This should probably be a comment on your latest blog entry rather than an e-mail, but I’ll try to keep it brief. As an American who’s gone from outrage to despair at the lack of opposition in this country to the Guantánamo Bay prison, I’m grateful for the work you’ve done in writing “The Guantánamo Files”, which I’m currently reading. (I’ve convinced my local library to buy the book, so hopefully other people in my community will be educated by it, although I suspect that even if most people in the US knew the details of what our troops are doing at Gitmo, they would still support it — leaving it to people in other countries, like you, to oppose the prison.)

However, I was a bit dismayed that in your interview with the Sri Lanka Guardian, you did not mention Israel as a factor in the US government’s definition of terrorism, in the agenda behind the “war on terror,” or in the US’s continuing hostility toward Iran. Normally, omission or denial of the role the US’s allegiance to Israel plays in these issues is a blow to the credibility of journalists who are otherwise critical of the US’s policy in the Middle East; even if I were comfortable saying that about you, though, that wouldn’t diminish the importance of “The Guantánamo Files” or the other work you’ve done on behalf of the Gitmo detainees. Thank you for your time.

As I explained to Jim in a reply, I believe that I did address his concerns — albeit a little obliquely — when I mentioned how “citizens of all Western countries, not just the US, have to delve beyond the received positions on, for example, Israel and Palestine, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, to begin to make sense of how the world really is.”

And I was, of course, grateful for the rest of Jim’s comments …