Guantanamo

Honor Bound to Defend Freedom'

Victoria Brittain, Gillian Slovo

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781840024746
• eBook ISBN: 9781849435482
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

"I don't know what crime I am supposed to have committed for which not only I but my wife and children should continually suffer." - British detainee Moazzam Begg This verbatim play, drawn from letters and interviews from Guantanamo Bay prisoners, their lawyers and relatives, weaves together personal stories, legal opinion and political debate. Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom looks at the questions surrounding the detentions in Guantanamo Bay, and asks how much damage is being done to Western democratic values during the 'war on terror'. Orignally produced at London's Tricycle Theatre, Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom subsequently transferred to London's West End.

Act One

House lights on. From the auditorium comes Lord Justice Johan Steyn, up on stage to a podium.

Written on the dot matrix: ‘27th F A Mann Lecture, given by Lord Justice Johan Steyn on 23 November 2003.’

LORD JUSTICE STEYN: The most powerful democracy is detaining hundreds of suspected foot soldiers of the Taliban in a legal black hole at the United States naval base at Guantanamo Bay, where they await trial on capital charges by military tribunals. This episode must be put in context. Democracies must defend themselves. Democracies are entitled to try officers and soldiers of enemy forces for war crimes. But it is a recurring theme in history that in times of war, armed conflict, or perceived national danger, even liberal democracies adopt measures infringing human rights in ways that are wholly disproportionate to the crisis. Ill-conceived, rushed legislation is passed granting excessive powers to executive governments which compromise the rights and liberties of individuals beyond the exigencies of the situation. Often the loss of liberty is permanent…

The purpose of holding the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay was and is to put them beyond the rule of law, beyond the protection of any courts, and at the mercy of the victors… At present we are not meant to know what is happening [there]^*. But history will not be neutered. What takes place today in the name of the United States will assuredly, in due course, be judged at the bar of informed international opinion.

The regime applicable at Guantanamo Bay was created by a succession of presidential orders. It can be summarised quite briefly. The prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, as matters stand at present, will be tried by military tribunals. The prisoners have no access to the writ of habeas corpus to determine whether their detention is even arguably justified. The military will act as interrogators, prosecutors, defence counsel, judges, and when death sentences are imposed, as executioners. It is, however, in all respects subject to decisions of the President as Commander-in-Chief even in respect of guilt and innocence in individual cases as well as appropriate sentences. It is an awesome responsibility. The President has made public in advance his personal view of the prisoners as a group: he has described them all as ‘killers…’

As STEYN leaves house light dim.

The pre-dawn call to prayer: sung from the stage.

VOICES: Alaahu Akbar
Bishmillaahi-r-Rahmaani-r-Raheem
Al-hamdu Lillaahi Rabbi-i-aalameen (Etc.)

MR BEGG: I will start with his childhood so you have the full picture of [Moazzam].

He was born in

MR BEGG hesitates for a fraction of a second.

… ’67 on 5th June and he was very well looked after by his mother and by me. When he was a little bit grown up he went to a Jewish junior school. His reports were quite good. His teachers, especially the Headmaster Mr Levy, I don’t know whether he’s alive or not but he was very, very good. He saw that there is good potential in my sons, so he took them after certain questions and examination. He was quite happy with Moazzam.

WAHAB AL-RAWI: (He is smoking.) I came into the UK in ’83.
[My brother Bisher], came one year later.

In the early 80’s, my father was arrested – the Iraq secret service went to his office and arrested him and they took him and he disappeared for eight months. And when we found out where he was, then he was moved from one secret service to another, and he disappeared again. Eventually we found him and we used some influence at that time to just get him to go to trial. Of course he was tortured and he was abused. A year and a half he spent with the Iraqi secret service which is one of the worst in the world. Finally he went to trial. The judge found him innocent and he was released, but by then the Government has confiscated a lot of his properties and so we decided to leave Iraq for the UK.

None of us ever asked for asylum. We were very well off at the time.

MR BEGG: Moazzam did his initial schooling there and one day he said: ‘Dad I want to make a society’ and I smiled [because he was too young to talk about society] and said: ‘what kind of society are you going to make son?’ He said: ‘A society to help older people, feeble people, and people with disabilities and all that.’ So, I said: ‘This is a very good thing, it’s a noble thing. I’ll not stop you doing that.’ I don’t know how far he went…

WAHAB AL-RAWI: I was studying GCSEs at a school in Cambridge and [Bisher] came to do the same thing. We were teenagers living on our own in one house. It’s the first time we’ve ever gone anywhere, so it was a mess. Every day there was a fight. We’d make peace and then we’d go back and break the peace. So the next year, my mother split us apart. I went to study my A-levels in Shrewsbury and he went to Millfield College to finish his GCSEs and then do his A-levels.

[Bisher] finished A-levels, went to University. He was very physical, he was very active – this is why he loved it in Millfield – he did all the sports, wrestling, archery, climbing. Even he was a parachutist. He had 63 jumps. He had PPL – private pilot’s licence. He studied on helicopters as well. Deep sea diving – he’s got all the equipment for deep sea diving. He was a biker. Every sport you can imagine. If he’s interested in something, then he takes it on completely. He absorbs it in his blood and veins. It’s a profession. Then he leaves it and goes on to another thing.

WAITER: There’s no smoking in this area.

WAHAB AL-RAWI: Oh. Okay. No problem. I’ll put it out. (Putting out his cigarette.) I don’t like to break the law.

MR BEGG: [Moazzam] was about seven [then]. Seven I think, yes he was, because it was one year before his mother died. So, he was doing this sort of thing and after one year I married again. Moazzam [was my] second born. First born had a bit of a tussle with my [new] wife (Laughter.) but Moazzam never had that. He was quite alright with her and he in fact supported me that we had to have somebody in the house. So, Moazzam was very co-operative. He was very, very polite, very nice, very intelligent because any question I asked he replied with proper intelligence at the age and I was surprised sometimes that he had that sort of intelligence.

After finishing the school [he] went for Law.

WAHAB AL-RAWI: [Gambia] was my idea. My idea was I build a mobile oil processing plant and because of…obviously because of the title…because you’re mobile you need to go to where the peanuts are.

MR BEGG: I’m a banker by profession [but] I opened another business [an Estate Agent] and [with] Moazzam ran [it] four or five years. Without [Moazzam] I would have not done [it]. [He] was attending the College as well at that time – going to the University part time. Then, when I finished from that business and everything he said: ‘Dad, I want to get settled now. I want to get married.’ I said: ‘Son, I wanted you to finish these studies’, as every father would think, ‘and after that, you may do whatever you feel like.’

He said: ‘No it’s all too tiring now, I can’t do any more.’ I said: ‘Alright, take a break and next year you do what you will want to do’ and he said: ‘Yes, I’ll do it later on.’ But…er…he got married and settled down and he opened a shop, an Islamic bookshop and an Islamic clothing shop. So, that was unusual and he was running it very nicely, I think he was making a reasonable profit.

WAHAB AL-RAWI: And we decided for the experimental stages to go to a small country like Gambia and then there would be a stage two. We decided to go to Gambia because we knew somebody there. I met the first secretary for the Ministry of Agriculture and he encouraged me – I met a lot of people who encouraged me in the UK as well. I met the Gambian High Commissioner. He encouraged me – everybody encouraged me. And I thought what better to do? You go to Africa where there’s poverty, you produce labour, you give these people wealth and at the same time you help yourself.

MR BEGG: [Moazzam] always used to pray in the midday because we pray, well, when I say we pray – practising Muslims I should say – pray five times a day. One early in the morning before the rise of sun, and then midday, and then we pray in the afternoon at about four or five o’clock. After that, at the time of sunset and then before going to bed. So, this five times prayer is supposed to be done by practising Muslims. I never did it (laughter) unfortunately. Apart from that we have got to keep fast – one month fast. So this is all good things. I don’t have any objection to it, leaving that fundamentalism aside. It is not only the prayer, it is the physical exercise you do, mental exercise you do, concentration you [get].

WAHAB AL-RAWI: [My idea was] we buy the peanuts from the farmers. We process it. We produce cooking oil, which we sell back to the farmer and the by-product is animal feed which you can use to raise chicken or beef or whatever. So, everything is produced on the ground and everything is sold on the ground. And it is very, very profitable.

And my brother’s position was that he was going to come over with us for a couple of weeks to help us just set the factory, build the factory – and then he’d come back. His ticket was for one month. When I asked him what he was going to do with the extra two weeks, he said, well, I’m going to go for a walkabout, see Africa.

MR BEGG: [Moazzam prayed] at least three or four times a day [and] in midday he used to put the shutter down of the shop. Not just him, there were two or three persons more used to come to the prayers. So, Moazzam prays here, in this house; in his house; in his shop; whenever he had time for prayers.

He used to call me: ‘Come on down dad, this is the time of our prayer’. I’d say: ‘I’m coming in a minute, I want to take a shower’ (laughter) because you can’t pray until you are absolutely clean – top to bottom and you wash your hands, you wash your mouth, you wash your face and then you wash your feet – each time – and then it’s time for prayers. So, Moazzam was used to remaining very clean all the time otherwise he can’t do the prayers.

[But] when he...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half-title Page
• Dedication
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Characters
• Act One
• Act Two
• Act Three
• OTHER VERBATIM TITLES