Russell Brand Terrorism Claims Against The United States Sparks Backlash
Russell Brand accused the United States of “terrorism,” and related his beliefs to the Pakistan school shooting. The controversial comedian took to Twitter to rant about the political policies of America and the prison at Guantanamo Bay in particular.
Brand interviewed a British citizen who was detained at the Guantanamo Bay (GITMO) for three years. While speaking with Moazzam Begg, Russell Brand tweeted, “The people who do ‘terror’ best are the people who decide what ‘terror’ is.”
The Moazzam Begg and Russell Brand interview was nine-minutes long and posted on YouTube. Brand said that the United States terrorism video would “lift the lid” on the Guantanamo Bay “torture” tactics. The comedian, who was previously married to singer Katy Perry, attacked the decision by the United States to hold Moazzam Begg at GITMO. Begg was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and brought to Guantanamo Bay. In 2005, the British citizen was released without charge.
During the Russell Brand interview, Begg claimed that GITMO interrogators repeatedly asked him “what was happening to his family” as an audio recording of a woman screaming played loudly in a different room. Moazzam Begg also alleged that GITMO officials threatened to send him to Syria or Egypt, where prisoners are allegedly “regularly tortured.”
“Language is so integral to our understanding of these issues. For or quite a while, I thought that waterboarding was just a hobby. They’re just doing some waterboarding, oh that’s nice, some time off between the torture,” Russell Brand said during the interview with the former GITMO detainee. “If we have a criminal government, none of us are free. If our freedom is contingent on total compliance, then none of us are free. If people are being tortured in our names or the names of the institutions that govern us, then none of us are free. It is ironic that the people that do terror best are the people who decide what terror is.”
Analysis of both media and government reaction in today’s Trews “Don’t Let Sydney Siege Claim Your Freedom” TREW NEWS http://t.co/FbLevOhHSs
— Russell Brand (@rustyrockets) December 16, 2014
Russell Brand also sparked controversy earlier this week, when he stated that Man Haron Monis, the Sydney hostage taker, was not a terrorist.
“By us labelling him a terrorist rather than a dangerous mentally ill person – not that all mentally ill people are dangerous, I’m mentally ill – and by allowing him to set the agenda ‘I’m doing this on behalf of Islam’ it gives a certain grandeur to nihilistic and violent actions but what’s more interesting than the actions of a mentally ill person is the response of the political establishment.”
Brand also claims that the news media fit the Man Haron Monis Sydney gunman story to fit “their own frame” to play into “worldwide fears about Islamic State.”
What do you think about Russell Brand claiming the United States is a terrorist nation?
[Image via: Twitter]
