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June 29, 2005
Carnival Cruise
The HMS Prison Ship 'Jersey'.
If you're thinking of actor Tom Cruise and his freakish comments about psychiatry, you're on the wrong ship. This is the other cruise you don't want to be affiliated with.
The United Nations says it has learned of serious allegations that the US is secretly detaining terrorism suspects, notably on American military ships.
'US Faces Prison Ships Allegations' comes as no suprise and nearly a week after the UN's requests to inspect the prisons at Guantanamo Bay were rebuffed. This goes toward explaining why the recent congressional field trip to Camp X-Ray turned out more like the Buena Vista Social Club than the embarrassment it should have.
And of the other embarrassment who director Steven Spielberg believes the media is treating too harshly. The Church of Scientology, for whom Tom Cruise is the de facto spokesperson, believes that at the end of the world, a big spaceship will come save its members. Cruise is currently promoting his latest film, War of the Worlds, where he portrays a divorced father who must save his children when (illegal) aliens arrive by spaceship to destroy the earth. Which spaceship is it Tom?
As bizarre and appalling as a floating prison is, the prototype can be found in the HMS Old Jersey (pictured above). Prisoners were captured from ships abroad at sea and forced to join the British navy or else be interned on the the prison ship until death without due process or trial. Sound familiar?
The British transport of convicts to the penal colonies in the pacific would in time become Australia.
In the New York Times article, Troops in Spielberg Film Get Sneak Preview:
The soldiers were called on by Steven Spielberg, who picked Fort Drum troops to star in his remake of the H.G. Wells classic "War of the Worlds." The movie, starring Tom Cruise, opens nationwide Wednesday, but the actor-soldiers were treated to a sneak preview Monday night at the post movie theater. It's not the first time the 10th Mountain Division has made it to the silver screen. The division's historic rescue of Army Rangers in Somalia in 1993 was chronicled in the book "Black Hawk Down," which was made into a 2001 movie by director Ridley Scott.Since its reactivation in 1985, the 10th Mountain Division has been the nation's most-deployed (read: casted) military force.
The rumored US prison ships are currently believed to be operating within the Indian Ocean. "It feels awesome to help save the world," said Sgt. Christopher Lumpiesz, of Tampa, Florida, who gets to help shoot down a Martian ship in the movie. Approximately 450 miles from Tampa, somewhere near Reality, detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba will definitely not be seeing the premiere of "War of the Worlds".
Posted by rst at June 29, 2005 03:28 PM
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