Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Guantanamo Grumblings

Rich Lowry has a great short piece on Gitmo closing today, chiding Republican Senators Hagel and Martinez for joining the worry chorus. Flabbergasting to me that one doesn't see any Democratic Senators like Zell Miller who will break with the braying minority. Great points:

- We captured more than 10,000 people in Afghanistan. Roughly 750 ended up at Gitmo —exactly because we had reason to keep them. The number now is down to 500, as cases are constantly reviewed. Unfortunately, the release process isn’t perfect. Two former detainees were killed in fighting in Afghanistan last year, and another was picked up in a raid on a terrorist training camp. A former detainee in Pakistan was suspected of involvement in the deadly kidnapping of two Chinese engineers.

- The close-Gitmo crowd says Gitmo has bad p.r. “It’s become an icon for bad stories,” says Martinez. Of course it has — because people lie about it. Amnesty International calls it a “gulag.” The foreign press makes up lurid tales about it. Newsweek falsely reports that Gitmo guards flushed a Koran down a toilet.

- The U.S. has nothing to be ashamed of. As Rep. Duncan Hunter (R., Calif.), has pointed out, this last Sunday detainees were served orange-glazed chicken, steamed peas and mushrooms, and rice pilaf for dinner — better fare than many U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Detainees are issued Korans and surgical masks in which to hang the holy books in their cells to keep them off the ground.

The call to prayer goes out five times a day, and detainees are instructed how to face toward Mecca. Guards are forbidden from walking in certain areas during prayer time, because the squeaking of their shoes might distract the detainees. They get excellent medical care. One released detainee had records showing he got psychological counseling for “life circumstances issues.”


Why is it that TIME magazine is running an overwrought 'special' on 'abuses' at Gitmo centered on Mohammed Al-Qahtani? THIS FOTHERMUCKER WAS DIRECTLY INVOLVED IN A PLOT TO KILL THOUSANDS OF AMERICANS. WE WANT TO EXTRACT EVERYTHING FROM HIM AND LET HIM ROT.

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