Amnesty International: Another Form Of Anti-American Irrelevance.
Hat-Tip: Captain’s Quarters.
http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/004628.php
Captain Ed posted up a neat little dose of sound commentary today on Amnesty International’s baseless allegation that Gitmo is a "gulag". First off, let’s take a look at what a gulag is.
Number of prisoners at Gitmo: approximately 600.
Number of prisoners in the Gulag: as many as 25 million, according to the peerless Gulag historian Anne Applebaum.
Number of camps at Gitmo: 1
Number of camps in the Gulag: At least 476, according to Applebaum.
Political purpose of Gulag: The suppression of internal dissent inside a totalitarian state.
Political purpose of Gitmo: The suppression of an international terrorist group that had attacked the United States, killing 3,000 people while attempting to decapitate the national government through the hijack of airplanes.
Financial purpose of Gulag: Providing totalitarian economy with millions of slave laborers.
Financial purpose of Gitmo: None.
Seizure of Gulag prisoners: From apartments, homes, street corners inside the Soviet Union.
Seizure of Gitmo prisoners: From battlefield sites in Afghanistan in the midst of war.
This all comes from a John Podhoretz piece from the New York Post, yesterday. It’s pretty cut and dry as to what constitutes a "gulag". Gitmo isn’t a gulag. It’s a holding facility for the people that tried to kill our troops on the battlefield. But today, Michelle Malkin took up the torch, and brought it all the way home. Below is the entire column she wrote today for the Washington Times. Read it. It is, by far, the best piece I’ve seen on this subject.
Guantanamo fog . . .
By Michelle Malkin
The mainstream media and international human-rights organizations have relentlessly portrayed the Guantanamo Bay detention facility as a depraved torture chamber operated by sadistic American military officials defiling Islam at every turn. It's the "gulag of our time," wails Amnesty International. It's the "anti-Statue of Liberty," bemoans New York Times columnist Tom Friedman.
Have there been abuses? Yes. But here is the rest of the story -- the story the Islamists and their sympathizers don't want you to hear.
According to recently released FBI documents, inaccurately heralded by civil liberties activists and military-bashers as irrefutable evidence of widespread "atrocities" at Gitmo:
A significant number of detainee complaints were either exaggerated or fabricated (no surprise given al Qaeda's explicit instructions to trainees to lie). One detainee who claimed to have been "beaten, spit upon and treated worse than a dog" could provide not a single detail pertaining to mistreatment by U.S. military personnel. Another detainee claimed guards were physically abusive, but admitted he hadn't seen it.
Another detainee disputed one of the now globally infamous claims that American guards had mistreated the Koran. The detainee said riots resulted from claims a guard dropped the Koran. In actuality, the detainee said, a detainee dropped the Koran then blamed a guard. Other detainees who complained about abuse of the Koran admitted they never personally witnessed any such thing, but one said he heard non-Muslim soldiers touched the Koran when searching it for contraband.
In one case, Gitmo interrogators apologized to a detainee for interviewing him prior to the end of Ramadan.
Several detainees indicated they had not experienced any mistreatment. Others complained about lack of privacy, lack of bedsheets, being unwillingly photographed, guards' use of profanity and bad food. If this is unacceptable, "gulag"-style "torture," then every inmate in America is a victim of human-rights violations. (Oh, never mind, there are civil liberties Chicken Littles who actually believe that.)
Erik Saar, an army sergeant at Gitmo for six months and co- author of a negative, tell-all book titled "Inside the Wire," inadvertently provides us more firsthand details showing just how restrained, and sensitive to Islam -- to a fault, I believe -- detention facility officials have been.
Each detainee's cell has a sink installed low to the ground, "to make it easier for the detainees to wash their feet" before Muslim prayer, Mr. Saar reports. Detainees get "two hot halal, or religiously correct, meals" a day in addition to an MRE (meal ready to eat).
Loudspeakers broadcast the Muslims' call to prayer five times daily.
Every detainee gets a prayer mat, cap and Koran. Every cell has a stenciled arrow pointing toward Mecca. Moreover, Gitmo's library -- yes, library -- is stocked with Jihadi books. "I was surprised that we'd be making that concession to the religious zealotry of the terrorists," Mr. Saar admits. "It seemed to me that the camp command was helping to facilitate the terrorists' religious devotion." Mr. Saar notes one FBI special agent involved in interrogations even grew a beard like the detainees "as a sort of show of respect for their faith."
Unreality-based liberals would have us believe America is spitefully and systematically torturing innocent Muslims at Guantanamo Bay. Meanwhile, our own MPs have endured little-publicized abuse at the hands of manipulative, hatemongering enemy combatants. Detainees have spit on and hurled water, urine and feces on the MPs. Causing disturbances is a source of entertainment for detainees who, as Gen. Richard Myers notes, "would turn right around and try to slit our throats, slit our children's throats" if released.
The same unreality-based liberals whine about the Bush administration's failure to gather intelligence and prevent terrorism. Yet, these hysterical critics have no viable alternative to detention and interrogation -- and there is no doubt they would be the first to lambaste the White House and Pentagon if a released detainee went on to commit an act of mass terrorism on American soil.
Guantanamo Bay will not be the death of this country. The unseriousness and hypocrisy of the terrorist-abetting left is a far greater threat.
So, this is the infamous abuse handed out to those prisoners? They should only feel so lucky, compared to those sitting in real gulags right now. Marcie and I tackled the topic of the North Korean gulags after the LA Times ran the puff-piece for them earlier this year. (Those would be on our original sites, 4 March 2005). I covered it, and so did she as to the mistreatment of the "social agitators" in North Korea. A starving slave-labor population, forced abortions, back breaking work, etc.
Before Amnesty International opens up it’s yap again, and makes unfounded accusations about the mistreatment of prisoners, detainees, whatever, they might want to take a peek inside of North Korea’s gulags so they have something to go off of. It’s blatantly obvious that these people don’t know what they’re talking about, and until John Bolton gets to the UN to handle such allegations, these people should be ignored. Treat them like the mushrooms that they are.
There really is no reason, whatsoever, that the Amnesty International report should have gained prominence at all. This organization refuses to acknowledge some of the worst hell-holes on the planet, including North Korea, and prior to the war, Iraq and Afghanistan. Political prisoners, or "social agitators" are locked away in Cuba, despite the arguments to the contrary from the Hollywood nuts that go down and fawn over Castro. Nope. They’re happy to beat on us, and make us out to be evil and uncaring; abusive and negligent.
Honestly, based on the piece that the lovely and talented Michelle Malkin wrote, and the other information that has been dug up about how prisoners are treated at Gitmo, Amnesty International doesn’t have a leg to stand on with their erroneous report. And personally, I could care less if a terrorist does get slapped around a bit. They have no protections under the Geneva Convention, and despite the court’s idiotic interpretations of what rights a person possesses, they legally have no protections under our Constitution. And I personally would rather have them locked up in Gitmo where they can’t harm any more civilians, or try to kill our troops.
I agree with what Captain Ed put up as the closing paragraph of his piece today. It sends the right message, and brings it home for everyone:
"Make sure you read the entire column, and let's make sure people understand that this is a war, not a juvenile-crime prevention initiative. The terrorists in Camp X-Ray fought on behalf of the same people who killed 3,000 unarmed and defenseless American citizens on 9/11. While I don't want them abused, I could frankly care less about their detention otherwise. Let them rot and die there. Better that than releasing them and having to fight them a second time."
Publius II
Hat-Tip: Captain’s Quarters.
http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/004628.php
Captain Ed posted up a neat little dose of sound commentary today on Amnesty International’s baseless allegation that Gitmo is a "gulag". First off, let’s take a look at what a gulag is.
Number of prisoners at Gitmo: approximately 600.
Number of prisoners in the Gulag: as many as 25 million, according to the peerless Gulag historian Anne Applebaum.
Number of camps at Gitmo: 1
Number of camps in the Gulag: At least 476, according to Applebaum.
Political purpose of Gulag: The suppression of internal dissent inside a totalitarian state.
Political purpose of Gitmo: The suppression of an international terrorist group that had attacked the United States, killing 3,000 people while attempting to decapitate the national government through the hijack of airplanes.
Financial purpose of Gulag: Providing totalitarian economy with millions of slave laborers.
Financial purpose of Gitmo: None.
Seizure of Gulag prisoners: From apartments, homes, street corners inside the Soviet Union.
Seizure of Gitmo prisoners: From battlefield sites in Afghanistan in the midst of war.
This all comes from a John Podhoretz piece from the New York Post, yesterday. It’s pretty cut and dry as to what constitutes a "gulag". Gitmo isn’t a gulag. It’s a holding facility for the people that tried to kill our troops on the battlefield. But today, Michelle Malkin took up the torch, and brought it all the way home. Below is the entire column she wrote today for the Washington Times. Read it. It is, by far, the best piece I’ve seen on this subject.
Guantanamo fog . . .
By Michelle Malkin
The mainstream media and international human-rights organizations have relentlessly portrayed the Guantanamo Bay detention facility as a depraved torture chamber operated by sadistic American military officials defiling Islam at every turn. It's the "gulag of our time," wails Amnesty International. It's the "anti-Statue of Liberty," bemoans New York Times columnist Tom Friedman.
Have there been abuses? Yes. But here is the rest of the story -- the story the Islamists and their sympathizers don't want you to hear.
According to recently released FBI documents, inaccurately heralded by civil liberties activists and military-bashers as irrefutable evidence of widespread "atrocities" at Gitmo:
A significant number of detainee complaints were either exaggerated or fabricated (no surprise given al Qaeda's explicit instructions to trainees to lie). One detainee who claimed to have been "beaten, spit upon and treated worse than a dog" could provide not a single detail pertaining to mistreatment by U.S. military personnel. Another detainee claimed guards were physically abusive, but admitted he hadn't seen it.
Another detainee disputed one of the now globally infamous claims that American guards had mistreated the Koran. The detainee said riots resulted from claims a guard dropped the Koran. In actuality, the detainee said, a detainee dropped the Koran then blamed a guard. Other detainees who complained about abuse of the Koran admitted they never personally witnessed any such thing, but one said he heard non-Muslim soldiers touched the Koran when searching it for contraband.
In one case, Gitmo interrogators apologized to a detainee for interviewing him prior to the end of Ramadan.
Several detainees indicated they had not experienced any mistreatment. Others complained about lack of privacy, lack of bedsheets, being unwillingly photographed, guards' use of profanity and bad food. If this is unacceptable, "gulag"-style "torture," then every inmate in America is a victim of human-rights violations. (Oh, never mind, there are civil liberties Chicken Littles who actually believe that.)
Erik Saar, an army sergeant at Gitmo for six months and co- author of a negative, tell-all book titled "Inside the Wire," inadvertently provides us more firsthand details showing just how restrained, and sensitive to Islam -- to a fault, I believe -- detention facility officials have been.
Each detainee's cell has a sink installed low to the ground, "to make it easier for the detainees to wash their feet" before Muslim prayer, Mr. Saar reports. Detainees get "two hot halal, or religiously correct, meals" a day in addition to an MRE (meal ready to eat).
Loudspeakers broadcast the Muslims' call to prayer five times daily.
Every detainee gets a prayer mat, cap and Koran. Every cell has a stenciled arrow pointing toward Mecca. Moreover, Gitmo's library -- yes, library -- is stocked with Jihadi books. "I was surprised that we'd be making that concession to the religious zealotry of the terrorists," Mr. Saar admits. "It seemed to me that the camp command was helping to facilitate the terrorists' religious devotion." Mr. Saar notes one FBI special agent involved in interrogations even grew a beard like the detainees "as a sort of show of respect for their faith."
Unreality-based liberals would have us believe America is spitefully and systematically torturing innocent Muslims at Guantanamo Bay. Meanwhile, our own MPs have endured little-publicized abuse at the hands of manipulative, hatemongering enemy combatants. Detainees have spit on and hurled water, urine and feces on the MPs. Causing disturbances is a source of entertainment for detainees who, as Gen. Richard Myers notes, "would turn right around and try to slit our throats, slit our children's throats" if released.
The same unreality-based liberals whine about the Bush administration's failure to gather intelligence and prevent terrorism. Yet, these hysterical critics have no viable alternative to detention and interrogation -- and there is no doubt they would be the first to lambaste the White House and Pentagon if a released detainee went on to commit an act of mass terrorism on American soil.
Guantanamo Bay will not be the death of this country. The unseriousness and hypocrisy of the terrorist-abetting left is a far greater threat.
So, this is the infamous abuse handed out to those prisoners? They should only feel so lucky, compared to those sitting in real gulags right now. Marcie and I tackled the topic of the North Korean gulags after the LA Times ran the puff-piece for them earlier this year. (Those would be on our original sites, 4 March 2005). I covered it, and so did she as to the mistreatment of the "social agitators" in North Korea. A starving slave-labor population, forced abortions, back breaking work, etc.
Before Amnesty International opens up it’s yap again, and makes unfounded accusations about the mistreatment of prisoners, detainees, whatever, they might want to take a peek inside of North Korea’s gulags so they have something to go off of. It’s blatantly obvious that these people don’t know what they’re talking about, and until John Bolton gets to the UN to handle such allegations, these people should be ignored. Treat them like the mushrooms that they are.
There really is no reason, whatsoever, that the Amnesty International report should have gained prominence at all. This organization refuses to acknowledge some of the worst hell-holes on the planet, including North Korea, and prior to the war, Iraq and Afghanistan. Political prisoners, or "social agitators" are locked away in Cuba, despite the arguments to the contrary from the Hollywood nuts that go down and fawn over Castro. Nope. They’re happy to beat on us, and make us out to be evil and uncaring; abusive and negligent.
Honestly, based on the piece that the lovely and talented Michelle Malkin wrote, and the other information that has been dug up about how prisoners are treated at Gitmo, Amnesty International doesn’t have a leg to stand on with their erroneous report. And personally, I could care less if a terrorist does get slapped around a bit. They have no protections under the Geneva Convention, and despite the court’s idiotic interpretations of what rights a person possesses, they legally have no protections under our Constitution. And I personally would rather have them locked up in Gitmo where they can’t harm any more civilians, or try to kill our troops.
I agree with what Captain Ed put up as the closing paragraph of his piece today. It sends the right message, and brings it home for everyone:
"Make sure you read the entire column, and let's make sure people understand that this is a war, not a juvenile-crime prevention initiative. The terrorists in Camp X-Ray fought on behalf of the same people who killed 3,000 unarmed and defenseless American citizens on 9/11. While I don't want them abused, I could frankly care less about their detention otherwise. Let them rot and die there. Better that than releasing them and having to fight them a second time."
Publius II
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 1:55 PM
3 Comments:
Your knowledge of the facts is wonderful! I really had no idea that millions were detained in the Russian gulags. I guess that shouldn't surprise me, though, seeing as Stalin liked putting family members in them as well as strangers.
Excellent blog. I believe that there is a relationship between the UN, Amnesty International, the ACLU, Soros, Planned Parenthood, Teresa Heinz (Tide), The International Red Cross and other socialist if not communist organizations. They have an agenda that is ironically like Karl Marx and Lenin laid out. They are good at baiting. For example, they have no provable fact about gitmo, just hearsay. After making these scurrilous allegation, they say, let us go in, look around and talk to the prisoners. Amnesty International is our enemy and should be recognize as such. Rawriter
Guys,
The gulags were quite "cruel and unusual" in terms of punishment for people that were only guilty of defying a regime that was squelching freedom.
Machiavelli once wrote that the only people who prospered and advanced were those the lived under the rules and ideal so freedom. In America, we embrace such ideals.
But there is no quarter for our enemy. This enemy strikes from shadows, is recognized by no one other than their bloody brethren, and is not recognized by any nation. They are a formidable force, but they're not a military force. They're a freelance force.
Therefore they have no rights under the Geneva Convention, nor under our own Constitution. These are facts that our courts refuse to acknowledge, and because of that foolish interpretation, we now have terrorists seeking legal assitance from our lawyers in our courts.
It is reprehensible, to say the least.
Amnesty International is in the business of the giving us a black eye. They have done this for years. But no one is answering the challenge. The research both of us have put into the repressive regimes across the globe is ten times that of what Amnesty International has done.
If Amnesty International realy wants to see a gulag, I have no problem throwing their butts out of a C-130 over North Korea so they can examine one firsthand. Lord knows that what we've read is enough to turn our stomachs; we need no visual verification.
Thomas
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