Guantanamo may be the best known prison in the world. Opened in 2002, it has been assailed by activist groups such as Human Rights Watch as a "symbol of injustice" and defended by the Pentagon as the most humane prison camp in history.
In a recent tour provided by the military, reporters were led through the center and told that detainees take art classes, play soccer and basketball, and select Islamic dietary meals off menus.
Guards quiet their movements to a hush around prayer time so as not to disturb the detainees. And the prisoners can watch DVDs (one of their favorites, says Navy Cmdr. Jeff Hayhurst, is "Deadliest Catch," a series about the trials of Alaskan king crab fishermen on the Discovery Channel.)
Defense lawyers admit conditions have improved, but they said they are not permitted to dig beyond the surface of the operations at Guantanamo.
Michael Berrigan, who handles the Guantanamo cases, said detainee records are often secret. In the few cases where lawyers have seen records they have found instances of sleep deprivation in which detainees are moved from cell to cell at night to make them restless and get them to talk about what they know regarding terror plots and connections.
My God! Instances of sleep deprivation have been discovered? This ranks right up there with the horrors of rice pilaf, I dare say.
Personally, I'd have the whole lot of them shot before I'd let them go. At least stop resisting their efforts to kill themselves. That could whittle down their numbers a bit. But these will never be the options. We'll find a way to hold them, I'd bet.
And then the international human rights community will start complaining about whatever we do with them next. They know that any shiny facade is just an obstacle to finding the gulag if they just keep digging.
Face it, unless we free them, apologize, and send the inmates out with a new suit and a million bucks each, the international human rights community will be upset with us. Remember, it is a "symbol of injustice" and not actual injustice.
Those twits in the human rights industry have a lot invested in protesting against us. Those protests let them feel morally superior, don't you know. You can't possibly believe they'll willingly give up that kind of a moral preening opportunity if we close Gitmo, do you?
