Reading this item, JURIST – Paper Chase: UPDATE ~ US House members report improved conditions at Gitmo…
After visiting the Guantanamo Bay detention center Saturday [JURIST report], House Republicans and Democrats reported that conditions at the facility are improving. The lawmakers traveled to the detention facility to witness interrogations and observe living conditions of the suspected terrorists. Representative Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) [official website] said that “[t]he Guantanamo we saw today is not the Guantanamo we heard about a few years ago”. The visits come amid mounting pressure from human rights groups and some lawmakers to pierce the veil of secrecy surrounding conditions at the camp [JURIST news archive], and end the use of torture techniques. A Senate visit is scheduled for Sunday. AP has more
… reminds me of this item from the Washington Post last April, Detainee Questioning Was Faked, Book Says; U.S. Military Denies Staging Interviews:
The U.S. military staged the interrogations of terrorism suspects for members of Congress and other officials visiting the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to make it appear the government was obtaining valuable intelligence, a former Army translator who worked there claims in a new book scheduled for release Monday.
Former Army Sgt. Erik Saar said the military chose detainees for the mock interrogations who previously had been cooperative and instructed them to repeat what they had told interrogators in earlier sessions, according to an interview with the CBS television program “60 Minutes,” which is slated to air Sunday night.
Kinda makes it hard to know how seriously to take these Congressional visits, doesn't it.
Irrelevant news article: Rumsfeld Nixes Independent Panel on Gitmo.
Pingback: Unpartisan.com Political News and Blog Aggregator
When I was in the Navy (way back when); Congressional visits & Admiral ‘drop-ins’ were considered by the enlisted as a joke. Everyone was warned in advance so the base/ship & yourself could be spiffied up and allthe detrius (human & otherwise) could be hidden away. Everyone on all levels knew it & went along with the program. The higher-ups got to see what they wanted & the officers in charge could hide what they needed to. I don’t think that the military has changed that much over time (if ever).
How many news accounts of the visit referenced the past sham interrogations?
It is easy to fool those who want to be fooled … either way, the cows have been out of the barn too long already.
—–