The red cross was permitted to take pictures of several detainees to give to their families (something normally prohibited officially by the Geneva Convention, unofficially by [enter your feelings toward the military here]). Looking at them prompts one of the most complicated mixes of emotion I’ve recently experienced. One of these guys is Khalid Sheik Mohammed, a man I would be happy to hear was raped to death by badgers. Some of these men have since been released, perhaps some of them are still imprisoned and innocent, perhaps some that were released were not. But in these photos they are just dudes, smilling dudes, praying dudes, happy dudes. I have no idea which one is the mass murderer. I have no idea if the bad ones made happy photos for their families, or to show the world that the US couldn’t contain them, or because they truly are as happy as one could possibly be in a military prison. I know some are not guilty and that Guantanamo is a stigmatic place in which bad things have happened. I know that some are guilty and that they deserve not the tiniest shred of sympathy. I know that I can’t tell the difference. Very strange.
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