Life After Guantanamo: Why the Media's Happy-Ending Narrative Is Totally Bankrupt
The transfer of four Uighur prisoners to Bermuda has been treated like a happy human-interest story, but the truth is far darker.
By Liliana Segura, AlterNet
Submitted by Evergreene Digest Contributing Editor Ken Mitchell
"From Gitmo to Paradise!"
So came the news via MSNBC last week, echoing the upbeat tone of so many covering the sudden transfer of four Uighur prisoners from Guantanamo Bay to Bermuda. Broadcasting images of beaming bearded men in bucolic surroundings, the happy-ending narrative offered by the media was perfectly captured in a June 14 New York Times story: "Out of Guantanamo, Uighurs Bask in Bermuda."
"Almost exactly seven years after arriving at Guantánamo in chains as accused enemy combatants, and four days after their surprise predawn flight to Bermuda," the Times reported, "four Uighur Muslim men basked in their newfound freedom here, grateful for the handshakes many residents had offered and marveling at the serene beauty of this tidy, postcard island."
