The American "Devil's Island"

NMB, Florida January 21, 2002 A.H. Schectman

THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on Issues, Ideas and Reflections on the Times. Published Now and
Then. Opinions Pro or Con Are Welcome.

THE AMERICAN DEVIL'S ISLAND
Only those of a certain age will remember "Devil's Island". This is a
mesa-like formation rising off the coast of French Guyana in South America
in the middle of violent currents of shark infested waters. It is distant
from the mainland coast and any prisoner on the island would be foolhardy to
try to swim to freedom. They were out of France, far out from civilization
and out of luck. Mitigation of their sentences was in the escape from
decapitation by the guillotine. On the Island they were "free" to "live" in
exile.

The difference between Devil's Island and Guantanimo as prisons is that on
the prison-island there was no need for cells or restraints. The prisoners
were loosed and fared for themselves. Only a few warders were necessary to
distribute supplies and adjudicate problems that result among any confined
population. Details of life on Devil's Island were hard to obtain until
Alfred Dreyfuss, the scapegoat for the corrupt French Army after the defeat
by Germany in the 1870's, was sent there. Eventually, he was returned to
France but only after unearned disgrace and indignity of living in a
hellhole.

In Guantanimo it is different. Elaborate precautions have been taken to
create open-air cells for prisoners brought from thousands of miles away at
high expense. They could have been incarcerated in their own country of
Afghanistan or hamstrung and allowed to be free to wander in a wasteland.
The difference in treatment is moot, the fairness irrelevant and the outcome
not worth talking about. But, note that everyone is talking about it.

What we have here in the American "Devil's Island" is a need for a high
profile treatment of getting even with people on another island we don't
even own. This is outlandish sentencing of the enemies of the people of
Afghanistan. These prisoners were not the ones involved in bombing America.
Those who did the bombing died in the event. The planners escaped. We have
the dregs of a system that destroyed its own country and people. Now we are
left with the self-appointed problem of rehabilitating that country and
"punishing" the poor souls showcased in the American "Devil's Island" on, of
all places, the Island Nation of Cuba.
Carol's Evaluation: 10 out of 10.