So the Scottish Prison Service have banned any criticism of Guantanamo Bay, a camp that is condemned worldwide, in case officers are offended. I take it prison officers at Glenochil have a great deal of respect and love for their collegues at Guantanamo.
This is a minor point but it does illustrate several things - the political nature of the prison regime and of Johns detention, the mendacity of the SPS who have given four different reasons for seizing the CD, and the petty-minded harassment that goes on in our prisons. It is also quite short-sighted of the SPS as it is slanderous/libellous of one of Britains best up-and-coming bands and a breach of their copyright. If they had just given him the CD like they initially promised then it would have been forgotten about. It also misrepresents this "happy little song" about a "happy little place".

I'm going to print and post these lyrics to John to see if they get through to him:

Guantanamo Bay / Club X-Ray - Seize the Day

I think most people know about Guantanamo Bay or they've heard a lot about it and it's been bad press mainly, and we think it's been misrepresented. People are saying that innocent invividuals have been walking along the streets in Pakistan and places, they've been picked up by the FBI-CIA and bundled off, find themselves kept in cages in Guantanamo Bay with no right of appeal and possibly facing execution. We say that's all nonsense. It's actually Club X-Ray and they are having a great time there and learning this dance, it's called the Shackle-Shuffle. These two people are going to demonstrate on the stage, like all the people at Guantanamo Bay a very willing volunteer here. You're going to have to imagine that they are wearing orange boilersuits cos that's de riguer at Club X-Ray, and you may worry that she's a child, but you know some of the people at Guantanamo Bay are under 16 years old, that doesn't matter. It's a happy little song. It's a happy little place.

If you're a Sheikh who is a mover
or fundamentally a groover
Get with the brothers on maneuver
Comin at you all the way from Cuba
- Not the Cuba of Havanas
Where the Presidente is bananas
But the Cuba that is free, lookin over the sea
to the Florida Key ( to democracy )
At Guantanamo Bay, it's the U.S. of A.,
Shackle-Shuffle every day at the Club X-Ray
Wear a chain on your wrist, do the Islamacist
Bossa Nova with a twist, and it goes like this:
Put your hands on your head (Reach!)
And Shackle-Shuffle to the left (Move!)
You do the monkey-squat and then (Squat!)
You Shackle-Shuffle back again
Bow in prayer to the East (Pray!)
Down on your belly like a beast (Beast!)
You're never gonna be released (Peace!)
Till the day you're deceased
No time for sleeping at Club X-Ray
No time for chilling-out the next day
Although we wouldn't call it torture
We're gonna sweat you now we've caught ya.
At first you feel humiliated
Cos every move is regulated
But as the beat interrogates you
Join the club that liberates!
At Guantanamo Bay, it's the U.S. of A.,
Shackle-Shuffle every day at the Club X-Ray
At Guantanamo Bay, it's the U.S. of A.,
Shackle-Shuffle every day at the Club X-Ray
Put your hands on your head (Reach!)
And Shackle-Shuffle to the left (Move!)
You do the monkey-squat and then (Squat!)
You Shackle-Shuffle back again
Bow in prayer to the East (Pray!)
Down on your belly like a beast (Beast!)
You're never gonna be released (Peace!)
Till the day you're deceased
It isn't really so important
whether you came dressed as a combatant
Or just a towel-headed farmer
who had a cousin called Osama
We're not conventional believers
No busy-bodies from Geneva
If you're a friend of Tora Bora
There's no restriction on the door

All you'll need to get in is the beard on your chin,
An indefinite stay and you don't have to pay
At Guantanamo Bay, it's the U.S. of A.,
Shackle-Shuffle every day at the Club X-Ray
Put your hands on your head (Reach!)
And Shackle-Shuffle to the left (Move!)
You do the monkey-squat and then (Squat!)
You Shackle-Shuffle back again
Bow in prayer to the East (Pray!)
Down on your belly like a beast (Beast!)
You're never gonna be released (Peace!)
Till the day you're deceased
At this exclusive little venue
Halal is always on the menu
Free Toiletries, and what is more an
Edition of Gideon's Koran
O heck - did I forget to mention
We're busy building an extension
Where every wish will be respected
As you are lethally injected!

We'd a pipeline to lay, but you got in the way,
So we sacrificed you to the needs of the few
In the heat of High Noon you will dance to our tune
An example to all to obey Unocal,
See the prisoners kneel, with no right of appeal,
In the land that is free - free to take liberty -
Till the sea starts to boil, till we run out of oil
In Guantanamo Bay… Hey - Hey!
At the Club X-Ray! (Shackle-Shuffle to the right) Cha-cha-cha.