This week the Independent reported that Clare’s 2004 book An Honourable Deception? New Labour, Iraq, and the Misuse of Power is on the list of proscribed publications in the Guantanamo Bay detainees library.
Clare said she was ‘very honoured’ to find her book on the list which, along with others, is banned on the grounds that it has ‘potential to create controversy’. An Honourable Deception? offers a personal account of the events leading up to Britain’s involvement in the Iraq War and outlines the lack of democratic processes within Blair’s government that led to Britain’s intervention alongside the United States.
Guantanamo Bay is a US military prison off the coast of Cuba. Inmates have been detained indefinitely without trial with many alleging torture. The detention camp is considered to be in major breach of human rights by the EU and the UN Commission on Human Rights, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch. Former President, Barack Obama pledged and failed to shut down the camp. On taking office President Trump vowed to keep the prison open and threatened to escalate torturous practices such as waterboarding.
Clare discusses Guantanamo Bay and similar abuses in her essay The grave challenge facing the international humanitarian system: a personal view.
Posted by Site Administrator.
