Renown American scholar and writer Noam Chomsky criticized the British intelligentsia’s lack of action to stop Washington’s shameful acts in the detention camp it holds in the illegally occupied Cuban territory of Guantanamo, where prisoners’ civil rights are being violated on a daily basis, despite worldwide opposition.In an interview with Britain’s The Independent newspaper, Professor Noam Chomsky called on Premier Gordon Brown’s government to use its special relationship with Washington to secure the closure of Guantanamo Bay.
Chomsky, well-known for his opposition to the Vietnam and the Iraq wars, had also called the British intellectuals to take a firmer position and a more active course of action against the erosion of civil rights in America, actions condemned by courts both sides of the Atlantic.
"A country," says Prof. Chomsky, "with any shred of self-respect will be vigilant to ensure that it does not take part in this criminal savagery. Because of the "special relationship," Britain has a particularly strong responsibility to bar these shameful crimes in any way it can. [And] In whatever respect the relationship is "special", the UK can use it to bar these shameful crimes."
The British liberal intelligentsia has failed to clearly articulate its opposition to the prisoners’ conditions and the treatment they receive by America, in every corner of the world. According to Chomsky there have been only “twitters of protest” not enough to effectively change the current situation.
Clive Stafford Smith, the lawyer representing British Guantanamo detainee, Binyam Mohamed, said: "Professor Chomsky is right. To borrow from President Clinton, the world is much more impressed by the power of America’s example than the example of American power. Likewise, the world is more impressed by British principle than the pretense of Britain’s special relationship. A true friend to America would not stand by while President Bush squanders America's birthright," he stressed.
