Spending Tax Dollars Right

This weekend several members of Congress visited Guantanamo Bay.

The US lawmakers witnessed interrogations, toured cellblocks, and ate the same lunch given to detainees on the first congressional visit to the prison since criticism of conditions there intensified in the spring.

They looked around, talked to the troops, tasted the food, found no ground glass in it and even got to observe a little torture.

In another [interrogation session], a female interrogator took an unusual approach to wear down a detainee, reading a Harry Potter book aloud for hours. He turned his back and put his hands over his ears.

There may be some commentators out there who think that the stewards of Guantanamo Bay prison cleaned up all the “dirty work” in anticipation of the congressional visit. Rest assured, such commentators have never been in the military, much less been subject to any type of military inspection or a Big-Dog visit to a military unit. If a unit isn’t taking care of business in the first place—that is, living up to the objective mission standard set before it—no amount of cosmetic clean-up will be able to hide that unit’s incompetence and/or perfidy.

''The Guantanamo we saw today is not the Guantanamo we heard about a few years ago," said Representative Ellen Tauscher, Democrat of California. [SNIP]

Representative Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, is one of many Democrats who have called for an independent commission to investigate abuse allegations and said the facility should close.

Lee stopped short of changing her position after the visit, but acknowledged, ''What we've seen here is evidence that we've made progress."

(Emphasis mine.)

Did it ever occur to these ladies that the Guantanamo Bay they heard about is Bravo Sierra? Apparently not, because they are still talking about the camp in terms of “progress” and “improvement” as if they had been there before or had read credible accounts of criminality rather than purposeful propaganda regarding the subject (like from the linked Boston Globe).

However, it is progress indeed that some members of congress got up off of their bipartisan duffs and took a trip down to the prison to see for themselves what’s going on. Better that a “conference” in the Bahamas, at any rate.

Oh and this is a bad idea for sure.

Human rights investigators for the United Nations urged the United States to allow them inside to inspect the facility.

Comments

[Samantha]

"Bravo Sierra"
I'm gonna have to borrow that one. An d it seriously irked me hear one talking head after another talk about the "progress" at Gitmo as if they really were abusing prisoners. Please! Regardless of what reallity is some people will just choose to believe the worst.

[Ken Summers]

As far as I'm concerned, these creeps can visit Gitmo after they visit the prison camps hosted by the "insurgents".

[Charles]

Reminds me of a new supervisor I had a few years ago. She wrote up a bad (I mean, REALLY bad, the kind you should be fired for) review about my job performance. After a previous supervisor had written nothing but excellent reviews. The Dept head backed her up on it; until I called them on it and asked for HR to sit in on my counter-review (although allowed in the company it was generally not seen as a wise move - but her review of me was so bad I saw it as a set up for a future firing!)

So suddenly; less than 2 weeks after that bad review my supervisor, faced with evidence to counter her review of me, completely switched gears and said:
'Charles has made progress'

Made progress? Made progress? I changed that quickly in two weeks?

So, you can see why this comment makes me snicker with distain. If one is going to criticize, at least show some backbone and stand behind your convictions.

Oh, wait slugs don't have backbones!

[StinKerr]

Yeah, we have some real paragons of human rights virtue in the UN Human Rights Committee: China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Zimbabwe. I believe you can still buy slaves in at least two of those places.

I'm sure that if we ran Gitmo like some of those countries run their own prisons we'd really get some howling, and rightfully so.

Wasn't Sheila Jackson Lee the genius who asked the NASA rep in a hearing if the Mars rover took a picture of where the Astronauts planted the flag? Or is this just an urban legend?

In any case, it's a shame they didn't have another meal there and get the chance to eat what the troops are eating and compare it with the prisoner's food.

It's a shame they're not honest enough to admit that they were wrong to spout the unsubstantiated claims. I expect too much, I suppose.

Yeah, I want to see Teddy and Turban go...and not come back. In fact I have a list of candidates. Do 747s land there?

[baldilocks]

"Wasn't Sheila Jackson Lee the genius who asked the NASA rep in a hearing if the Mars rover took a picture of where the Astronauts planted the flag? Or is this just an urban legend?"

Not an urban legend

[DeoDuce]

Oh dear God, not Harry Potter.

If we treated Gitmo-ians any nicer, we might be mistaken for their ally. Sounds like a Kindergarten Jail over there.

[StinKerr]

Thanks for clearing that up for me, Juliette. Do you suppose she'd consider a fact finding trip there? Maybe Teddy could drive.