Why, then, are we continually fed pictures of Camp X-Ray when it was a makeshift facility that existed for only four months more than four years ago? Why is every single detainee pictured on the BBC's website (and frequently on TV) shown in an orange jumpsuit and depicted in a stressful position, when most don't wear them and many live communally? More than 900 journalists have been to Guantanamo, yet the photos remain the same. Is it that detainees don't engage in recreation, in call to prayer five times a day, or in interrogations done over chess; or is it that those images don't fit the narrative that all seem to want to believe?I've been curious about some of the often-repeated Guantanamo images we see on the news. Are things exactly as they were in January of 2002?
Graffy's article had me thinking that maybe they aren't and we're being fed a line. Then I got to the bottom of the article and I read this: "Colleen Graffy is the United States' deputy assistant secretary of state for public diplomacy". Now, maybe Graffy is being 100% honest here and everything she's written is the God's-honest-truth, but still the impact of all that she's written is virtually nil when you take into account she is, after all, an authorized spokeswoman for the organization responsible for Guatanamo.
She's at least raised the possibility that life in Guantanamo is being misrepresented, but I'm afraid that until I read similar things written by credible, non-government sources, I'll remain skeptical that what Graffy says is the truth.
