hunger strikers might be innocent after all

The Pentagon's own figures cast doubt on their case for holding people in Guantanamo Bay, according to this article. Only 5% of the 500-odd prisoners ended up there because the Americans captured them, and 40% of them have never been linked with a terrorist organisation at all. The only thing that grates slightly about the article is its last paragraph, which makes it sound like the Islamic world feels like a disappointed parent watching the barbarity of the West ... while at the moment, a truer picture would be the West looking on in surprise and not a little fear as Muslims still protest about those cartoons. Even the moderate ones still want the law to be changed to make it illegal to offend them. But Guantanamo Bay is a disgrace - everything about it stinks, even the fact that the Pentagon can release these figures and not be shamed into sorting themselves out. All the hype about America on some great mission to spread democracy around the world rings so hollow when they're belying their own ideals with ongoing outrages like this.