Actress Vanessa Redgrave Bails Out Jailed Al Qaeda Suspects

Photo of Noel Sheppard.

How does a British citizen, regardless of her political leanings, spend her own money to bail out of jail sworn enemies of her homeland?

Such was the case Wednesday when actress Vanessa Redgrave, likely best known to Americans for her disgraceful, anti-Semitic rant at the 1978 Academy Awards, bailed out two al Qaeda suspects formerly being held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and wanted for extradition by the government of Spain on terrorist charges.

As reported Thursday by the British Telegraph (emphasis added):

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Jamil el-Banna, 45, was one of three British residents arrested after landing back in the country last night following their release from the controversial US military prison on Cuba.

Appearing at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court today, el-Banna was granted bail of £50,000 by Senior District Judge Timothy Workman, despite prosecution arguments that he was highly likely to abscond.

The actress and human rights activist Vanessa Redgrave was named as one of the possible suretors in court.

Interviewed outside, she declined to be specific about her financial involvement but said she was "very happy" to be of "some small assistance for Jamil and his wife".

"It is a profound honour and I am glad to be alive to be able to do this," she said. "Guantanamo Bay is a concentration camp."

Pajamas Media's Roger L. Simon took issue Saturday with Redgrave's depiction of Gitmo being a concentration camp (emphasis added, h/t Glenn Reynolds):

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.

Yes, she probably did.

Of course, Redgrave is not a newcomer to controversy, as in 1978, during her acceptance speech for winning the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in the fabulous movie "Julia," she stated the following (video available here):

And I salute you and I pay tribute to you and I think you should be very proud that in the last few weeks you've stood firm and you have refused to be intimidated by the threats of a small bunch of Zionist hoodlums [gasps from the audience followed by a smattering of boos and clapping] whose behavior is an insult to the stature of Jews all over the world and to their great and heroic record of struggle against fascism and oppression.

And I salute that record and I salute all of you for having stood firm and dealt a final blow against that period when Nixon and McCarthy launched a worldwide witch-hunt against those who tried to express in their lives and their work the truth that they believe in [some boos and hissing]. I salute you and I thank you and I pledge to you that I will continue to fight against anti-Semitism and fascism."

Marvelously, famed screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky ("Marty," "The Hospital," "Network") put Redgrave in her place later in the festivities:

Before I get on to the writing awards, there's a little matter I'd like to tidy up - at least if I expect to live with myself tomorrow morning. I would like to say, personal opinion, of course, that I'm sick and tired of people exploiting the Academy Awards [loud applause] for the propagation of their own personal propaganda.

I would like to suggest to Miss Redgrave that her winning an Academy Award is not a pivotal moment in history, does not require a proclamation and a simple "Thank you" would have sufficed. [Loud applause.]

Chayefsky, who died in 1981, claimed that he made these statements to Redgrave because none of the other presenters before him seemed to have the nerve to do so.

Maybe if more Hollywoodans would speak out against the disgraceful acts of their colleagues much as Chayefsky did almost thirty years ago, folks like Redgrave, Tim Robbins, Sean Penn, Rosie O'Donnell, et al would think twice before coming to the aid of their country's enemies.

—Noel Sheppard is the Associate Editor of NewsBusters.

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Redgrave never did have any

Redgrave never did have any sense. 

They'd just as soon cut her ugly head off as to look at her, and I hope they do, and then throw it at her dead ass.

There is something in an

There is something in an "artist's" DNA that would have them collaborate with the very people that would imprison them, or kill them for practicing their craft, if they were in charge.

This is of course, why we would be insane to shut Gitmo down, and allow the prisoners entry into US courts. Half of Hollywood would be standing in line to give aide and comfort!

When one thinks how Hollywood used to go out of it's way to support America, such as selling war bonds and making patriotic movies during WWII, it really shows what a disgrace it is now. There are some patriotic actors out there, but there are few and far between these days!

Untamed Shrew

What else would one expect from this bolshevik.

An exquisite actress with dung for brains.

Who cares for your politics, Ms. Redgrave?  Jane Fonda who starred with your in your 1977 film Julia?  By all means, continue to debase yourself with terrorists and sympathetic Leftists, you mental defect.

 

Killing them with kindness isn't working.  Time to get scrappy with the Donkeys.

They'd just as soon cut her

They'd just as soon cut her ugly head off as to look at her, and I hope they do, and then throw it at her dead ass.

My first reaction was to share your anger.

But it's a self-defeating - and plain wrong - anger. I have pity on her, not animosity towards her. I wish her no harm.

Besides, as soon as the knife entered her throat, she would be yelling, "Bush did this!! The Jews are killing me!!!"

 

 

 

Vanessa who? I'm too

Vanessa who?

I'm too danged disgusted to post anything else...

Bailing out?

It's a shame all those Jews in WWII couldn't make bail and get out of the Nazi concentration camps.

In case anyone misses my point, how many potential concentration camp prisoners even get a chance to post bail? 

When you put the clowns in charge, don't be surprised when a circus breaks out.

I didn't miss your point, nkviking75

It's a shame all those Jews in WWII couldn't make bail and get out of the Nazi concentration camps.  Excellent post.

Would that Vanessa could see your post.  But as they say, there are none so blind as those who cannot/will not see.

For that matter, where are the Paddy Chayefsky's of the world?  They're too busy congratulating one another for their PC cute little views of the world.

That's it.  I'm going to go watch Marty.  Excellent movie, by way.

Noel

here she is in her own words it's an honor 

"how would i know? if i knew everything i'd run for God" ----crpl Klinger

I have to stop this!!

My imagination is too active today. First it was Harry and Nancy; now Vanessa. When I first glanced at that photo, I thought it was the Queen! (musta been the hat???)

Another show biz nitwit

And here's yet another show biz nitwit, living in the lap of luxury, who identifies with people who want to kill her. A real genius, this one.

Why is it that these

Why is it that these thespians and crooners think they have all the answers?  I wish they would play the part, sing the song, and shut the hell up.

Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance;  they are the peoples' liberty teeth. - George Washington

 

 

Just wondering, Mz. Redgrave ...

How many schools or health clinics do you suppose, Mz. Redgrave, would your £50,000 have helped fund in A-stan or Iraq ... would have actually helped women and girls that men the likes of el-Banna would have kept dumb, stupid, covered head-to-toe, beaten, hanged, or beheaded and treated less than goat dung simply for being female ... or trying to just be individuals?

You misplaced-brained, self-righteous, pompous, fool ... Proving, once again ... and painfully so ... liberalism/leftism is a political position with it's head firmly buried up its ass, and its eyes blinking blindly at what's staring back at them inside the crowded tunnel.

 

 Tammy Bruce said it ALL a month ago:

“The [American] feminist movement has not taken one stand to support the women of Iraq, the women of Afghanistan, the women of Iran ... It is the United States Marines who have been doing the feminist work by liberating women and children around the world.”

Idiot.

Idiot.

Vanessa

Isn't Vanessa the original moonbat?
She's been doing idiotic stuff like this forever

Boycott Movies!

I used to refuse to pay money to see a movie with Michael Moore cheerleaders. Then I added watching such movies on TV to my boycott. As more "stars" spoke out emptying their mindless rants to their equally mindless fans, it soon became impossible to find any movie that didn't have at least a a couple of America Haters in it. So that only left cartoon movies. Except then they had to go and start using these same IQ=room temperature "stars" to dub in voices of the cartoon characters! Oh well, 24/7 of Fox News is good enough. But why am I paying for all these other channels?

p.s. for any trolls who chime in calling me another "brain washed Fox News conservative", I do watch CNN and MSNBC and even listen to Air America on XM Radio from time to time to see how many errors, omissions, spins and sheer fabrications they can pack into 60 seconds. The record thus far is 12 but it's a long way from Election Day. I count the same on Fox News and am up to one since 1995 but they corrected the error after the break.

Attention hounds

I personally believe a lot of what these show biz types crave is attention and are willing to do anything, spend any amount to fill that need for attention. The generation of actors who stood behind the country are long gone and interestingly enough Ronald Reagan was one of them. They are vanishing and left behind are basically a lot of talentless children wanting to loved, adored and worshipped by a public who to some degree validates that kind of behavior. It appears to me they have come to think of it as another "entitlement" they are due. It used to be "campy" and "chic" for the odd ball Hollywood types to appear to be Bohemian in their approach and you have always had the fringe kooks like Redgraves who are too stupid to know when to quit. It almost always is the "has-beens" that insist on throwing themselves on the electric fence too. Our own Hollywood has beens are more "pro-active" and start being stupid as soon as the phone stops ringing for parts or the choice jobs goes to the younger, firmer, prettier ones (both the men and the women as it is getting harder to tell them apart). They no longer can afford to wait being "protesters" and have to get out there protesting the government or war, GW, hunger or whatever the cause de jour is. It is about attention. The working actors do not seem to be too caught up in the political fray. Unfortunately, the newer, younger crop of nitwits think that is the thing to do to be in and get invited to all the really cool parties, so they chime in, often looking like the nitwits they are. The life expectancy of a Hollywood careet these days is pretty short so they have to kiss as many posteriors as they can. It is a wonder they don't blow a chip in their brown nose guidance systems, trying to lock on as many butts as they can in the shortest period of time.

If her "friends" succeed in their goals...

Would they keep her as a pet? Or would she become a Muslim? I have a feeling that she wouldn't last long either way. She has no sense and would piss some Muslim off for some "un-Islamic" behavior at some point, and that would be the end of her. I sincerely doubt that she realizes that.

Happy Trails...

Eureka!!!!

I finally got it!   Vaness is the modern day Schindler.  She has even set up the scene herself by describing Guantanamo Bay as a "concentration camp".  She is such a hero in her mind for this act of decency <biting sarc>.

The reality is this, and it has completely infiltrated Hollywood.  These people are looking for that movie moment, that one bizarre instance where the guilty is proven innocent, the powers that be are corrupt, there is an unbelievably huge conspiracy all around us and they have blown the lid off of it, etc.

Remember the scene from "A Few Good Men"?  Our hero Tom Cruise gets Colonel Jessup to gleefully, arrogantly exclaim that he "ordered the code red!!" Would that ever happen in real life (any of it?)?  Probably not.  But in Hollywood, it happens every day and it is their reality.

Vanessa and her ilk are truly nothing more than village idiots - court jesters that happen to have a lot of money, but sorely lack in  class, character, or values of any sort.

One day the truth will hit these people, and it will hurt - I mean really, really hurt.

 

Crazy never stops

Yes, Redgrave has always supported Islamic terrorism. During her Oscar acceptence speech for a role of a Jewish anti-Nazi activist, she condemned "Zionist hoodlums" and praised Jane Fonda. Throughout the 1980s, she declared that Israel must be destroyed. I could run through a gambit of her support for terrorists and condemnation of the US and UK, however she has never spoken out against tactics used by Islamic terrorists, from the PLO and Black Spetember to Al-Qaeda.

 There is one good thing I can say about her, she was the inspiration of the book (and movie) Little Drummer Girl.

What would happen if one of

What would happen if one of these terrorists blows himself up, or, provides some sort of assistance to some other Islamist dupe to murder innocent people in Britain? How would Ms. Redgrave feel then?

Ms. Redgrave, your moral compass isn't broken, it's permanently shattered.