Guantanamo video game brings in Moazzam Begg

Still from the game Rendition: Guantanamo

By Cara Sulieman

A SCOTTISH firm is set to make millions from a computer game based on Guantanamo Bay.

And they have brought in Moazzam Begg – one of nine British Muslims held in the jail before being released in 2005 – to help them get it right.

The Glasgow firm T-Enterprise hopes to make £3 million pounds from Rendition: Guantanamo where gamers play terrorist suspects trying to escape from the prison.

Begg, 41, has been helping them get the details right, and will even have a staring role in the game.

Gave his input

Director of T-Enterprise, Zarrar Chishti said: “We approached Moazzam because it’s very hard for us to know how to design the layout of the prison and he helped.

“He came up two weeks ago to give his input on what we were working on.

“Moazzam will do three days of sound with us the we will 3D-render him into the game.”

The firm have been careful to make sure that they have permission to make the game, and have been taking advice from police and politicians.

Asked for permission

This has included asking Strathclyde Police chief Stephen House for permission, who sent them a letter saying he had no problem with it.

Chishti said: “It’s been in production for a year and two months. You start the game with the orange boiler suit, cuffs and earmuffs.

“There are certain rules we can’t break after meeting politicians so we are not making the game too extreme.

“We have had a lot of hate mail about this, mainly from America, saying things like, “Don’t dare put out a game that shows them killing our soldiers.

“But no US or British soldiers get killed in it. The only ones being killed are mercenaries.

“We have set it in January 2010 because that’s when we think the camp will be closed. We are making a statement. We did not want Guantanamo to be forgotten.”

Begg went to Afghanistan in 2001 to help build schools and improve the water supply but had to flee to neighbouring Pakistan when coalition forces attacked the country.

It was there that the CIA, who said that he had been training with al-Qaeda, arrested him.

Solitary confinement

He claims that he was tortured during his time in Guantanamo.

He said: “I was put in solitary confinement with no access to the outside world and no explanation as to why I was being detained.

“My wife gave birth to my son six months after I was arrested and I saw him for the first time when he was three years old.

“It would be wrong to say I’m not angry but I’m willing to forgive 1000 times over.”

Campaigning

Begg, who has a financial stake in the game, is now not allowed to leave the UK and spends his time campaigning for the remaining prisoners to be freed.

He said: “The only thing I am concerned about it making sure the game does not misrepresent the prisoners.

“This will not demean the reality of Guantanamo but it could bring those issues to people who would not usually think about it.”

The camp has caused controversy over in the years it has been operating, with claims that inmates are being tortured and held in captivity for years without charge.

President Obama has promised to shut the camp but faces strong opposition to the relocation of prisoners to maximum-security jails in America.

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