It is easy to keep demons out of dreams

Years ago, I wondered if tyrants have a filtering device implanted in their minds and hearts to keep out the demons so they can sleep at night. I wondered again a couple of weeks ago when US President Barack Obama was asked by ABC News’ Jake Tapper whether he, Obama, concurred with the opinion expressed by ex State Department spokesman P J Crowley on how Private Bradley Manning, accused of divulging vital secrets to the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, was being treated at the Marine brig in Quantico, Va, where he is being detained.

Crowley had said that Manning’s pre-trial confinement conditions were ‘ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid’. He resigned soon after.

Obama had an interesting response. He said that if Manning’s treatment is good enough for the Pentagon, it is good enough for him. Here’s the quote: ‘I’ve actually asked the Pentagon whether or not the procedures that have been taken in terms of his confinement are appropriate and are meeting our basic standards.’

Horror stories

It’s easy, this business of sleeping well, I figured. There’s a pithy Sinhala saying that sheds a lot of light on this issue: horage ammagen pena ahanava vagei (it is like asking the mother of the thief to provide clues to his/her whereabouts).

Barack Obama

George W Bush

For the record, Manning is being held at the US Marine Brig in Quantico, Virginia where he has to spend 23 hours a day in a small cell without personal possessions and even bed sheets. He is also being forced to undress before sleeping. His feet are kept shackled. Now Barack Obama, before he was inaugurated as President of the USA, did talk about the importance of whistleblowers. In fact, in his website, he described such acts as ‘courageous’ and ‘patriotic’ and insisted that they should be encouraged and not stifled. A couple of years into his term, Barack Obama has done the 180-degree. No encouragement. ‘Shackling’, ‘gagging’, ‘humiliating’, ‘torturing’ seem to be the preferred operatives.

Bradley Manning is a US citizen. Sad but true is that for all the horror stories about his detention, Manning is being treated with soft hands. The facility at Quantico is a kindergarten play area compared with the conditions at the Guantanamo Bay Prison and Abu Ghraib. The last two are facilities known to the world. There are others known only to the inmates, the victims, the tortured and the to-be-killed. And to the US Defence Department. The Pentagon.

Nothing illegal or repulsive happens in these places, Obama would say and want us to believe. It is easy. All he has to do is to call the Pentagon and ask. The reply would be crisp: ‘Everything is as should be, Mr President.’ Now that would be a double-option response. Obama could think, ‘he/she means ‘legal’ and is telling me that no harassment takes place.’ In Sinhala, someone would say, ‘Obama ithin babek ne!’ (Obama is a baby!).

National interest

Maybe he asked the US Ambassador in Pakistan, ‘Hey dude, this guy Raymond Davis, is he a diplomat?’ ‘Yes, Mr President,’ must have been the response. Obama can then say ‘I am assured by my officials that everything is above board’. That’s a crap out, but hey, he is Barack Obama, educated, intelligent, wise (according to some) and, most of all, he’s not George W Bush.

I am pretty sure Obama sleeps well at night. As well as Hitler did. Heck, as well as any tyrant that ever walked this earth did. As for filtering devices, I can name a few. There’s the timeless convenience called ‘Blind Eye’. It can be turned in all directions, I am told. There’s ‘Feigned Ignorance’. That’s cool, I’ve heard. There’s ‘In the national interest’ (never mind the fact that the nation’s opinion was never solicited). The last is a get-away-with-murder license.

Barack Obama sleeps well. I am sure all tyrants, murderers, thieves, rapists etc, contrary to popular opinion, get their REMs regularly courtesy these devices. All it takes is a bit of ignorance, a dash of arrogance, a spoonful of ego, a few ounces of self-righteousness, a few guns and bombs, not too many, and a media mafia that purports to be un-shackled but will toe the line when the rubber hits the tar. Sleep well, Mr Obama. Sleep like a baby. I have no doubt you will. For a while, at least. [email protected]