Vanessa Bails Out Al-Qaeda Suspects
Vanessa Redgrave came to the rescue of two former Guantanamo Bay detainees this week, paying thousands of dollars to help them walk free from a British court. The legendary actress said it was a "profound honor" to be able to help the terror suspects, but Pajamas Media CEO Roger L. Simon - who has met Redgrave a couple of times - sees nothing particularly honorable about overlooking the oppressive ideology of radical Islam.
I have met Vanessa Redgrave a couple of times through my actor friend Rade Serbedzija. Vanessa had helped Rade when he and his family were refugees from the former Yugoslavia. I became friends with Rade when he starred in Prague Duet, a film I made with my wife Sheryl Longin. And so we came to meet Vanessa.
She was always friendly and unassuming even though she has been, without doubt, one of the finest actresses in the English-speaking world for many decades. It seems almost to have been so since Sir Laurence Olivier, who was acting in a production with her father, Sir Michael Redgrave, announced her birth on stage at London’s Old Vic in 1937.
Of course, Vanessa has another side as a (sometimes Trotskyist) political activist. This week we learn she has been helping Guantanamo suspects, including one Jamil el-Banna accused of “producing extremist propaganda for Osama bin Laden,” putting up half of a 50,000 pound bail surety for el-Banna and a Libyan named Omar Deghayes who has links to the same al-Qaeda cell. The actress commented, “It is a profound honour and I am glad to be alive to be able to do this… Guantanamo Bay is a concentration camp. It is a disgrace that these men have been kept there all these years.”
Concentration camp? Well I imagine it’s not a very comfortable place. It’s a prison for enemy combatants. But “concentration camp” is an explosive term, evoking images of Auschwitz or the Gulag where tens of millions died, many gassed or starved to death, assuming they weren’t first lined up against the wall, shot and tossed into pits.
No one, to my knowledge, has been murdered in Guantanamo. Difficult jurisdictional questions have arisen with legitimate human rights questions asked. There have been a few reported suicides, though I am not sure how well documented. But starvation has not been a problem. According to many reports, the detainees have never eaten so well (four meals a day) and obesity might be more of an issue. Of course, there was that report in Newsweek a couple of years back that, to punish an unruly inmate, a US military guard had flushed a Koran down the toilet. Only it was then discovered that there weren’t flush toilets, only chemical toilets, at Guantanamo, so such an act was physically impossible.
Vanessa probably missed the retraction in Newsweek. It didn’t exactly appear on the front page. Nevertheless, I doubt the fine points mean that much to her. The actress is of the school that anything done by the West, particularly the capitalist West, is suspect. She is able to overlook the ideology of al-Qaeda in this regard, which is a particularly rigorous gymnastic considering the misogyny and homophobia of the al-Qaeda worldview. No doubt the Islamist group would ban many of the films in which Redgrave appeared, including Antonioni’s Blow-Up, in which she performed basically deshabille, and Wilde, in which she portrayed the homosexual playwright’s mother. In fact, it’s likely they would ban all her films, except perhaps a documentary she made with some Palestinian activists, and about that I’m not sure, given the internecine rivalries between various Fatah and Hamas factions. (It gets, excuse the phrase, Talmudic.)
But no matter. What’s important is how Vanessa appears – to herself and the public. It’s a kind of narcissism mixed with epater le bourgeoisie, masquerading as defense of the downtrodden, although these particular downtrodden are locked in an ideology that ensures their own continued misfortune. And the more the West is blamed for that misfortune, the longer it continues. Vanessa is in essence part of the problem, not part of the solution.
Yet again this does not bother her or even penetrate her radar screen. We should all be grateful, however, for her acting, just as we should all be grateful for the acting of the similarly unconscious Sean Penn (perhaps not entirely coincidentally also from an eminent theatrical family).
What intrigues me in all this is the relationship, if any, between talent and ideological blindness or rigidity. It’s not as simple as it seems. It could be the development of these false separate selves, these mini-me’s, that take the extreme positions, such as a Redgrave or Penn or Sarandon or, to a lesser extent, Streisand, have done, enhances the illusion of empathy that creates their art. It is generative artistically while being toxic politically. The Sean Penn who embraces Hugo Chavez is the same Sean Penn who gave us Jeff Spicoli. It would be great if we could have one without the other, but maybe, in some cases, we can’t.
Roger L. Simon is an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, novelist and blogger, and the CEO of Pajamas Media.
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26 Comments
1. Fuzzi:Fred Thompson is an honest worker and should be reheartened into His enthusiasm
Dec 22, 2007 - 3:18 am 2. BMoon:OK. I can understand Redgrave’s narcisstic need to tweak my unwashed bourgeoisie nose to demonstrate her innate superiority and compassion. But why couldn’t she do some Vagina monolgues or sculpt her feces in the Gugenheim Museum?
At least those acts of effite life-weariness and revulsion at our moral petentions would not kill us.
Dec 22, 2007 - 9:25 am 3. Rufus3698:Just a note about “concentration camps”. The British invented them during the Boer war in South Africa. Incarcerating enemy combatants (or anyone just suspected of being an enemy combatant) who wore no uniform and blended into the people of the country. Thus keeping them out of the conflict, essentually POWs. Of course, the US did the same to the Japanese immigrants during WWII for much less reason and the Brits most recent exercise in this type of set up was during the Northern Ireland frackus where about the same number of POWs as are now in Cuba were held in British prisons, some of whom were never convicted of any crime.
So her comment about “concentration camps” is entirely appropriate.
Dec 22, 2007 - 9:39 am 4. Alo Kievalar:I’ve often tried to figure out the mental pathology – not to say imbalance – of “celebrities” and academics ranting and raving against the “capitalist” system in all its manifestations.
After all, it is members of this very group who are among the top beneficiaries of the system they berate. One would have thought they would have the graciousness born out of gratitude to keep their traps shut. Instead, they display an almost hysterical animus to the “system”.
I strongly question their sincerity. I feel it is more a public relations stunt and posture than anything else.
In the same way, I question the sincerity and certainly the expertize of “environmentalists” AKA “tree huggers” and their ilk. How many will make a speech in one part of the country against “pollution” and then think nothing of flying an aircraft thousands of miles, said aircraft polluting more of the environment in that one trip than all the cigarettes that have ever been smoked by mankind.
The wonder is that people fall for this tripe with their eyes supposedly wide open.
Dec 22, 2007 - 10:28 am 5. Roark:Miss Redgrave’s reprehensible action in aiding and supporting Islamists thugs is exactly why London will be known someday as Londonistan. She is what is termed a ‘useful idiot’.
Dec 22, 2007 - 10:38 am 6. Peg C.:Rufus3698, with all due respect, lumping together Auschwitz where huge numbers of innocent people were gassed to death in shower rooms with holding camps set up for combatants in terror wars (such as Northern Island) is, at the least, disingenuous. Some of us might consider it morally contemptible.
Dec 22, 2007 - 11:36 am 7. David Thomson:Vanessa Redgrave is your typical guilt tripped white Westerner. The Jihadis are supposedly dark skinned victims of oppression. Race trumps everything else—including female exploitation. This is something that Phyllis Chesler had to find out the hard way. Undoubtably, Ms. Redgrave considers her to be reactionary scum of the Earth. White guilt underpins the crisis of our age. We either get past this nonsense—or we will be destroyed.
Dec 22, 2007 - 11:53 am 8. David Thomson:Vanessa Redgrave is your typical guilt tripped white Westerner. The Jihadis are supposedly dark skinned victims of oppression. Race trumps everything else—including female exploitation. This is something that Phyllis Chesler had to find out the hard way. Undoubtably, Ms. Redgrave considers her to be reactionary scum of the Earth. White guilt underpins the crisis of our age. We either get past this nonsense—or we will be destroyed.
Dec 22, 2007 - 11:53 am 9. joe y:There is another alternative, which is to not assume that the the Vanessa Redgraves of the world are naive, stupid, ignotant, narcissistic, etc, but rather to take them at their word and by their actions: That they really do favor the murder of innocents, the extermination of the Jews, the destruction of Western Civilization, and the weakening of the US. After all, until 1945, these positions had been common throughout the world, particularly among the type of people mentioned here. Redgrave and the terrorists she is freeing are in complete and sympathetic agreement on these matters still, so a friendship and alliance among them is natural.
Dec 22, 2007 - 1:29 pm 10. Noga:My favourite quote in the matter of these outlandish analogies comes from Olivar Kamm:
“Historical analogies are never exact but sometimes useful. If they are to be useful, then the precedent needs at a minimum to be stated accurately.”
So let’s see what is a concentration camp?
“Prior to and during World War II, Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps.. throughout the territories it controlled…
The two principal groups of prisoners in the camps, both numbering in the millions, were Jews and Soviet prisoners of war (POWs). Large numbers of Roma (or Gypsies), Poles, political prisoners, homosexuals, people with disabilities, Jehovah’s Witnesses and others-including common criminals-were also sent to the camps. In addition, a small number of Western Allied POWs were sent to concentration camps for various reasons.[1] Western Allied POWs who were Jews, or whom the Nazis believed to be Jewish, were usually sent to ordinary POW camps; however, a small number were sent to concentration camps under anti-semitic policies.[2]
In these concentration camps, millions of prisoners died through mistreatment, disease, starvation, and overwork, or were executed as unfit for labour; though they were not extermination or death camps which started in 1942. Death camps were established for the sole purpose of carrying out the industrialized murder of the Jews of Europe-the Final Solution. These camps were located in occupied Poland and Belarus, on the territory of the General Government. Over three million Jews would die in them, primarily by poison gas, usually in gas chambers, although many prisoners were killed in mass shootings and by other means. These death camps, including Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, and Auschwitz-Birkenau, are commonly but erroneously referred to as concentration camps, but Holocaust scholars draw a distinction between concentration camps (described in this article) and these extermination camps”
And what is Guantanamo Bay?
“Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a cooperative military prison and detention camp under the leadership of Joint Task Force Guantanamo since 2002.[1] The prison, established at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, holds people accused by the United States government of being terrorist operatives, as well as those no longer considered suspects who are being held pending relocation elsewhere. The detainment areas consist of three camps … The detainees held by the United States were classified as enemy combatants.
Since the beginning of the War in Afghanistan, 775 detainees have been brought to Guantanamo, approximately 420 of which have been released. As of August 09, 2007, approximately 355 detainees remain”
(Source: Wikipaedia)
Death at Guantanamo Bay:
“Three detainees at U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, died of apparent suicides early this morning, military officials reported today…
The detainees appear to have hanged themselves with nooses made from clothing and bed sheets, Harris said.”
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=16080
_____________
Clearly, Redgrave knows nothing about either the Concentration Camps or Gitmo, or else she would not be making such an uninformed analogy.
Dec 22, 2007 - 1:38 pm 11. Morton Doodslag:I remember her dancing like an insane fury in that Palestinian propaganda film, complete with a kaffiya and AK-47. Her long arms and long legs were flailing about as she attempted to do their war dance. There were of course no Arab women present — and the terrorists looked on in similar bemusement as those Viet Cong when Jane Fonda had her photo-ops with the communist mass murderers. I’m sure these primitive people think “what the hell is this beautiful insane dame doing here supporting us???” I’m sure the communists and the Palestinian terrorist are happy for the propaganda — but I’m also sure they close their doors and say “What’s with those beautiful crazy Western b*$%S? ”
I encountered Redgrave a few years back in the illustrated book section of a rare book store here in LA. We had a nice conversation about the books for a few minutes, and she ended up choosing a $2500 signed book by Arthur Rackham as a gift for her daughter. Now I’m nobody to criticize people for spending the cash they’ve earned on just about anything they want — and Redgrave is no exception — but the thought of her hypocritical marxism, and the fact that nature has showered some extremely unearned gifts on her, including great beauty, talent, fame, and boatloads of cash for play-acting, makes me think this hideous broken fruitcake should be on her knees every day offering thanks for her good fortune rather than helping terrorist destroy the Western world.
What a vile hypocrite it is.
Dec 22, 2007 - 1:39 pm 12. Jeffersonian:Thank you, Morton Doodslag, I was going to mention the AK-47 ballet myself. Redgrave is no stranger to Islamic lunacy and has been a fan as long as I can remember.
Dec 22, 2007 - 5:31 pm 13. LL:SWP- Socialist Workers Party have had helped Saddam regime follow Iraqui dissenters in Great Britain. Much more info about Redgrave friends at Harry’s Palace:
http://hurryupharry.bloghouse.net/
If Redgrave looks good to the public the only reason is a willing media.
Dec 22, 2007 - 5:58 pm 14. maxpstn:Vanessa is part of the problem not part of the solution in more ways than one. If there ever were any people in the mideast who favored compromise and coexistence,they were pushed to the sidelines by the radical chic of the Vanessa Redgraves of the world.
Dec 22, 2007 - 6:07 pm 15. Noga:She danced in front of revolutionary workers in the Soviet Union, in her film about Isadora Duncan. It was in tribute to the Bolshevik revolution. One wonders if, in dancing for the “revolutionary” PLO she was trying to create her own, real life, parallel to that talented but troubled dancer, and latched on to the first revolution that caught her fancy..
Dec 22, 2007 - 6:20 pm 16. Neshobanakni:Just a historical note: Concentration camps were invented in the late 1830s in Georgia. All captured Cherokee families were taken from their homes and farms and “concentrated” in easily guarded stockades until they could be deported. It wasn’t a “White” thing; Tennessee soldiers refused to do the same thing, reluctantly routing them from their homes but allowing them to scatter or join the exodus as they saw fit.
Oh, and Redgrave and Penn are assholes.
Dec 22, 2007 - 6:43 pm 17. The Fop:What’s encouraging is that there are so many baby boomers who see right through this hypocritical radical chic crap this time around. Sure, there’s plenty of others who are as clueless today as they were in 1968. But even they have to face up to reality.
They didn’t change the world. They didn’t cause a revolution. We’ve got soldiers fighting valiantly in Iraq and Afghanistan who were still in diapers during the 20th anniversary of Woodstock. Go stick that in your pipe and smoke it, Vanessa.
Dec 22, 2007 - 6:53 pm 18. william:I am sure later generations will remember Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave as fondly as we remember that talented thespian John Wilkes Booth.
Dec 22, 2007 - 7:47 pm 19. Curly Smith:“It’s not as simple as it seems. It could be the development of these false separate selves, these mini-me’s, that take the extreme positions…”
I think it is simple. When you see Redgrave, Penn or Saradon on the screen you’re seeing the writer’s and director’s vision come to life, the actors are playing a role. When you see them in person you see the same flaws that we all have to greater or lesser degrees. The mistake is in looking at the brilliance of the writer’s work and the brilliance of the acting and thinking they represent the same person. They do not. If you recall the Myers-Briggs Personality Test, you’ll remember that decision making falls along the “Thinking – Feeling” continuum. This quote from Wikipedia seems to be correct:
“Thinking and Feeling are the decision-making (judging) functions. Both Thinking and Feeling types strive to make rational choices, based on the data received from their information-gathering functions (S or N). Those with a preference for Feeling prefer to come to decisions by associating or empathizing with the situation, looking at it ‘from the inside’ and weighing the situation to achieve, on balance, the greatest harmony, consensus and fit, considering the needs of the people involved. Those with a preference for Thinking prefer to decide things from a more detached standpoint, measuring the decision by what seems reasonable, logical, causal, consistent and matching a given set of rules.” (from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator)
Actors should fall largely into the “Feeling” category simply by the nature of the business. They have to be able to read the script and to instantly become sympathetic with their character. The farther along the “Feeling Scale” the better able they are to sympathize, which might make them a better actor. It also makes them incapable of objectively evaluating real world events. Actors emote and they make decisions based on emotions rather than on facts. For them, perception is reality and you’ll never be able to convince them otherwise.
Dec 23, 2007 - 7:57 am 20. Vinny Vidivici:One hundred years ago, actors had trouble getting hotel rooms. Now, they testify before congressional committees.
One wishes they’d go back to being the overpaid court jesters they are and leave running the world to the rest of us.
But that will take a public and political class less awed by celebrity than is the case today.
Dec 23, 2007 - 9:03 am 21. davesSF:Roger knows these people better than any of us. But I’ve maintained an observation of these folks for a while (longer than the current world political situation) and I think it still holds.
These folks live in a fantasy land. They play characters and bring those characters to life. As a result, they believe in those characters and their stories, no matter that they are fictitious. Why, historically, have so many “fallen in love” with their co-stars? Whgen they’ve actually fallen for their co-stars’ characters.
Similary, they “fall in love” with the ideas and the stories that are portrayed in their movies. And all movies, with very few exceptions, project Western, industrial, capitalist society to be the villian and all non-western, dark-skinned societies to be the helpless, if not hapless, innocent victim. The film “makes real” to them incidents that, at best, are “based on” real events (e.g., Charlie Wilson’s War) and, at worst, are made up out of whole cloth (e.g., Apocalypse Now, any Michael Moore “documentary”).
And, just as in the Hollywood marriage where two co-stars marry, these people become wedded to the false reality represented in their films. The good news is, the couples can, and most often do, divorce when confronted with the reality of the person they married who was hidden inside their co-star. The bad news is that they are rarely, if ever, forced to confront the reality that is hidden behind the falsehoods of their storylines, and they see themselves as the real-life embodiment of the heroes of their stories who speak “truth to power” and stand up to the villain, typically a corrupt, middle-aged, white, Christian American.
Dec 23, 2007 - 10:36 am 22. greeneyeshade:I may not have been paying attention _ or I may be just a sentimental old fluff who remembers ‘Bull Durham’ too well _ but I don’t think Susan Sarandon has gone as far as Redgrave, Jane Fonda, Michael Moore and so on, and so on, and so on.
Besides, was there another Troy for her to burn?
Dec 23, 2007 - 8:19 pm 23. M algore:Redgrave is just good liberal.
Nothing new here – just like America’s liberal patiots – luv al quaeda and all other America killers.
At least Redgrave is not as big a hypocrite as pelosi, reid, shumer, etc.
She lives her America hatred. She is a true unabashed liberal – classier than the American liberals (the classless deny it when they are caught – and whine about their lack patriotism being questioned).
Dec 24, 2007 - 1:46 am 24. Mozart:Another useful idiot I expect
Dec 24, 2007 - 2:56 pm 25. seanmahair:Ms Redgrave and her ilk are lucky there a people who write the words they say on the screen,otherwise no one would take them seriously.
I wonder is she would like to spend some time living among the Islamofacists, confined behind the veil, a prisoner who must stay out of sight unless accompanied by a male family member. Nothing to read, no movies to watch in fact nothing to do. Maybe she’d think differently or maybe not.
Dec 27, 2007 - 7:44 am 26. Max Muir:>Just a note about “concentration camps”. The British invented them during the Boer war in South Africa.
No, they didn’t. The Spanish used concentration camps in Cuba, in 1896, some four years before their use by the
British, in South Africa. ‘Concentration camp’ comes from the translation, into English, of the Spanish term
‘reconcentrado’, a name for a Spanish concentration camp and also one for the Cuban civilians who were imprisoned
in them.
The claim that the British invented concentration camps originates with the Nazi Propaganda Ministry, i.e., Dr. Goebbels.
Jun 5, 2008 - 6:00 pm