![\"In](\"http:\/\/rt.com\/files\/opinionpost\/1f\/2e\/50\/00\/5.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAlthough Obama has indicated that he is set to resume prisoner transfers from Guantanamo Bay, former detainee Moazzam Begg believes innocent people striking for their freedom will not stop unless they see some real action.<\/p>\n
Begg, a British Pakistani citizen who was held at the prison at
\nGuantanamo Bay for almost three years following his arrest in
\nPakistan in 2002. Though the Pentagon believed he was an enemy
\ncombatant and a member of al-Qaeda, he was eventually released by
\nPresident Bush in 2005 without charge, and reached an undisclosed
\nfinancial settlement with the British government in November of
\n2010 along with several other former British inmates.<\/p>\n
Obama\u2019s Thursday speech included statements that the administration
\nis prepared to push forward the transfer of cleared detainees from
\nGuantanamo to their home countries. Though, as Begg tells RT, this
\nlatest announcement is unlikely to dissuade the ongoing hunger
\nstrikers at the prison, now comprising the majority of the inmate
\npopulation. Most importantly, the announcement will seem to ring
\nhollow considering the president\u2019s initial campaign pledge to shut
\ndown the detention center, which continues to operate into his
\nsecond term.<\/p>\n
RT:<\/b> So, based on Obama\u2019s words today, does that mean that
\nthe hunger strikers [in Guantanamo] were finally heard?
<\/i>
Moazzam Begg:<\/b> They may have been heard, but I don\u2019t think
\nhe\u2019s going to be doing anything anytime soon about it. What was
\nvery interesting is that the heckler, Madea Benjamin from Code
\nPink, I picked up some very important words that she said. The
\nfirst thing that she said was in relation to Shaker Aamer, the
\nBritish resident who is still being held there, she mentioned him
\nby name. And of course he\u2019s been cleared for release, and is still
\npart of a hunger strike. He has British children, four of whom are
\nhere in the UK, the youngest of whom he\u2019s never seen.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The other thing that she said that was very noteworthy was she
\nmentioned Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, he\u2019s the son of Anwar al-Awlaki
\nwho was killed a month after in a drone strike in Yemen, and he was
\nat the age of 16 years old. Now Obama said that these drone strikes
\nare justified, it\u2019s a just war, it\u2019s legal, he said, all of these
\nthings. But he never answered, never made any mention of this 16
\nyear-old child who was ordered killed by a US drone strike, and I
\ndon\u2019t think he ever will. He seems to be very open to addressing
\nvery tough issues, but this is one that I know he won\u2019t be
\nanswering any time soon.<\/p>\n
But in relation to the Guantanamo prisoners, I don\u2019t think
\nanybody is going to be singing the praises of Obama any time soon,
\nbecause he\u2019s already made a promise four years ago that he would
\nclose the place. One of the things the heckler, Madea Benjamin, was
\nsaying was that if they had been cleared for release then why don\u2019t
\nyou release them now. Why not start the process that could well
\ntake a year or more.<\/p>\n
RT:<\/b> But he did say he would be starting a process for
\nclosure, also he said there\u2019s no justification for Congress to
\nprevent us from closing a facility that should never have been
\nopened. And that received a round of applause, surely this is
\nsomething to be more positive about than you were, what, just a
\nweek ago?<\/i><\/p>\n
MB:<\/b> Well, you know, in the words of Malcolm X you don\u2019t
\ntake a knife, stick it in his back 9 inches deep, pull it back five
\ninches and say \u201cwe\u2019re making progress.\u201d That\u2019s precisely why they
\nwere applauding him for something that he should have closed a long
\ntime ago. Even Bush said that he was going to close down Guantanamo
\nBay, and he wanted to close it. Obama said that he would do it, and
\nhe broke that promise. At least Bush never made that promise.<\/p>\n
![\"In](\"http:\/\/rt.com\/files\/opinionpost\/1f\/2e\/50\/00\/3.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
RT:<\/b> So will the hunger strikers carry on then?<\/i><\/p>\n
MB:<\/b> I\u2019m fairly certain that they will, because they\u2019re
\nnot just – of course they\u2019re primarily striking for their freedom,
\nfor being held for so long without charge or trial – but they\u2019re
\nalso striking for being given these invasive cavity searches every
\ntime their lawyer visits, and every time he leaves, for the
\ndesecration of the Koran, for the strip searches, for the food and
\nall of these things that they\u2019ve had to bear over the past eleven
\nyears. And until they actually get to see the plane that is going
\nto be taking them home, and even then they\u2019ll be skeptical, I don\u2019t
\nthink they\u2019ll be stopping their protest any time soon.<\/p>\n
RT:<\/b> When you\u2019re talking about the conditions and the
\ntreatment they\u2019re receiving, Obama clearly condemned the issue of
\nforce-feeding those hunger strikers. So, do you not think that this
\nwill influence their conditions now, and they will improve?<\/i><\/p>\n
MB:<\/b> I\u2019d like to think so, but it\u2019s as though was Obama
\nnot aware of what was taking place in the world\u2019s most notorious
\nprison, which he spoke about in the first two days of his
\npresidency? Saying that he was going to close it down? I mean he
\nknows, he\u2019s stated very clearly that he doesn\u2019t want America to be
\nremembered for Guantanamo, but it will be remembered for
\nGuantanamo, people will never forget Guantanamo the way they will
\nnever forget Vietnam or the internment of the Japanese [in World
\nWar II] or anything else in relation to this. But the hunger
\nstrikes, if he really wanted to stop them he could do so clearly,
\nhe can\u2019t pretend that all of a sudden he just knows about it now,
\nand now he\u2019s going to act. It\u2019s something that should have happened
\na long time ago.<\/p>\n
![\"Detainees](\"http:\/\/rt.com\/files\/opinionpost\/1f\/2e\/50\/00\/1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
RT:<\/b> So if the prison is closed down, and the detainees
\nreleased, many are saying they\u2019re still a threat to society. How do
\nyou view that argument?<\/i><\/p>\n
MB:<\/b> Well it\u2019s just a misnomer completely, that\u2019s a
\nnonstarter. There are 613 former prisoners, I am one of them, who
\nwere released. Now 613 that\u2019s the overwhelming majority, because at
\nthe highest point there were 779 prisoners, leaving behind 166.
\nNow, if he returns them, they will do what we did, which is try to
\nget on with their lives that they had destroyed.<\/p>\n
RT:<\/b> Just briefly then, well then why were you a
\nprisoner? The same question from many others, surely you must have
\ndone something wrong?<\/i><\/p>\n
MB:<\/b> Well, no, that\u2019s not true, we didn\u2019t do anything
\nwrong and that\u2019s now been proven true. Even the British government
\nhas made huge payouts to former Guantanamo Bay prisoners who have
\nchallenged them in court. We weren\u2019t the criminals, they were
\nthe criminals. The criminality was done against us, torture is
\ncriminality, kidnapping is criminality, rendition is criminality.
\nAll of these things were done to us, we didn\u2019t do it to
\nanybody.<\/p>\n
We were interrogated by the world\u2019s most powerful intelligence
\nagencies, and after years of all of this they still had no charges
\nagainst us, and after years of all this the prisoners, the
\noverwhelming majority of them, have no charges against them. So
\nit\u2019s not even worth discussing anymore.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n