Pink Floyd’s founding member Roger Waters campaigns to close the U.S. prison base in Guantanamo Bay. Here are some excerpts from Roger’s interview with Amy Goodman during her recent broadcast of “Democracy Now!”[1]

AMY GOODMAN: Our first guest needs no introduction: the world famous British musician Roger Waters, founding member, bassist, singer, songwriter for the iconic rock band Pink Floyd. (Redacted) Roger Waters was one of the celebrities featured in the “We Stand with Shaker” campaign, a grassroots effort to win the freedom of British resident Shaker Aamer from Guantánamo. Aamer had been cleared for release since 2007, but the U.S. kept him locked up without charge until this past October. He was subjected to beatings, to torture, to sleep deprivation, starvation, doused with freezing water, forced to stand for 18 hours at a time. For the campaign, Roger Waters and other notable figures posed with photographs alongside a giant figure of Shaker Aamer. People around the world also submitted photos of themselves with homemade signs reading "I stand with Shaker."

ROGER WATERS: I got involved really with Shaker when Clive Stafford Smith, who’s his lead attorney, received a letter from him where Shaker describes part of his technique for staying sane in Guantánamo was to remember songs and sing them. And one of them was a song of mine called "Hey You." So he [sent] the letter, and Clive forwarded that letter to me. And I answered it, and I sent a letter to Shaker. And, I [immediately learned] this man has an extremely powerful and forceful personality and an extraordinary message of resilience and love for the rest of the world. And I was deeply moved by his letter—so I got involved.

AMY GOODMAN: [In] the words of "Hey You," [2] what so expressed Shaker’s feeling?

ROGER WATERS: Well, the first line is, "Hey you, out there in the cold, getting lonely, getting old, can you feel me?" And in his letter, he says that those words and the couplets after it—he said, if you want to know how it feels to be in here, to be incarcerated, you should listen to this song, because it describes my feelings—which was very moving for me, for him to say that. I mean, it’s impossible for those of us who have not been incarcerated, as entirely innocent men with no recourse to the law—I mean, the fundamental problem with Guantánamo is that habeas corpus has been thrown out of the window, and so we no longer have our fingertips [grasping] the law that we’ve been used to for the last 800 years since Magna Carta in the fields of Runnymede in London. And it’s gone now. We don’t have it. It’s been removed from us. And so that’s what’s so important about Guantánamo.

Photos: Roger Waters[3] and Shaker Aamer[4] 

Please see our related entry about the “the kindest, most patient man that America has ever tortured.”[5]

[1] “Democracy Now!”: http://www.democracynow.org/2016/1/22/pink_floyds_roger_waters_launches_campaign

[2] For complete lyrics, see: http://www.metrolyrics.com/hey-you-lyrics-pink-floyd.html

[3] See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en – author “Alterna2” see: https://www.flickr.com/photos/alterna2/ and no changes were made in sharing this photo

[4] See: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ISN_00239,_Shaker_Aamer.jpg (in public domain)

[5] See BP entry of 2/22/15 at: http://www.bentari.com/Blog/Entry.aspx?pid=276&bid=51&beid=1040