Posted on 08/08/2005 1:56:01 PM PDT by Zuben Elgenubi
Books about boy wizard Harry Potter have become favourite reading material among Islamic terror suspects at the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Quoting a librarian working at the centre, The Washington Times newspaper says JK Rowling's tales about the boy and the school of wizardry are on top of the request list for the camp's 520 Al Qaeda and Taliban suspects, followed by Agatha Christie novels.
"We've got a few who are kind of hooked on it. A couple have asked if they can see the movie," the librarian identified only as Lori is quoted by The Times as saying.
Lori said she is compiling a list to provide to various law-makers in Washington, who recently visited the prison at the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay as part of a congressional delegation investigating accusations of torture, according to the report.
A US military investigation last month concluded that no torture has taken place since the prison opened in early 2002. The Times said the Guantanamo library also has drawn interest because of a separate investigation into how guards handle the Koran, which is given to any prisoner who requests it under Pentagon policy.
The investigation found five cases of mishandling the sacred book, but no evidence that personnel flushed a copy down a toilet.
Australian David Hicks has been held at Guantanamo Bay for almost four years.
We shouldn't be giving them anything to read that wasn't penned by Thomas Aquinas.
probaly fantazing about breaking out the old magic wand and escaping. Or tapping their heels together and saying "theres no place like home."
A book about magic? Maybe they are looking for ways to Apparate out of the prison. The guards should sell them some fake floo powder.
LOL! Well I would withhold the Agatha Christie novels. She was a nurse and she researched her poisons thoroughly.
I also think it's funny that a story about wizardry is popular. Perhaps they think that they can find he who must not be named?
Heh.
Almost sounds like the whole Saddam-Cheetos thing...
ROFL! Fake Floo powder.
Did you read the most recent one? Where the older Weasley brothers open a shop and have a sign that says something to the effect that
Why worry about you know who
When what really affects you is
you no poo
(then it's an ad for a laxative)
LOL!
CLub Gitmo really is starting to sound like a hellish torture chamber.
LOL LOL LOL!
aw....how sweet ....see? they are all just kids at heart
(sarc)
Ironic since people didn't say Voldemort's name because they were TERRORIZED by it. Harry eventually starts using it because he refuses to be terrorized.
Then why is part of the "torture" to read them Harry Potter books aloud?
U.S. lawmakers tour Guantanamo prison
June 26, 2005
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8357196/
"From behind one-way mirrors, lawmakers watched interrogators grilling three individual terror suspects. None of the interrogators touched detainees.
In one session, they questioned a man who defense officials said was a Saudi national and admitted al-Qaida member who was picked up in Afghanistan and knew nine of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers. In another, a female interrogator took an unusual approach to wear down a detainee, reading a Harry Potter book aloud for hours. He turned his back and put his hands over his ears."
They're probably looking for ways to magically flush a Koran down a toilet.
Not just the fact that this is a kids book.
The fact that is pretty much a magic/wizards/witchcraft/blah blah blah book that would probably have them being executed for reading it in their own countries.
Agatha Christie is a strange pick too, since, if I recall correctly, the target audience was women.
Don't get me wrong...it is my personal view HP is just light reading, and I am a pretty fundamentalist Christian in most areas. But to have Gitmo Joe, who wants to destroy my decadent lifestyle for what Holywood has done to the youth of his festering sandpit? Not sure I'm buying this.
By all means, have them watch the movies! Hermione is an excellent example of the proper role of women in society. With the right approach, we can get these guys brains turned around, so that when we finally send them back home, they'll be horrified by their primitive barbaric misogynist societies.
Harry Potter and the Practioners of Ka-Boom
[with apologies to JK Rowling]
CHAPTER 26: THE HOWLING MEXICAN MIST
Harry was tranfixed by the sight of Dumbledore, lying on the carpet of his office, as the mysterious shadowy figure loomed over his limp and lifeless body. He froze in terror, desperately holding his breath as not to attract the cackling killer's attention. His scar began to throb uncontrollably. Suddenly the silence was torn by a violent reverberating FRRRRAARRPPP!
"Sorry, 'arry, you know 'ow it is with 'em cafeteria burri'os," said Hagrid sheepishly.
"WHO CUT THE CHEESE?" said the enraged spectre with a hissss. He turned around slowly, removing the hood, revealing a pair of menacing reptilian yellow eyes that trained themselves straight at Harry, Ron, Hermione and Hagrid.
"Voldemort!" screamed Harry -- half in fear, half in rage -- and quickly trained his wand at the Lord of Dark Magic.
"Ah... Mister Potter, my old nemesis. We meet again," he said with a sickly smile. apparating a can of Lysol that quickly cleared up the pungent mist of Hagrid's lunchtime burritos.
"You were the one who planted the bombs that killed all the muggles on Platform 9 3/4!"
"One and the same, dear boy."
"You were the one who caused our own owls to crash into Gryffindor Tower!"
"How very perceptive of you, Harry."
"You were the one who killed the entire Hufflepuff Quiddich team! The one who strapped dynamite on the Dementors! The one who filed that class action suit to release the Azkaban detainees!"
"Well, no shit Sherlock," Voldemort sneered with an air of irritation.
"And you... you are the one who makes my robe levitate every time I sneak into the girl's dormitory in my invisibility cloak!"
"Um... don't they teach you anything in health class?" said Voldemort quizzically. "No matter. I have grown weary of our conversation, Harry, and I am pleased to say it will be our last. Prepare to meet your doom."
Voldemort's eye's glowered and narrowed as he raised his crooked wand. The four friends prepared for the inevitable, then... the Dark Lord suddenly hunched, doubled over, and collapsed with a high pitched wheeze on the carpet.
"I'm afraid your dark magic is no match for a good swift British kick in the nuts," said Professor Dumbledore, leaping up and brushing himself off.
"Oh Professor, thank goodness you're alive!" cried Hermione.
"No time for that now, Hermione! Quickly, Harry, use the banishment spell I taught you! Quickly, before he gets back up!"
"No, sir," said Harry quietly.
"What... what do you mean, Harry?" asked Dumbledore, dumbfounded.
"I mean sir, maybe the Dark Lord and Professor Galloway and the Al-Dementor insurgents have a point. I mean -- we obviously have made them angry, what with all their bombs and soul-eatings and dismemberment spells. Maybe we have oppressed the dark magicians. Maybe the Sorting Hat does unfairly discriminate against Dementor students. Maybe the Muggles have stolen their lands. Maybe knee-jerk retaliation against Voldemort is exactly the sort of thing that will cause them to react with more and more spells."
Dumbledore looked at Harry in silence.
"And so maybe, Professor, just maybe... we should sit down with Voldemort and Professor Galloway to talk about how we can end all this sensless bombing and spell-casting, and start a real dialog between us and the Dark Arts community, and build real diversity and understanding here at Hogwarts."
"Now you're finally talking sense, my boy," gasped Voldemort, painfully rising to his knees.
How long before the anti-Harry Potter crowd starts screaming "abuse! abuse!"?
Hey, I bet they would really like Tolken’s LOTR books. Mordor, the evil profit Saroman serving the great and powerful Sauron. Armies or Orks and Uroki roaming the lands unchallenged and unchecked would really make them homesick.
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