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Guilty Associations
Over at the Guardian, Victoria Brittain is recounting the unfortunate story of Mohammed Abdul Kahar, who was shot during a police raid on his home in London last June. Since his release - no charges were pressed against him - Kahar has been subject to what he and Brittain claim is a campaign of harassment in the police and in the media.
He has been accused of spitting at soldiers, telling them he hoped they died in Iraq, and of making child porn images on his computer and mobile phone. Again, no charges have been pressed against him. Kahar's family say he is still in pain following the shooting, while the accusations of being a terrorist (police suspected a dirty bomb plot) and a child pornographer (the offending images were discovered on the drive of a machine Kahar says he bought second-hand) have traumatised him. He is, they say, the innocent victim of a police and media conspiracy.
So why, then, allow Brittain to speak for him? Britten is most famous for co-authoring Enemy Combatant: A British Muslim's Journey to Guantánamo and Back with Moazzam Begg. in the book, and in his statements following his release from Guantanamo, Begg has failed to give a satisfactory account of his associations and of his time Afghanistan. Even prior to his adventures in Afghanistan, Begg had come to the attention of the authorities as a potentially dangerous extremist.
Brittain has acted as apologist and mouthpiece for a man with very dubious connections, which she seems to believe can be ignored because of his mistreatment in Guantanamo.
Kahar, who seems to be innocent of the accusations levelled against him, is done no favours by having Brittain as a champion. Her modus operandi is to draw attention away from terrorist sympathies and activity by pointing to subsequent mistreatment at the hands of the authorities. Thanks to her taking up Kahar's case, readers could be forgiven for wondering what she is trying to hide.
