Posted on 06/08/2004 8:58:15 AM PDT by Mo1
Dom Giordano
is a talk-show host with WPHT-AM (1210) and provides education reports for NBC-TV (Channel 10)
When you hear the words Guantanamo Bay, the words Abu Ghraib seem to echo back.
But I was in Guantanamo for three days last week, and I saw something very different. I concluded that, at Gitmo, we extract information from prisoners not by torture but by developing rapport with them. It involves amenities. Full rolls of toilet paper. Fruit baskets. A field trip barbecue. I talked to prisoners, visited cell blocks, surveyed their medical care, interviewed the base commander and chief interrogator on my show, and allowed callers to probe them with questions. My research extended to the officers who escorted me to breakfast and lunch - even to times when all parties were well lubricated at the Tiki Bar.
The leadership at Gitmo is much more disciplined and focused than the leadership of Maj. Gen. Janis Karpinski at Abu Ghraib appears to have been. Soldiers at Gitmo say they are repulsed by the photos and stories from Abu Ghraib. Senior staff told me of strict patrols of the prison to make sure all is being done properly.
Another great contrast with Abu Ghraib was the interrogator I met at Camp Delta. She was fluent in Arabic and talked about various ways she was able to reach prisoners. She's not leading anyone around in a dog collar.
One story probably summarized best what I saw at Gitmo. I was sitting in a chair in one of the interrogation rooms at Camp Delta when the chief interrogator told me the chair wheels were one of their greatest tools. Some sort of torture device? No: The wheels let interrogators slide in closely to bond with prisoners when they believe they are telling the truth and move away when they are lying.
This mentality is the legacy of Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Miller, who is accused of taking his "brutal" tactics from Gitmo to Iraq and causing the prison scandal. I can't know what Miller did in Iraq, but I think most of us would find the system he put in place in Gitmo as humane and fair treatment for captured Taliban and al-Qaeda members. In fact, a number of my listeners felt the treatment was too good for people we have reason to believe are among the worst of the terrorists.
This picture of humane treatment isn't being widely disseminated by other media sources. Their agenda seems to be that if they can't find a horror story, then there's no story to report. But it should be big news, to stand in contrast to Abu Ghraib.
Humane treatment works not only to get information but also to dissuade significant numbers of these guys away from their urges to attack and kill Americans. In fact, 144 prisoners have been sent back home and have been judged to be a threat to us no longer. I was amazed to consider that we are reaching good numbers of these former al-Qaeda and Taliban members.
I can't say whether the information they are getting at Gitmo is really helping to prevent attacks. I can say they are staying patient and positive.
At Gitmo, they are beginning to assemble military tribunals for four inmates. These were called for by President Bush and, if approved by the Supreme Court, will begin later this summer. This promises to put the American system of justice on view for all the world. For example, Osama bin Laden's driver is at Guantanamo. It will interest many people to know this man has a lawyer - a U.S. military officer who, as I found out, intends to mount a detailed and aggressive defense of his client.
So it's not that the American people can't handle the truth. It's that they are not getting enough of the truth. A visit to Guantanamo persuaded me that the truth is comforting.
FYI Ping
ping
The untold story of Gitmo (and it will never be told) is how it is acting as a factory for "turning" AQ operatives. One former prisoner has claimed that the CIA ran him through Gitmo to establish his bona fides and later tried to insert him into the AQ organization. I'm sure he is not the only one. We will probably never know.
Dom came right out and said that many in the media are lying to us and holding back their reporting
the FReepers that claim we are sytematically torturing prisoners (we have MANY!) will be "deeply saddened" by this report.
Maybe if these crybabies volunteered for iraq they would see for themselves? Nah - whiners are usually cowards.
If this ever gets generally known the left must start trotting out psychologists and others to decry the subtle kind of torture that Bush is employing in Gitmo. It's worse than Abu Ghraib and certainly worse than woodchipping and rape. The proof of it is the released prisoners who have "gone straight". Their minds have obviously been permantly warped and damaged.
Er...seriously? A field-trip barbecue? Weird.
Gitmo prisoners are treated far better than in their own country. With that kind of treatment, they'll choose to stay locked up forever.
I'm shocked!
Well it was written by the local talk radio guy who broadcast his show from Gitmo last week ... it was a real eye opener as to what is really going on over there
I was thinking of GITMO while I listened to teddy kennedy and patrick leahy suggest that some Bush Administration memo or other on treatment of prisoners "directly led" to the abuses of Abu Ghraib. Were that the case, then how is it that GITMO escaped these (presumably Presidentially sanctioned) abuses?
What happen at Abu Ghraib was because of lack of leadership with Karpinski and nothing to do with Gitmo or Ashcroft .. or President Bush
I also can't help but notice how these Senators always refer to news paper reporting .. problem is these papers are not reporting what is really going on a Gitmo
Here is a question for these Senators ... HAVE THEY BOTHERED TO GO TO GITMO TO SEE FOR THEMSELVES HOW THE PRISONERS ARE REALLY BEING TREATED??
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