Posted on 06/26/2005 1:47:03 AM PDT by FairOpinion
It's known more for gulag than goulash, but now a cookery book aims to restore at least the culinary reputation of the American detention centre at Guantanamo Bay.
Several hundred recipes prepared for the inmates at the camp are to be published next month in The Gitmo Cookbook, including such dishes as mustard and dill-baked fish, and honey and ginger chicken breast.
The recipes - most of which use fewer than eight ingredients and were originally created to feed up to 100 people - were developed by the US Navy cooks who are in charge of the camp's kitchens.
They must meet the Halal requirements of the 540 detainees, who are mostly from Afghanistan, Iraq and other Arab nations.
The chance to eat the Gitmo way is being offered by a group of American conservative activists who believe that the camp's reputation for inhumane conditions and torture is exaggerated.
Freed detainees have made claims of intimidation by dogs, being forced to wear pictures of scantily clad women around their neck, and being kept in isolation for months at a time, in either freezing or boiling temperatures.
Laura Curtis, one of the book's editors, said that the recipes would instead "make a point about how well we are treating these people". Freed prisoners are said to have put on an average of nearly a stone during captivity.
She said: "We feel that the word 'torture' is a serious abuse of the language when you apply it to what's going on at Gitmo. We're pretty tired of the military-bashing that we see in the news."
Having tested the recipes, she said, one member of the cookery book team took exception to the glazed carrots. "But she said that they did not sink to the level of torture."
The issue of food at Guantanamo - described as "the gulag for our times" by Amnesty International earlier this month - was also the focus of a publicity stunt last week by the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
Duncan Hunter, a congressman from California, responded to reports of abuse at the base by tucking into a typical dish and supplying details of a Sunday menu: orange-glazed chicken, fresh fruit, steamed peas and mushrooms, and rice pilaf.
As a prime example of what he described as the camp's "gourmet fare", Mr Hunter singled out lemon-baked fish. "We treat them very well," he said, and claimed that detainees, some of whom have been held without trial since 2002, "have never eaten better".
The Pentagon budgets $2.5 million (£1.37 million) a year for feeding the detainees, which works out at $12.68 a head each day. Meals in federal prisons cost just $2.78 per convict per day. Food for the detainees, including two hot meals a day, is prepared in the same kitchens used for US troops at the Cuban naval base.
While pork and shellfish are off the menu for religious reasons, popular dishes include curried eggs, tandoori-baked chicken and Lyonnaise rice. A typical breakfast might include dates and honey.
Prisoners considered to be well behaved or a low security risk are allowed to serve themselves around al-fresco dining tables in the detention blocks. Military police serve food to the other inmates.
Copies of The Gitmo Cookbook will cost $8.95, and profits will be donated to a military charity.
"The best-behaved detainees are held in Camp 4, a medium-security, communal-living environment with as many as 10 beds in a room; prisoners can play soccer or volleyball outside up to nine hours a day, eat meals together and read Agatha Christie mysteries in Arabic. "
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1416660/posts
Cooking PING
When the cookbook comes out, all liberal Dems who've mouthed off about how bad Gitmo is, should be made to eat em'. The book that is...
What's next? The Club Gitmo Diet of course for the 90 lb weakings, who need to pack on some pounds.
THIS is torture? Being forced to wear a page out of a Victoria's Secret catalog?
She said: "We feel that the word 'torture' is a serious abuse of the language when you apply it to what's going on at Gitmo. We're pretty tired of the military-bashing that we see in the news."
It's not a "serious abuse of the language". Call it what it is. It's a propaganda lie.
Personally, I think we should treat the detainees just as well as an American would be treated in a Mexican jail.
If I remember my history, POWs were to receive the SAME meals as front line US troops.
As I stated before, if it were up to me, the detainees would be on an all pork diet (Wouldn't waste good shellfish on them)
But, hey, I'm not Queen of the Universe, well, not yet :-)
Meanwhile, if our guys are captured by them.....they get their heads cut off.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.