A Comparison
Two to three weeks ago, Amnesty International shocked the world, and the United States by reporting that "Camp X-Ray" at Guantanamo Bay was the "gulag of our time". There was a collective outrage that erupted in this nation over the allegation, and rightly so. But last week, Sen. Richard Durbin, D-IL, reiterated the allegation. The outrage over Amnesty International’s claims were dwarfed by the people of this nation that took issue with a sitting US senator. Thomas and I, and others, have called for his resignation. Others are calling for his censure. Regardless of the punishment, he is owed one for such a foolish statement.
But he has plenty of supporters, it seems. The chat rooms have been alive with people supporting his claims, and those of Amnesty International. Either these people skipped this area of history, or they were asleep. Regardless, their ignorance in this matter is no excuse. So, in an effort to truly distinguish the two from one another, I have decided to show a comparison between a "gulag", and Camp X-Ray.
"Gulag" is an acronym for "Glavnoye Upravleniye Ispravitelno-trudovykh Lagerey i kolonii", which was under the direct control of the Soviet internal police and security service. The gulag of the Soviet union (the Soviets never pluralized the term) was divided into six specific types of camps. There were camps for children, pregnant women or women with infants, for forced psychiatric care, for traitors to the "Motherland", and for secret scientific research where kidnapped scientists did work for "Mother Russia", and mining camps that took the able bodied men, and put them to work in ore mines. POWs were kept in separate camps, completely outside the gulag system. Those in the gulag were political prisoners, or as North Korea likes to call them, "social agitators".
The first gulag was established in 1918, and the system itself lasted well into the 1990s. It is documented that these political prisoners were severely abused. From chemical torture and physical torture to beatings that would make most people’s stomachs turn, the soviets did there best to break these people. Anne Applebaum, noted writer, and author of the book "Gulag", stated in November of 2003 that "As a result, between 1929, when they first became a mass phenomenon, and 1953, the year of Stalin's death, some 18 million people passed through them. In addition, a further 6 or 7 million people were deported, not to camps but to exile villages. In total, that means the number of people with some experience of imprisonment in Stalin's Soviet Union could have run as high as 25 million, about 15 percent of the population."
The Hoover Institute reported in 1999 the following which were found among documents from the Lenin-thru-Khruschev eras:
-Ten percent of the entire population of the Soviet Union lived in the camps.
-The Gulag administration was the largest single employer in all of Europe.
-The average life expectancy of a camp prisoner was one winter.
-At least twenty million people perished in the labor camps during Stalin’s rule.
-The camps dehumanized life and instituted a reign of terror throughout Soviet society.
Now, let me share this from Camp X-Ray. There are just over 600 detainees at the camp. The detainees have had special measures taken to ensure they are mistreated as little as possible, including several interrogators apologizing to the detainees they question. Special floor sinks were installed in the cells so the detainees could wash their feet, in accordance with their religious beliefs. They are given Korans, prayer rugs, and arrows are painted on the walls showing which direction Mecca is. A loudspeaker announces five times a day their prayer times.
Muslim cooks were brought into the camp so that the detainees have two "culturally-acceptable" meals each day. During Ramadan, the diet to break fast is strictly adhered to. And in my research of the camp, during Ramadan—last year—interrogations were halted while Ramadan was going on.
There is no way, in Hell, Stalin, Lenin, Khruschev, etc., would have allowed a single prisoner in the gulag to have their religious texts. It would give the prisoners hope, which was exactly what they did not want. They wanted these people broken. We want the prisoners broken, as well, but we are taking every care possible to not hurt these people, or offend them. And keep in mind that al-Qaeda trains it’s "soldiers" to lie about their detention and captivity upon release.
Are there legitimate reports of abuse? Aside from Abu Ghraib and the one lone FBI memo that Sen. Durbin read from, no. There are plenty of allegations, but out of twenty-eight filed by the FBI thus far this year, only nine have been deemed "credible", and thus far, only one of those nine has proven to be true. And the abuse? The disgusting, cruel abuse that is stated in the report? A soldier poking a detainee in the chest with his finger, and the same detainee was called a "rag-head" by another soldier.
OH! The horror! If a prisoner in the gulag had that happen to them, they would be eternally grateful that day.
Most of our readers are informed, intelligent, and well-educated people. This may seem like a history rehash to them, but as I stated, this post is all about the supporters of Durbin. Those people are as idiotic as the senator himself, and seriously need a history lesson. Camp X-Ray is no gulag, and we are not abusing detainees on a constant basis. I am sure that yes, at times, some people may step over the line. But, we are taking the best possible care of these people—far better care than what they were enduring while they fought against us.
The Bunny ;)
Two to three weeks ago, Amnesty International shocked the world, and the United States by reporting that "Camp X-Ray" at Guantanamo Bay was the "gulag of our time". There was a collective outrage that erupted in this nation over the allegation, and rightly so. But last week, Sen. Richard Durbin, D-IL, reiterated the allegation. The outrage over Amnesty International’s claims were dwarfed by the people of this nation that took issue with a sitting US senator. Thomas and I, and others, have called for his resignation. Others are calling for his censure. Regardless of the punishment, he is owed one for such a foolish statement.
But he has plenty of supporters, it seems. The chat rooms have been alive with people supporting his claims, and those of Amnesty International. Either these people skipped this area of history, or they were asleep. Regardless, their ignorance in this matter is no excuse. So, in an effort to truly distinguish the two from one another, I have decided to show a comparison between a "gulag", and Camp X-Ray.
"Gulag" is an acronym for "Glavnoye Upravleniye Ispravitelno-trudovykh Lagerey i kolonii", which was under the direct control of the Soviet internal police and security service. The gulag of the Soviet union (the Soviets never pluralized the term) was divided into six specific types of camps. There were camps for children, pregnant women or women with infants, for forced psychiatric care, for traitors to the "Motherland", and for secret scientific research where kidnapped scientists did work for "Mother Russia", and mining camps that took the able bodied men, and put them to work in ore mines. POWs were kept in separate camps, completely outside the gulag system. Those in the gulag were political prisoners, or as North Korea likes to call them, "social agitators".
The first gulag was established in 1918, and the system itself lasted well into the 1990s. It is documented that these political prisoners were severely abused. From chemical torture and physical torture to beatings that would make most people’s stomachs turn, the soviets did there best to break these people. Anne Applebaum, noted writer, and author of the book "Gulag", stated in November of 2003 that "As a result, between 1929, when they first became a mass phenomenon, and 1953, the year of Stalin's death, some 18 million people passed through them. In addition, a further 6 or 7 million people were deported, not to camps but to exile villages. In total, that means the number of people with some experience of imprisonment in Stalin's Soviet Union could have run as high as 25 million, about 15 percent of the population."
The Hoover Institute reported in 1999 the following which were found among documents from the Lenin-thru-Khruschev eras:
-Ten percent of the entire population of the Soviet Union lived in the camps.
-The Gulag administration was the largest single employer in all of Europe.
-The average life expectancy of a camp prisoner was one winter.
-At least twenty million people perished in the labor camps during Stalin’s rule.
-The camps dehumanized life and instituted a reign of terror throughout Soviet society.
Now, let me share this from Camp X-Ray. There are just over 600 detainees at the camp. The detainees have had special measures taken to ensure they are mistreated as little as possible, including several interrogators apologizing to the detainees they question. Special floor sinks were installed in the cells so the detainees could wash their feet, in accordance with their religious beliefs. They are given Korans, prayer rugs, and arrows are painted on the walls showing which direction Mecca is. A loudspeaker announces five times a day their prayer times.
Muslim cooks were brought into the camp so that the detainees have two "culturally-acceptable" meals each day. During Ramadan, the diet to break fast is strictly adhered to. And in my research of the camp, during Ramadan—last year—interrogations were halted while Ramadan was going on.
There is no way, in Hell, Stalin, Lenin, Khruschev, etc., would have allowed a single prisoner in the gulag to have their religious texts. It would give the prisoners hope, which was exactly what they did not want. They wanted these people broken. We want the prisoners broken, as well, but we are taking every care possible to not hurt these people, or offend them. And keep in mind that al-Qaeda trains it’s "soldiers" to lie about their detention and captivity upon release.
Are there legitimate reports of abuse? Aside from Abu Ghraib and the one lone FBI memo that Sen. Durbin read from, no. There are plenty of allegations, but out of twenty-eight filed by the FBI thus far this year, only nine have been deemed "credible", and thus far, only one of those nine has proven to be true. And the abuse? The disgusting, cruel abuse that is stated in the report? A soldier poking a detainee in the chest with his finger, and the same detainee was called a "rag-head" by another soldier.
OH! The horror! If a prisoner in the gulag had that happen to them, they would be eternally grateful that day.
Most of our readers are informed, intelligent, and well-educated people. This may seem like a history rehash to them, but as I stated, this post is all about the supporters of Durbin. Those people are as idiotic as the senator himself, and seriously need a history lesson. Camp X-Ray is no gulag, and we are not abusing detainees on a constant basis. I am sure that yes, at times, some people may step over the line. But, we are taking the best possible care of these people—far better care than what they were enduring while they fought against us.
The Bunny ;)
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 1:56 PM
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