http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/06/01/tech/main5054176.shtml
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Get Ready For Gitmo: The Video Game
Former Detainee Is Consultant On Game Where Players Try To Escape Mercenaries At Guantanamo
"It's time to fight back," states the advance promotion for "Rendition: Guantanamo," an upcoming computer game that will allow players to don orange jumpsuits and escape Gitmo. (T-Enterprise)
(CBS) A British Muslim who was detained at the American military base at Guantanamo Bay for three years before being released has been enlisted by a Scottish video game maker to help make its upcoming computer simulation of Gitmo "more realistic."
"Rendition: Guantanamo" is being developed by the Glasgow-based T-Enterprise for the Xbox 360 and PC platforms.
As revealed in a trailer video, the game depicts the prison in the near future - after its anticipated closing by the U.S. government - as a camp run by mercenaries who detain innocents sold off to their captors to serve as "lab rats" in scientific experiments.
Moazzam Begg, who claims to have been tortured during his near-three-year detention, has been brought on as a consultant to the project, reports the Web site Deadline Scotland.
A Birmingham native who ran an Islamic bookstore, Begg was detained in Pakistan by coalition forces in 2002 and held at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan and, later, Guantanamo. He was released almost three years later without charge.
Begg wrote about his experience in the book "Enemy Combatant: My Imprisonment at Guantanamo, Bagram and Kandahar" (New Press). He has also been interviewed for television and documentaries, including the Academy Award-winning "Taxi to the Dark Side."
In April 2008 Begg was one of eight former Guantanamo detainees who sued the British government, claiming U.K. authorities were complicit in their abductions, detention and interrogations.
T-Enterprise director Zarrar Chishti told Deadline Scotland's Cara Sulieman that Begg helped them with the design of the virtual prison's layout, and that artists created a 3-D rendering of him to appear in the game.
Begg told the UK's Sun newspaper that his involvement is to make sure the game is as "true to life" as possible, although in the game characters have the chance to escape, shooting their way to freedom.
Chishti said the firm has already gotten hate mail from the U.S. demanding that the game not depict the killing of American troops.
"But no U.S. or British soldiers get killed in it; the only ones being killed are mercenaries," he assured Deadline Scotland.
He anticipates strong sales in the Middle East.
Begg said any earnings he gets from the game will be donated to a charity fighting for the rights of detainees.
Former Detainee Is Consultant On Game Where Players Try To Escape Mercenaries At Guantanamo
"It's time to fight back," states the advance promotion for "Rendition: Guantanamo," an upcoming computer game that will allow players to don orange jumpsuits and escape Gitmo. (T-Enterprise)
(CBS) A British Muslim who was detained at the American military base at Guantanamo Bay for three years before being released has been enlisted by a Scottish video game maker to help make its upcoming computer simulation of Gitmo "more realistic."
"Rendition: Guantanamo" is being developed by the Glasgow-based T-Enterprise for the Xbox 360 and PC platforms.
As revealed in a trailer video, the game depicts the prison in the near future - after its anticipated closing by the U.S. government - as a camp run by mercenaries who detain innocents sold off to their captors to serve as "lab rats" in scientific experiments.
Moazzam Begg, who claims to have been tortured during his near-three-year detention, has been brought on as a consultant to the project, reports the Web site Deadline Scotland.
A Birmingham native who ran an Islamic bookstore, Begg was detained in Pakistan by coalition forces in 2002 and held at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan and, later, Guantanamo. He was released almost three years later without charge.
Begg wrote about his experience in the book "Enemy Combatant: My Imprisonment at Guantanamo, Bagram and Kandahar" (New Press). He has also been interviewed for television and documentaries, including the Academy Award-winning "Taxi to the Dark Side."
In April 2008 Begg was one of eight former Guantanamo detainees who sued the British government, claiming U.K. authorities were complicit in their abductions, detention and interrogations.
T-Enterprise director Zarrar Chishti told Deadline Scotland's Cara Sulieman that Begg helped them with the design of the virtual prison's layout, and that artists created a 3-D rendering of him to appear in the game.
Begg told the UK's Sun newspaper that his involvement is to make sure the game is as "true to life" as possible, although in the game characters have the chance to escape, shooting their way to freedom.
Chishti said the firm has already gotten hate mail from the U.S. demanding that the game not depict the killing of American troops.
"But no U.S. or British soldiers get killed in it; the only ones being killed are mercenaries," he assured Deadline Scotland.
He anticipates strong sales in the Middle East.
Begg said any earnings he gets from the game will be donated to a charity fighting for the rights of detainees.
Conservative blogs are all over it, saying things like
Tammybruce.com
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If Guantanamo is a recruiting tool for terrorism, it's because of all the hyped up lying propaganda like this
Power Line
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In Rendition: Guantanamo, the player plays the part of Moazzam Begg and tries to kill as many American soldiers as possible while escaping from Guantanamo. The game's introduction asserts, among other things, the absurdity that the player has been subjected to "illegal scientific experiments" at Gitmo.
The official statement from the game's creator, T-Enterprise, is link=http://www.renditionthegame.com/]this[/link]:
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Unfortunately, much of the speculation regarding the game itself made by various publications and websites has been inaccurate and ill informed. Based on a simple teaser trailer that actually revealed little of the game, many conclusions were reached that have absolutely no foundation whatsoever. It was never designed to be “propaganda†or “a recruiting tool for terrorismâ€. Neither was it designed to glamorise terrorism as has been reported.
First and foremost, the main character was NOT Moazzam Begg. Instead, his name was Adam. He happened to be involved in a case of mistaken identity and so was never a terrorist. T-Enterprise is against all forms of terrorism and would never seek to advocate otherwise. Furthermore, Guantanamo was to be a mercenary run institution and so there would have been NO American military personnel killed within the game. Again, we support the British and American troops that fight the war against terrorism to make the world a safer place and would not make a game that said otherwise.
Having clarified our position on terrorism, I would now like to refute all suggestions that the game was in any way linked to Al Qaeda. T-Enterprise has never had and would never have a link to Al Qaeda in any way, shape or form. Furthermore, we would certainly not facilitate a means of funding for any group that undertook terrorist activities. The game was simply designed to be an action video game that adults could enjoy.
However, as a direct result of the extreme reaction that the game and its popular misconceptions have provoked, T-Enterprise has decided to pull out of the project and will not be completing Rendition: Guantanamo.
First and foremost, the main character was NOT Moazzam Begg. Instead, his name was Adam. He happened to be involved in a case of mistaken identity and so was never a terrorist. T-Enterprise is against all forms of terrorism and would never seek to advocate otherwise. Furthermore, Guantanamo was to be a mercenary run institution and so there would have been NO American military personnel killed within the game. Again, we support the British and American troops that fight the war against terrorism to make the world a safer place and would not make a game that said otherwise.
Having clarified our position on terrorism, I would now like to refute all suggestions that the game was in any way linked to Al Qaeda. T-Enterprise has never had and would never have a link to Al Qaeda in any way, shape or form. Furthermore, we would certainly not facilitate a means of funding for any group that undertook terrorist activities. The game was simply designed to be an action video game that adults could enjoy.
However, as a direct result of the extreme reaction that the game and its popular misconceptions have provoked, T-Enterprise has decided to pull out of the project and will not be completing Rendition: Guantanamo.
Much ado about nothing in the end, but do you think this game should have been canned because of the reaction? I think it would have been a tough sell in the West, but been really popular elsewhere. I could see a lot of Chinese and Middle Eastern players liking it (even if you kill mercenaries and not American/British troops).
That'll learn me not to re-read to the end.