Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, home of unimaginable torture and unspeakable travesties against fellow human beings. Isn't that what we have been continuously told by the media and the left? If it is as bad as we have been led to believe, can someone explain this article?
Actually the explanation is easy. If you had three hots and a cot, unlimited access to the internet, special meals and holidays, schooling, outdoor activities including soccer, read Harry Potter in your native language, pick out your favorite sport shoe for playing soccer, watch DVD movies and visit the computer lab, would you want to leave? This sounds like the best summer camp ever, sign me up!
Oh wait, I am not an "enemy combatant" and so cannot take advantage of all this cool stuff. Amazing, as an American I must survive on my own skills and wits, yet if I am caught shooting at a soldier while shouting Allahu Akbar I get all those things for free. Seems a little upside down and more than a bit dangerous.
From CNSNews.com June 30 by Katie Bell, Andrew Herzog and Pete Winn
Former Army Prosecutor: Some Prisoners ‘Asked to Stay in Gitmo’ Rather than Go Home
(CNSNews.com) - Former Army Gitmo prosecutor Kyndra Rotunda told CNSNews.com that some prisoners at Guantanamo Bay have asked to stay there in U.S. custody rather than be released to return to their home countries.
“Interestingly, some detainees were offered release, and asked to stay in Gitmo. They prefer captivity in Gitmo to freedom in their own countries!” Rotunda told CNSNews.com by e-mail.
Far from being tortured, as some protestors outside the White House alleged last week, Rotunda said prisoners at Gitmo are allowed to take classes (with some even receiving “home-schooling”), can read Harry Potter books in Arabic and are given their choice of athletic shoes for playing sports.
What’s more, the Defense Department has even flown in special fruits and nuts for detainees to observe Ramadan, Rotunda said, although the detainees’ request for a goat to be sacrificed was declined--in deference to PETA.
Yeah, don't want to anger PETA.
“Most Gitmo detainees live in group housing with open bays and about 10 people to a bay,” she said.
“They are outside of their housing bays for up to 12 hours a day. During that time, they can take classes, visit the library--which has over 5,000 titles, including the Harry Potter series translated into Arabic, which are very popular--exercise, check out movies or games, play sports--detainees can chose from a selection of athletic shoes--or even visit the computer lab.”
Rotunda, who served as a prosecutor in the Army Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) office while stationed at Gitmo, is now a civilian who teaches military and international law at Chapman University Law School in Southern California and lectures at the University California at Berkeley.
The author of “Honor Bound: Inside the Guantanamo Trials,” a book about her experiences at Gitmo, Rotunda said she recently learned about one detainee who asked, through his lawyer, “for an academic course offering that was more closely tailored to his educational interests and needs.”
“The Pentagon responded affirmatively and assigned lawyers to 'home-school' this detainee,” she said. “These lawyers regularly travel from Washington, D.C., to Guantanamo Bay to tutor the detainee--carefully following a curriculum that was agreed upon by the Pentagon and the detainee’s lawyer.”
Rotunda said that while most detainees live in open bays and “enjoy a lot of flexibility and freedom of movement,” a small handful of detainees (including those awaiting trial), live in a brick and mortar prison, which, she said, is modeled after a prison in Indiana.
“They have fewer freedoms and privileges, but the conditions meet U.S. standards,”
(.)Additionally, each detainee then receives an annual hearing--called an Annual Review Board--which is essentially a yearly parole board,” she said.
“The U.S. has released hundreds of detainees through the ARB Process,” she said. “About 25 percent of the released detainees return to the battlefield to fight against U.S. forces.
“Releasing enemy combatants back to the battlefield during a time of war is unprecedented and extremely dangerous," Rotunda said. "Some claim that the U.S. it allreleases too few detainees--I think it releases too many.”
Read it all
Actually the explanation is easy. If you had three hots and a cot, unlimited access to the internet, special meals and holidays, schooling, outdoor activities including soccer, read Harry Potter in your native language, pick out your favorite sport shoe for playing soccer, watch DVD movies and visit the computer lab, would you want to leave? This sounds like the best summer camp ever, sign me up!
Oh wait, I am not an "enemy combatant" and so cannot take advantage of all this cool stuff. Amazing, as an American I must survive on my own skills and wits, yet if I am caught shooting at a soldier while shouting Allahu Akbar I get all those things for free. Seems a little upside down and more than a bit dangerous.
From CNSNews.com June 30 by Katie Bell, Andrew Herzog and Pete Winn
Former Army Prosecutor: Some Prisoners ‘Asked to Stay in Gitmo’ Rather than Go Home
(CNSNews.com) - Former Army Gitmo prosecutor Kyndra Rotunda told CNSNews.com that some prisoners at Guantanamo Bay have asked to stay there in U.S. custody rather than be released to return to their home countries.
“Interestingly, some detainees were offered release, and asked to stay in Gitmo. They prefer captivity in Gitmo to freedom in their own countries!” Rotunda told CNSNews.com by e-mail.
Far from being tortured, as some protestors outside the White House alleged last week, Rotunda said prisoners at Gitmo are allowed to take classes (with some even receiving “home-schooling”), can read Harry Potter books in Arabic and are given their choice of athletic shoes for playing sports.
What’s more, the Defense Department has even flown in special fruits and nuts for detainees to observe Ramadan, Rotunda said, although the detainees’ request for a goat to be sacrificed was declined--in deference to PETA.
Yeah, don't want to anger PETA.
“Most Gitmo detainees live in group housing with open bays and about 10 people to a bay,” she said.
“They are outside of their housing bays for up to 12 hours a day. During that time, they can take classes, visit the library--which has over 5,000 titles, including the Harry Potter series translated into Arabic, which are very popular--exercise, check out movies or games, play sports--detainees can chose from a selection of athletic shoes--or even visit the computer lab.”
Rotunda, who served as a prosecutor in the Army Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) office while stationed at Gitmo, is now a civilian who teaches military and international law at Chapman University Law School in Southern California and lectures at the University California at Berkeley.
The author of “Honor Bound: Inside the Guantanamo Trials,” a book about her experiences at Gitmo, Rotunda said she recently learned about one detainee who asked, through his lawyer, “for an academic course offering that was more closely tailored to his educational interests and needs.”
“The Pentagon responded affirmatively and assigned lawyers to 'home-school' this detainee,” she said. “These lawyers regularly travel from Washington, D.C., to Guantanamo Bay to tutor the detainee--carefully following a curriculum that was agreed upon by the Pentagon and the detainee’s lawyer.”
Rotunda said that while most detainees live in open bays and “enjoy a lot of flexibility and freedom of movement,” a small handful of detainees (including those awaiting trial), live in a brick and mortar prison, which, she said, is modeled after a prison in Indiana.
“They have fewer freedoms and privileges, but the conditions meet U.S. standards,”
(.)Additionally, each detainee then receives an annual hearing--called an Annual Review Board--which is essentially a yearly parole board,” she said.
“The U.S. has released hundreds of detainees through the ARB Process,” she said. “About 25 percent of the released detainees return to the battlefield to fight against U.S. forces.
“Releasing enemy combatants back to the battlefield during a time of war is unprecedented and extremely dangerous," Rotunda said. "Some claim that the U.S. it allreleases too few detainees--I think it releases too many.”
Read it all
No comments:
Post a Comment