Posted on 06/20/2005 2:07:03 PM PDT by StoneGiant
Durban is right
The time has come to face the ugly truth: Dick Durban is right; the things our military is doing in Guantanemo Bay to prisoners is tantamount to torture.
Here is the side of Guantanemo you won't hear from the mainstream media. Only those of us who have a friend whose neighbor's son's ex-girlfriend's brother is actually there hear the stomach-churning stories of questioning tactics that are routinely visited on the detainees at Gitmo. Read ahead if you dare, but I warn you, it's not for the weak-hearted.
My contacts inside tell me that the prisoners are forced to sit on hard wooden chairs for hours with no cushions. Think about that. That’s like sitting in a baseball stadium all afternoon… but no game is playing. There's no beer. They don't even get peanuts. Even first year law school students listening to tort lectures aren’t subjected to that more than three days a week. But in Gitmo, it can happen four, even five days a week. Yes, really.
And that’s not all. Prisoners are forced to stand for hours and hours on end in extreme temperatures as if they are waiting outside a box office for U2 tickets. But there’s no U2 ticket at the end of this torture. No. Instead they hear rap music, or worse. Christina Aguilera. Perhaps the average American (who doesn’t have a teenager) doesn’t know this, but Christina Aguilera can cause bleeding from the ears. But this is what is being done in our name every day down in Gitmo.
And the orange-glazed chicken you’ve heard so much about? I’ll let you in on a little secret: it’s dry.
”I could barely wash it down,” complained Ahmar al Killemall. “My twelve-year old bride could make a better orange-glazed chicken than that. And this salad was made with iceberg lettuce,” he adds. “What, the U.S. can’t afford romaine? Come on.”
And then there’s the sleep-deprivation torture. These detainees are kept up for hours at night with blaring noises, until they are as bleary and nauseous as a new parent with a baby in the house. This can go on for weeks. Like a new parent with a baby in the house. They sometimes grow so exhausted that they fall asleep on their feet! Like a new parent, with a baby in the house.
The list of atrocities goes on and on. The detainees’ cells are as small as a college dorm room, and in many of them… I’m sorry to say it… but there isn’t even a view of the water. Not even a view, for God’s sake! It's an island, they can't arrange a room with a view?
They don’t have cable tv, either. Do you know who Donald Trump’s new apprentice is? Well, don’t ask a prisoner at Gitmo, because they don’t know either. They don’t know who won American Idol. They've never seen Six Feet Under. They don’t even know about Tom and Katie! Do you understand the implications of that? By the time they hear about the wedding, the divorce will be final and they won’t even be able to get in on the betting pool.
How can we do this to other human beings?
I also have it on good authority that their religion is routinely, subtly insulted in various ways. The prayer mats they kneel on clash with their uniforms, for example. And the Koran is often given dirty looks by our soldiers. The beards cultivated by the faithful are sometimes mocked. One soldier was heard to refer to three detainees as “ZZ Top,” and another even said to a detainee’s face, “Yo, what up, Gandalf?” Words hurt, people! They hurt!
Is this the sort of face we should show to the world? Is this what we want done in our name? Is this what America stands for?
Source? Anonymous
Imagine the outcry if we served 'em, Mad Dog 20/20!!
Why after drinking that one would almost be hearing the "Crack of Doom" that Sheets Byrd spoke of recently.
They were marched into four-acres pens, and told to “Scratch into some hole or other, --meaning to find shelter as best they could.” “And now I must speak of the fearful effects of this much coveted fluid. Horrified at seeing a cart filled with dead bodies, I inquired what had occasioned this surprising mortality. ‘Oh it is the water.’ was the reply-‘that well is rank poison! It is killing us all by inches.”
The food allowed the prisoners consisted of a cup of rice-water (called soup) and three crackers at 9 a. m.; and the same, with a morsel of rancid bacon at 3 p.m. It was just sufficient to maintain life. True. the soup was always lukewarm, and garnished with white worms half an inch long; while the food was gritty with sand and dirt.
Guantanamo Torture? No, Point Lookout, Maryland torture, where my great grandfather died. 1863
Now, THAT'S funny.
Good post. LOL!
These are not questionable practices. These are legal interrogation methods and used world over by various countries, the difference is we don't us actual torture to augment the DISCOMFORT of minor temperature changes and loud music. We use these same tactics on criminals in this country and they have been ruled legal. Sleep derivation is common in interrogation techniques.
I would rather see some terrorist lose sleep and have his room at certainly less than freezing temps. I don't recall hearing of any frostbite cases from Gitmo. Also temps without the air-conditioner are also acceptable. People here in the US go without air-conditioning everyday of the summer, do you complain to anyone about that?
These people are treated very well and this satire is right on the money. I suggest you actually find out what is going on in Gitmo before you get up on your high horse about questionable tactics.
Fly an airplane into a crowd of 3 thousand in Saudi Arabia and see what happens to you, I guarantee you, you will not be eating orange glazed chicken, dry or moist!
“Yo, what up, Gandalf?” Words hurt, people! They hurt!
Hilarious!
This rivals Steyn, and that's just about the ultimate compliment I can give to a writer of any article.
No zot. It's cute!
Now I understand. I'm from Illinois too.
My quick reaction was also, YEeeekkk! But I glanced at a few lines, then read the piece after understanding we have a comedian here.
I see RED whenever I see some idiot saying durbin was right, too.
Give us a break.
Sounds like what I went through in Recondo School, during SERE (survival, evasion, resistance, escape) training. Stressfull, but not torture.
In the northern camp they don't give food or water to the prisoner until she dies of dehydration.
In the northern camp they plunge scissors into the back of the skull of prisoners not even suspected of being Al-Kaida.
My, my, my that's good stuff!
Wait a minute! This is series. I'm stuned. This is shoking!
Thx that's hysterical.
MADtv should parody it.
Well, let's see. We aren't allowed to beat these people, or draw blood, or (my personal favorite) attach a Sears Diehard to any of their favorite body parts. We can't use drugs, explicitly threaten them with death, deny them the observation of their religion, or deprive them of food and water. How, then, do you propose that our interrogators should persuade them to give us information that might save the lives of our sons and brothers? Sweet-talk them? Offer them money and book deals?
Depriving them of sleep and making them listen to bad popular music is, as Victor Davis Hanson remarked in a column today, hardly comparable to the true agony they have inflicted upon others--others who were truly innocent. They merit nothing, but they are being coddled so that we don't incur the sneers of the world. Meanwhile, our men die. And you think it is unreasonable for them to be subjected to temperatures that are not as warm as Baghdad in the summertime, temperatures our boys must endure in body armor because of the predations of animals like these.
If Durbin is correct about America being like Cambodia under Pol Pot, we are due a lot of Freebies.
There can be masses of real deaths to political opponents.
We need to get started implementing the deaths we are currently behind . Durbin should probably near the top of the list. Dissenters were salughtered by Pol Pot and thus Rats should be exterminated to play catch up.
They are despicable, to be sure. But you know instantly who they are and what they are.
Specter has hid behind the Republican label for 24 years and pops up to sabotage us whenever it's important to do so. Now, Ricky if following in his footsteps.
To me, that makes them worse, because they pretend to be on our side.
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.