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Starring Will Smith (pictured here in a red jacket), "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" ran for six seasons on NBC.
"The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," the popular 1990s sitcom starring Will Smith, has supplanted Harry Potter books as a popular way for detainees at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay to pass the time, according to a newspaper report.
The Miami Herald reported demand among the 168 prisoners for J.K. Rowling's popular literary series about a boy wizard had fallen. But interest has surged in the TV series about Smith's street-savvy, wise-cracking character from West Philadelphia who tries to adjust to life with his affluent cousins in Southern California.
"I just ordered all six seasons," the Herald quoted a librarian named only as Milton as saying.
"They're over that (Harry Potter); it's been more than a year," the librarian, who the paper said was a civilian contractor for the Defense Department, told the Herald.
John Moore / Getty Images
President Obama's one-year deadline to close the facility has long passed as shutting it down has proven complicated and controversial.
The newspaper said the detention center had a multilingual collection of about 28,000 books and videos in Arabic, Pashto, English, French and other languages.
How I see America, from a former Gitmo prisoner
Many detainees apparently use the library's collection to help improve their English, the Herald said. The inmates appeared to favor reading novels that feature side-by-side translation, the newspaper said, and at least 10 copies of the Oxford English Dictionary had been ordered for the prisoners.
Rewards and incentives
The books and videos are used as incentives and rewards for good behavior, and to give detainees a way to pass the time.
Soccer, cable TV at Gitmo? US lockup in Cuba quietly being upgraded
"The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" first aired on NBC on Sept. 10, 1990, and ran for six seasons.
According to the Herald, cooperative prisoners, who make up the majority of the detainees, can watch the show communally on flat-screen televisions bolted to the walls inside a plexiglass box almost around-the-clock.
UK cops to probe 'allegations of complicity to torture' prisoner at Gitmo
Detainees who are classified as maximum-security captives -- about 15 percent of the population -- are allowed to watch the show alone for up to an hour or two a day, the newspaper reported. A maximum-security detainee is given a solo cell and a recliner, from where he can view the show with one ankle shackled to a bolt in the floor, the Herald said.
Despite President Obama's vow to shut down Guantanamo Bay, the nation's most expensive prison is undergoing some costly new updates that would allow the facility to remain open for years. NBC's Michael Isikoff reports.
The prisoners held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay are from various countries around the world. Many of them were captured more than a decade ago after U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan in an effort to break up the al-Qaida terrorist network and its Taliban protectors following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The United States accuses the detainees of links to terrorism.
According to the Herald, past librarians at Guantanamo Bay have reported prisoner interest in President Barack Obama's political memoir, "The Audacity of Hope," and one attorney suggested to a convict that he read former President George W. Bush's "Decision Points."
Jan. 18, 2011: It has been two years since Saad Iqbal Madni left Guantanamo Bay, but the Islamic scholar has not recovered from the experience. "Muslim people not ready to forgive that ... I'm not going to forget that," he tells NBC News.
Point of friction
The prison facility has been a major point of friction between the United States and the Muslim world.
Allegations of torture have been common. A documentary by Doha-based broadcaster Al-Jazeera earlier this year said that children’s songs from the "Sesame Street" TV series had been used to "torture" detainees.
'I wake up screaming': A Guantanamo nightmare
Books by former Guantanamo interrogators, including ex-FBI agent Ali Soufan's "Black Banners" and former CIA agent Jose Rodriguez's "Hard Measures," have yet to be included in the library's collection, the Herald said.
Several former detainees at Guantanamo Bay, including Briton Moazzam Begg and Australian David Hicks, have written books about their experiences there, but it was unclear whether their books were available at the site's library.
Defense lawyers say Guantanamo court rigged to deliver death sentence
Obama campaigned for president in 2008 partly on a pledge that he would close the Guantanamo prison facility, but his failure so far to do so has earned the enmity of human-rights activists.
Nearly 800 detainees have been held at Guantanamo since the prison opened a decade ago, according to reports.
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Leave a Comment:
Fresh Prince Rocks!
The article says an attorney suggested a prisoner read a book by George Bush! LOL talk about an insensitive but head. Not to mention, what could Bush say that would interest anybody? I certainly do not remember seeing his book on the "best seller" list.
Terrorists just don't understand!
I wonder if they all start doing the "Carlton" dance after watching it.
"My life with water-boarding" and "WMDs I have known" by Dick Cheney should be required reading in Guantanamo.
Gitmo is open? Obama promised in his campaign he would close it by his first year in office.
This can't be true. Obama promised he's close Gitmo.
When are we going to let them free so they can kill more innocent people?
Obama will close Gitmo as soon as all the terrorist there are released and allowed to return home. That should be happening soon since Obama's time in office is almost at an end. Then they can start plotting new plans on how they are going to destroy us and our country. There are so many already in our country that it shouldn't be too difficult for them, especially since they have Obama's help.
As far as President Bush, the president that did more for this country than many of you will ever know, knew how to treat the terrorist. He didn't treat them with love and tenderness the way Obama has. Say what you want about him but the day will come that you will be wishing he was our president and NOT Odumbo.
Since when do we have to entertain terrorist prisoners ? If we were their prisoners they would probably drag out the cameras and teleprompters and cut our heads off.
Did it ever occur to any of you that what is promised on the campaign trail cannot happen once the candidate takes the office and realizes that there are a myriad of reasons for not being able to do something. They are now privy to the most secret of secrets and see that for all these reasons is not prudent to do as they said on the trail when they did not have access to the intel.
Always so quick to criticize and arm chair Quarterback!
I'd love to see the place closed, but the sticking point, the problem that none of the people who want the military prison side closed have a solution for, is what to do with the detainees.
You can't move them to another prison in the US--the US collectively doesn't want them on US soil. Some of them do have ties to radicalist organizations and should be watched. A small number of them have been cleared of any complicity or involvement in the 9/11 conspiracy, but their governments won't accept them back, and we can't let them stay. Some of them are political dissidents in theor own country that their government just wanted to get out of the way, and handed them to the US as terrorists, when all they were guilty of is to not agree with what their government says and does. Their countries don't want them back, and we can't let them stay, so the question of what to do with them remains and until we have a working, viable solution to the question, they will have to stay where they are.
If you're going to castigate President Obama for not closing the military prison portion down, then can you come up with humane, viable options for what to do with those incarcerated?
Yeah! Like a battered wife that can't stop going back to her drunken redneck husband!
Did it ever occur to you that maybe they shouldn't make promises about something they are not sure about. I bet you was the first to rant on the "No More Taxes" statement.
Rangewolf said: "As far as President Bush, the president that did more for this country than many of you will ever know, knew how to treat the terrorist."
Yeah, he left Bin Laden it that multimillion dollar compound in the Pakistan equivalent of Beverly Hills.
You keep on dreamin', RW.
We have the tigers by the tail with these inmates. Keep them and it continues to promote terrorism. Let them go and they promote terrorism.
Hey, that's not funny!
There's over one million battered women in this country!
...and to think...I've been eating mine plain this whole time...
If President Obama had closed Gitmo, the same people criticizing him for not closing it would say that he was giving aid and comfort to the enemy by closing it.
Gee, I seem to remember a lot of Republican Congressmen pitching a fit about moving the Gitmo prisoners to federal mainland facilities.
But since it didn't happen, it's "all Obama's fault"?
Typical.
Rangewolf..Actually that would be Par for Obama's course....Probably give them all pardons and a HUD Flat in cities across America. Doubtful that he would recommend them living next to his welfare Auntie or Drunk Uncle though.
Obama has pissed me off just as much as any other president but, that is just ridiculous. He has been harder on militant muslim radicals than any American president...Ever.
Or worse, YOUR welfare Auntie and YOUR drunken redneck uncle. But then again HUD don't build homes near trailer parks; it makes the 'necks too jealous for amenities.
Oh no I stepped on Obama worshipers toes.....
what exactly has Obama done that is remotely hard for militant Muslims? Perhaps there was an Eastern version of Fast and Furious that we don't know about yet?
Now if Obama can have an illegal welfare Auntie who feels entitled to live in our country off of the benevolence that is needed for poor Americans and has refused to have her deported and refuses to sponsor her for legal residency, than why shouldn't I have a foreign national illegal auntie who wishes to scam off of hard working Americans? Seriously, if the President can be an opportunist why not everyone else? My Auntie is a hard working illegal immigrant and she hasn't harmed a soul living in her HUD apartment with medicaid and food stamps. She needs those supports so she can send cash that she makes back home or so she can go to Best Buy and upgrade her computer and other electronics....You are very callous to attack my poor illegal immigrant Auntie Would that be because she is from a Northern European Nation? As for my Redneck Uncle...he's a good Christian man who doesn't drink. But my advice would be to not tress pass because the only way to get the shotgun will be to pry it out of his cold dead hands. At least he was born and bread in America.
American bread grows stale without liberal jam and butter.
Thats all they have to choose from? I thought torture had been phased out of Gitmo.
They really wanted a collection of SERE manuals. (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape for those who are wondering.)
Nothing against Harry Potter, but situation comedies like Fresh Prince will give those who think we are 'infidels' a better understanding of who we really are. We aren't a lesser species of bipedal hominids, we're people just like them, we have families, clan ties, we care for our children just like they do, and seeing what life is like here in America--schools, houses, cars, the education system, the freedom we give women (without the world coming to an end!) hopefully they'll see that and realize we aren't the barbarians they think we are.
The extremist Muslim movement started in the desert regons of the Middle East, where half the people can't even read their own language to see what their own Holy Book says, and therefore have to depend on their Holy leader/imam/priest to tell them what the Qu'ran says. One of the things that this enforced jail stay is giving them the opportunity to do is to learn to read, not only in their language but also in the three working languages of the world, and better education can lead to a reduction in extremists. I would have loved to see their faces the first time they managed to read the Qu'ran and realized there's nothing in there saying that a martyr gets 72 virgins...
That being said, however, the viewing library should be expanded to include other shows like The Cosby Show, Full House, and other similar shows like that that really portray American life. Jersey Shore and 'Desperate Housewives' is NOT what I would consider quality American TV, and might leave a negative impression. And while we're at it, shows like Law & Order: SVU, that promote diversity, explore women's issues--for many of these men, perhaps they've never thought about how their objectification and marginalization of women and children hurts the woman and child--it would give them a chance to see how things are from a victims' point of view and also reinforce that we aren't barbarians...
Hahahaha! That is the funniest thing I have read this morning thanks!
Turn the boobtube off for a few days!
Americans are very barbaric and without even realizing it they believe in many of the old social theories that the Nazis did. We are still very much an angry, primitive people dominated by an "exceptional" Anglo-Germanic ruling class. However, we have come up with a lot of new technologies....yet we still have a very primitive social theory.
livinginthewoods:
I fail to see how the comment could be considered funny, or why you would tell me to turn off my TV. There are families like the ones of 'Full House' all over the US, where widower fathers struggle to raise their children without having a female partner. Uncles/extended family groups do live together to help raise nieces and nephews. The purpose is to show that we too, love care for, and sacrifice our own wants to care for our children,something that their internal definition of 'infidel barbarian' might not allow for. By seeing how we live and care for each other, they can get a better perspective on who we really are--people, just like them. We laugh, cry, love, live, bleed, just like they do.
I was not trying to ridicule the diversity of those shows. But, most tv families are very wealthy or upper middle class at worst and I don't think that is an accurate portrait of American life or what we want to make the rest of the world think we live like. Maybe GoodTimes! That is much closer to the America that I know and grew up in than any of the yuppie family shows you are talking about.
Well, then let's diversify. Sanford and Son (I loved watching them when I was younger), Good Times, Seventh Heaven. Movies like Will Smith's 'The Pursuit of Happyness', Sandra Bullock's 'The Blind Side', Julia Roberts' biopic 'Erin Brockovich', just to name a few.
livinginthewoods...I agree totally, but there really are some people in the US that are like those in the uppity US tv shows. I went to university with them here, in Virginia. I suspect that there are colonies of these people in NE regions, especially in northern VA. Folks with blonde hair, blue eyes, not a financial care in the world, parents all making six figures and driving German luxury cars, families playing polo with thoroughbred horses, and a sprinkling of black folks who behave like Carlton Banks on The Fresh Prince of Bel Aire.
I felt like I went to school in the Village of the Damned or something. Biggest bunch of arseholes I've ever known.
Sanford and son was my favorite as a kid! I actually grew up on a small junkyard so....
I agree with your idea of trying to relate and show that we are all much more alike than we and they think. But I think most of the world would find the average American sitcom pretty insulting. So please don't think I am trying to attack or argue with you. I agree with you overall.
How do you make TV shows about a working class that can't afford to go anywhere, except back and forth to their job? Could they build an episode around a once a month shopping spree at Good Will?
Den...hasn't that been done in some US reality TV show? I'm sort of envious..they get "Fresh Prince" and Harry Potter....We get "Jersey Shore" and "Swamp People". Perhaps it has something to do with the IQ of the target market.
I'm gonna sleep better knowing this.
Yeah. It's amazing someone got paid for this crap.
I agree, how is this even a story? I like Will Smith but that show,no. I'd have to be in a chair with one foot bolted to the floor to watch it as well. Aint these the same guys that were complaining about Mettalica being played at high volume as a means of torture?
I would have chose waterboarding.
Show them nude photos of Barbara bush, that will teach them. lol
On another note: closing the military prison portion of Guantanamo Bay (which is an official military base.) I know the controversy is going to pop up here somewhere, so I'll start it on a rational tone.
I'd love to see the place closed, but the sticking point, the problem that none of the people who want the military prison side closed have a solution for, is what to do with the detainees.
You can't move them to another prison in the US--the US collectively doesn't want them on US soil. Someof them do have ties to radicalist organizations and should be watched. A small number of them have been cleared of any complicity or involvement in the 9/11 conspiracy, but their governments won't accept them back, and we can't let them stay. Some of them are political dissidents in theor own country that their government just wanted to get out of the way, and handed them to the US as terrorists, when all they were guilty of is to not agree with what their government says and does. Their countries don't want them back, and we can't let them stay, so the question of what to do with them remains and until we have a working, viable solution to the question, they will have to stay where they are.
If you're going to castigate President Obama for not closing the military prison portion down, then can you come up with humane, viable options for what to do with those incarcerated? Let's have an open, civil discussion with no mudslinging and fingerpointing, no comments of racism and political affiliations.
None of us campaigned that we would close Gitmo down within a year if elected. That was one of his promises. He was elected to do that as part of his job. It's not up to us to decide what to do with the prisoners (as if the government listens to what us peasants want anyway).
No, sorry, there is no spinning this one away, it's all on Obama's shoulders. Make a promise to garner votes, you better be able to come through if you don't want it thrown back in your face.
I am amazed and disgusted at the number of responses that find this situation humorous.....y'all do realize that the "detainess" being held at the base are known or suspected terrorists, whose breathren have killed thousands of Americans.....not including those Americans that have died capturing them and bringing them to our detention center. I am incensed that we are spending taxpayer money to support their liesure time activities........may I be politically incorrect and suggest that a bullet would be more humane, and cheaper, than keeping them detained, and entertained indefinately, or would that insult too many sensitive souls?? My guess is that you wouldn't get any arguements from relatives of those that died in the World Trade Center......or the families of service men and woman who gave their "final measure" to their country..................
Argue, I agree with you. I supported Obama and he should have stuck to his guns and closed Guantanamo, for goodness sakes some of those prisoners have been there for a decade. Are we that incompetent? Either try ti bums and if they are guilty execute them, if not free the innocent ones back to their home country whether they want them or not. We have baby sat them long enough.
CLOSE GUANTANAMO = MILLIONS IN SAVED US DOLLARS.
I believe when he campaigned he thought the issue was as simple as many believe it to be. It's only when you start digging that you realize the problem is much more complex, and you realize that Homeland Security (and multiple members of Congress) would like to keep it open (see the terms of the NDAA for FY2012 and the upcoming Enemy Expatriation Act.) And when the ones who want to keep it open are the ones who bodyguard your family from harm...
I'm assuming you missed the center section of my post:
Someof them do have ties to radicalist organizations and should be watched. A small number of them have been cleared of any complicity or involvement in the 9/11 conspiracy, but their governments won't accept them back, and we can't let them stay. Some of them are political dissidents in their own country that their government just wanted to get out of the way, and handed them to the US as terrorists, when all they were guilty of is to not agree with what their government says and does.
How would a bullet be 'humane' when the person has done nothing wrong except disagree with their government? Completely innocent of all and any crimes against the US, given to us simply because the government disagreed with what he said? You apparently disagree with our country's continuing policy of keeping Guantanamo open, now imagine the government handing you over to the Chinese as a terrorist because they don't like what you're saying? Would it be fair for the Chinese to put a bullet in your head when you've done nothing to them, to anyone, except disagree with a policy?
If the other country does not want this detainee in their country they will shoot down the plane carrying him. Then what?
Guantanamo Bay is an official US military base. And it's a rather strategically placed one. You'e not going to close the base. Eventually the long-term prison facility might be closed, but at least for the foreseeable future, I don't see the base itself closing.
So you are saying that when Obama was campaigning he had no clue what he was talking about and just paying lip service to the public in an attempt to gain as many votes as possible while not having a plan or even knowing if he could come through.
He didn't campaign "I'll try to close Gitmo" or "I'll close it if...". No. He said closed in one year. Just like he promised not to interfere with medical marijuana dispensaries, or to cut the deficit in half in his first year.
argues, I agree that Obama has let us down, in those ways at least and others as well. I only wish there was an alternative that wouldn't be far, far worse.
I love how some ppl are trying to pretend like the Fresh Prince of Bel Air wasnt AWESOME....
I still watch re-runs of Fresh Prince...
I tought GTMO had been closed? I do remember and Executive Order from the President of the United States directing that GTMO be closed. WTFH?
shovel ready was also going to keep unemployment below 8%.
42 months above 8% - nice job Obama
@restoreCapitalism.....maybe you should redirect your comment towards Congress. They've blocked the new jobs bills....remember?
Thank GOD.
The last one didn't do sh!t
after this, they should have them watch all seasons of 24.
Just for fun they should offer some comedians...I would suggest Jeff Dunham the ventriliquist. He has a funny puppet called Achmed the Dead Terrorist.
... millions of taxpayers' money being spent yearly only to keep those prisoners watching sitcom? whats wrong with US foreign policy?
If they aren't terrorists, let them go...if they are, then why are we letting them watch anything? They have it better inside than most of them did in their own countries. Did anyone really believe that Obama was going to close Gitmo when he said it. By the way, fresh prince was a really good show and is still better than most of what is on tv these days.
Some of them do have ties to radicalist organizations and should be watched. A small number of them have been cleared of any complicity or involvement in the 9/11 conspiracy, but their governments won't accept them back, and we can't let them stay. Some of them are political dissidents in theor own country that their government just wanted to get out of the way, and handed them to the US as terrorists, when all they were guilty of is to not agree with what their government says and does. Their countries don't want them back, and we can't let them stay, so the question of what to do with them remains and until we have a working, viable solution to the question, they will have to stay where they are.
Amanda, we can't babysit them forever. If there government wants us to keep an eye on their trash then they should pay us, Guantanamo needs to close period, try them all if they are guilty execute them if not put the innocent ones on the first plan smoking. How long can we really hold them, it's expensive.
Why are they watching tv? What a waste of taxpayer money!
Why are they alive?
They are alive because we are not in a third world country. We do not behead folks on video.
well, no offense (i'm from RedChina) ... but millions of taxpayers' money being spent yearly, only to keep those people busy watching sitcom and comparing which novel is the best ? what's wrong with US foreign policy?
I'm glad to hear they are watching TV. Nice job Obama Bin Loser
Bush was the one who created this prison with no idea what to do with the prisoners after wartime. Republicans were the ones that stopped Gitmo from being closed. And yet somehow you find the blame resides with Obama. Yawn....
Hey restore, Bush created Gitmo not Obama and it should have been closed years ago and these prisoners executed or freed.
Give them The Andy Griffith Show.
Turn off the TV & give them shovels. I thought these people were supposed to be punished.
Watching American tv IS punishment.
Really NBC? You made this a headline?
I wonder if they joke around in the yard doing The Carlton.
The main point of this story is that Fresh Prince is available for purchase on dvd. Well done NBC.
If the prisoners are actually reading the Oxford English Dictionary, they will end up with a better vocabulary than most Americans.
maybe we could teach them some advanced explosives techniques also?
Yet they still can't get the original Batman series with Adam West and Caesar Romero, and neither can anyone else. That's the real tragedy here.
Guantanamo should have been closed years ago, most of the prisoners still there have been cleared and those who haven't should have been tried, executed or freed by now. We are basically paying MILLIONS of dollars a year to babysit these prisoners.
The Republicans cried and howled when Obama tried to close the place which he should have and now years later we have a daycare center called Guantanamo and yes that includes watching television, recreation and boredom. I wonder who is making the most money on keeping Guantanamo open?
Close Guantanamo TODAY. Send the prisoners back to their home countries or try them, most of them are not and never were terrorists in the first place because the real terrorists are dead or allowed to escape capture.
Only MSNBC would care about this type of crap. These are terrorists who plotted and killed Americans and you are worried what they do with their leisure time.
Only the MSNBC drones would even defend this crap.
This conutry wastes so f in much money it is sick. No where else. This nation is lost! And whats worse the mindless populus is so apathetic, not suprising because we have become a hand out society. Puke. I would fight for this country again. We need a new plague
They are learning English, so if they ever get out, they can assimilate better into American society making terrorism easier for them.