President Bush made a televised statement: 鈥淭his debate is occurring because of a Supreme Court ruling which says that we must conduct ourselves under common article 3 of the Geneva Convention and that says there will be 鈥榥o outrages upon human dignity鈥... it鈥檚 very vague 鈥 what does that mean?鈥
Some argue these kinds of abuses 鈥 and the killing of innocent civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan 鈥 are the dominant cause of Islamist extremism and terror. This is the position of those on the far left who have, by the way, created a curious alliance with the Islamists, coalescing around the Respect Party and the Stop the War campaign.
I believe the picture is more complicated than this. There are other crucial factors at play. But having said that, the kind of abuses highlighted by this documentary make the first stage of recruitment far easier. The skill of the cell leader is to take righteous anger and convert it into something far more dangerous for Britain.
Taxi to the Darkside is part of the 大象传媒 Four Storyville Why Democracy? season - which .
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Everyone wants Justice, Freedom and Compassion. People will follow whoever they believe best represents these. Are we claiming these? On what basis? Is it just lip service?
In what way is the Khalifat seen as better at Justice, Freedom and Compassion?
To win the majority over it is not necessary to prove Justice, Freedom and Compassion but it is enough to refrain from their opposites.
The smaller hard core problem of tribal loyalty right or wrong [on all sides] needs to be recognised. Here, in the shadowland of emotion, reason has no sway. Here we should use mental health techniques to restrain them as dangers to society.
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Just wondering why local people and human right organization are not raising voice against such brutal treatment?
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I happened to be watching when 'Taxi to the dark side' came on the other night on 大象传媒2. It was harrowing and in many ways reminded me of scenes in certain parts of Africa where 'soldiers' set up camp to weed out 'traitors'. The key difference, apart from age and clothing, is that in those zones the chain of command is at best erratic, and an understanding of human rights and The State (as in the national administration and government) is, well, nigh on inexistent. However, this kind of behaviour by 'professional' soldiers from the most powerful state in the world has pretty much wiped out the last bit of democratic credibility that the US still had in poorer zones of this world. It is not so much a matter of facilitating the recruitment of potential terrorists, which would probably have happened anyway, as it is a matter of alienating those who disagree with them and could have argued against the recruiters, their methods and aims.
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Oh Please! "What turns a British citizen into a suicide bomber?" These people are in all meaningful senses Asians with Asian resposes and beliefs. The only people surprised by the advent of the suicide bomber in UK are the Establishment,
the good and the great, the race relations industry, the media and the liberal elite who set the agendas in this blighted country, even though
very few agree with them.
Try talking to the man in the street or listening to a (heavily censored) phone-in programme on your employer's radio, Richard Watson, and you'll realise that the country is seething with unrest over immigation.
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This documentray poses the question, are our lives more imporant then our principles. The truth is you can not return an injustice with another injustice. Revenge is any form is wrong,but we should equally not ignore the problem, merely use a rational approach instead of a violent sadistic appraoch, which produces equivocal and dubious information. In other words re-think the way we both attain suspects and the nature at which there treated.
Another point id like to point out is this attachment with terrorist and suicide bombers. The fact is, that a suicide bomb is a weapon like any other, just because its more abhorent, doesnt mean it is less of a tool. My point is that why are we treating suicide bombs diffeently from guns and why this zealous over reaction when in fact more people die from guns.
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I watch the news several times a day every day in the TV and also read the papers ...and what is mainly in the news ??? How many were massacred in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Irak, basically daily there is a terror attack in one if not in all those countries..that all happen to be Muslim countries... and the perpetrators and victims are always or mainly both muslims.. there are a number of reasons for those attacks and murders... that is the invasion and occupation of Irak by mainly western and so called " infidel " countries..and then " they " or " we" wan allways find a number of other reasons.. that is the Palestinian- Israeli conflict, the israeli occupation of the palestinian people and more...
But to me there is one basic and common reason.. that could be summarized by the famous saying " By the fruits you will recognize the tree ".. basically it always happen to be that all this horror we call today terrorism and radical islam is commited mainly if not only by muslims of any nationality, sex and age..but muslims...
Muslims don't tolerate or accept any sort of criticism or comment regarding their religious believes.. they want or wish to " teach and educate " us infidels of the west a life style based in their religious believes and costums regardless that many times they are the immigrants or guest living in a wester country and under a western life style and life principles...
Would you imagine any of us " infidels " from the West immigrating to countries like Irak, Iran, Saudi Arabia or even more moderate countres like Jordan or Egypt and try to dictate them how they should dress, eat, pray, think or live ???
Well this is what in a way or other some muslims do try to do today in the western world...
We are in a way hijacked in the sense that if we dare to say what we think or express our views freely and openly, according to our own life style and believes we may end being killed like Vangogh or " wanted " like Salman Rushdie...
I do ask myself Is this the way we all like to live our lives ?? In fear of being killed if we tell what we think ??
I do think about it very much.. because I did live in muslim countries for a number of years..like Indonesia and Malaysia and I did live in Europe for a number of years too.. and I do really appreciate our very much free and open way of living in the west specially in Europe... it didn't come to us in the easy way.. our predecesors work very hard to achieve what we all enjoy today.. specially for us women... there is a freedom and equality for woman that is totally unknown in muslim countries and in the muslim world...
I wish I could say that I know the way out to this sad situation we are facing today.. military wars against these fanatics and murderers is not the solution.. education and change of heart is the only solution...
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Ines - I've thought of a way out - why don;t you stand for Liberal Party leadership? that's a fine speach you wrote and it would be nice to have at least one female party leader.
We are entering a new dark ages but I have faith that westernisation as it is known will re-emerge from this postmodern malaise we find ourselves in because westernisation is in fact the vanguard of social evolution, a gradual improvement of life for non hunter-gatherer societies, it is a slow process but then look at knee caps, they are still struggling with modern living too, and modernisation, the enlightenment and subsequent chaos/quantum-ment, could never have happened without the contributions made by muslim scholars in our previous dark ages
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Islam needed its renaissance, its problem was internal, but it failed to be able to tolerate this change and turned to vent its rage against the West. It's not Christianity or Judaism that frightens these religious zealots, it's the secular West which threatens their gender based power the loss of which is really at the root of this rage.
The West not being as saintly as it ought, fits the bill of distributor of injustice very well when it comes to Palestine, Iraq, etc. but it's remarkable how a blind eye is turned when the fight is between Muslims, Darfur, Afghanistan, Iraqis so called insurgents, and half the human race, namely women. Their attitude to this group would in any other culture be regarded as a clinical psychosis.
With regard to our British Muslim males, they have indeed had a hard time. Not only have they had to compete with the host males and their well educated sisters, they have also had to cope with their own sisters who being far more used to compliance have knuckled down to the British education system and left their brothers shamefully behind. The anachronistic imams imploding with fury about their lack of status in this secular society have colluded with the failed youths and harnessed their brooding temper strops into a nihilistic explosive rage.
One hopes it patriarch's swan song.
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what causes british citizens to become suicide bombers is false propaganda which brain washes and changes the views of people.
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