Defending the Truth

Catered to at Gitmo
By Mark Steyn
October 2, 2006


"This is not just a bad bill," said Vermont's Patrick Leahy, ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. "This is truly a dangerous bill." And it's not just a dangerous bill. It's also "unconstitutional" and "unconscionable" and represents the loss of the nation's "moral compass".
Wow. That's quite a lot for a humble bill on military trials for terrorist (OK, "alleged terrorist") detainees. But Vermont's leftie colossus wasn't done yet in his excoriation of the Bush administration. "Even they cannot dismiss the practices at Guantanamo as the actions of a few bad people," he continued. "Before they just did it quietly, and against the law, on their own say-so, but now they are obtaining license to engage in additional harsh techniques that the rest of the world will see as abusive, as cruel, as degrading and even as torture."
Hmm. I should say a word about "the practices at Guantanamo." As it happens, I've just got back from Gitmo. (That glitch on my Green Card was finally straightened out.) I've visited several prisons in several countries over the years and never seen anything like this one. Granted, most of what I know about enemy detainee camps comes from what Rear Adm. Harry Harris, who runs Guantanamo, calls "bad movies and worse TV shows," and from a distance very little seems to have changed: The basic look -- barbed wire and watch towers -- would be recognizable to any World War II POWs. But, close up, pretty much everything else has been flushed down the toilet of history. Indeed, even the toilet has been flushed down the toilet of history: In the interests of cultural sensitivity, Gitmo cells were fitted with "Asian-style toilets," because "that's what the detainees prefer." Given that much of the matter that should be going down there ends up flung over the guards, it seems this sensitivity over choice of bathroom fixtures is not always appreciated.

More at this link:

Catered to at Gitmo - Commentary - The Washington Times, America's Newspaper

I agree with Dick Cheney on what he said to Pat Leahy....."Go fuck yourself".

Joo.

Two total dumbasses respond - as they always do - to a post that had some substance.

Hey Intangible... Did it ever occur to you that the picture of those "poor detainees" does NOT evidence ANY TORTURE at all? They're simply being restrained - which is pretty good treatment, consdering that they're ENEMY COMBATANTS.

The 2 terrorist sympathizers are probably happy about this also.......This pure bullshit. If the terrorists don't kill us, the liberals will because of their asanine stupidity and bleeding hearts for criminals. Unbelievable.

By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer
51 minutes ago



WASHINGTON - Mail for convicted terrorists and other dangerous federal inmates isn't being fully read by prison authorities, and that is a risk to national security, a Justice Department review concluded Tuesday.

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons is supposed to translate and screen all mail to and from the highest-risk inmates — including terrorists, gang members and spies — for evidence of criminal activity. But that target was not being met consistently at 10 federal prisons and detention centers surveyed by the Justice Department's inspector general.

"The threat remains that terrorist and other high-risk inmates can use mail and verbal communications to conduct terrorist or criminal activities while incarcerated," concluded the report by Inspector General Glenn A. Fine. It urged the Bureau of Prisons to correct quickly the security gap, including putting tracking systems in place to ensure all high-risk inmate mail is read and analyzed.

Terror inmates' mail still goes unread - Yahoo! News

I agree.

Imagine what those men who are currently being restrained, would do in return to captured American troops.

Things like Gitmo are perfectly in line with terrorist thinking. And that is what the main complaint is.

How can the US expect the world to accord the actions of the US a different status of "righteousness" when the actions mimic those of the US' sworn enemies.

It's along the same line as condemning the subversive tactics of the soviet regime while engaging in espionage and subversion tactics in the USSR. Granted it makes sense to fight fire with fire.. But when you lower yourself to the same level as your enemies, then you forfeit the right to condemn the use of fire.

The " he started it" argument belongs in the fifth grade and i think it ludicrous that a serious government would enage in such infantile justifications for lousy actions.

It is not possible to be "righteous" when you justify your actions by the standard of your enemies. That is not righteousness.. that is SELF- righteousness. These actions are "sanitized" simply because it is the US using them to defend itself.

If standards are good, then double standards must be TWICE as good no?

Yeah you're right.

If these were American prisoners, captured by Islamic fundies, they'd just behead them on international TV.

So yeah, you're right. The Muslim world is SOOOOOOO much better!

*sigh*.. dear jefferson.. what makes you think that what i said was in ANY WAY an approval of primitive " muslim" behaviour?

All i am saying is that if you are going to wield the club of morality, you HAVE TO actually follow the morals you claim to support.

The USA claims to be the last bastion of freedom. Yet it approves of freedom reducing measures implemented both covertly and openly by the government.

It claims to condemn torture.. yet the government is fighting to approve torture methods against terrorists.

It claims to support democracy yet it continually supports military and despotic dictators the world over.

YOu see i understand that all these actions are realpolitik. It is a requirement of the world today. But what grinds my gears is that the US engages in the same tactics as ANY OTHER power on the planet, yet claims that US actions are righteous, but the actions of non-americans are not.

It seems that the actions of the US are not judged by the same yard stick. 100,000 civlian deaths caused by the US is called "collateral damage". Yet when an american dies it's a "hero" who died at the hands of a "terrorist".

I understand that humanity as a whole is stupid enough to wage war in the cruellest and most horrific of ways, but i can't stand it when the involved parties try to sanitize their actions by calling them "righteous"

War is not right nor righteous and that goes for the terorists too.