Those of us who are concerned about the exhaustion of the world's resources are aware of the problems that ordinary batteries have for the environment. Used once and thrown away they can clog landfills and release harmful chemicals.
To reduce the waste rechargeable batteries are becoming more and more popular. Naturally you take your charger on holiday or business trips to keep them charged up. One man did that and he ended up being detailed for five years, his companion still is.
That is exactly what happened to a UK resident on a business trip to Gambia in 2002 to set up a peanut oil factory. His battery recharger was taken to be a "suspicious device". He was arrested and turned over to the CIA, taken to Afghanistan and finally to Guantanamo Bay.
Bisher al-Rawi is an Iraqi national who lived in south-west London. He had fled Iraq in 1985 after Saddam Hussein's secret police arrested his father. His big mistake was to not take out British citizenship after being in the country for over 5 years as a refugee.He hoped one day to return to Iraq. That meant Blair could wash his hands of him and others in the same position. As foreign nationals, even having lived here for over 15 years, they were not entitled to British diplomatic protection.
Innocent British citizens had been released in 2003 and 2004. Bisher's neighbors and his MP have campaigned for his return. That happened last week and he is now back in the country. He has not gone to his home yet. Having spent the last year in solitary confinement, he needs time to readjust. His abuse at the hands of Bush's camp guards continued to the end. His lawyer described the end of his detention at Gitmo:
"Right to the end they treated him with brutality, on the way to the plane in Guantanamo - they knew he was leaving - they insisted still on shackling him, blindfolding him, putting on earmuffs so he couldn't hear a thing and keeping him in the back of a very hot , very confined van on the way to the plane."
His thoughts though are with his companion who remains. In a statement issued through the lawyer he says:
As happy as I am to be home though, leaving my best friend Jamil al-Banna behind in Guantanamo Bay makes my freedom bittersweet. Jamil was arrested with me in the Gambia on exactly the same unfounded allegations, yet he is still a prisoner.
I also feel great sorrow for the other nine British residents who remain prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. The extreme isolation they are going through is one of the most profoundly difficult things to endure. I know that all too well.
The campaigns to get them release continues.