The sexual interrogation tactics by women at Gitmo story is a lie

[RubyCat]

On edit: "sarcasm now off" line now surrounded by parenthesis and not brackets. For some reason, the line doesn't appear when surrounded by brackets.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050128/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/guantanamo_sex_vs_faith

Has anyone seen the above story? As any intelligent Bush supporter can plainly see, inviting hot women to perform free strip shows and lap dances for the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay as an interrogation tactic hardly qualifies as torture. Silly Amnesty International! Silly critics! You call that abuse?! Why, that's more fun than the harmless fraternity initiation pranks at Abu Ghraib! To those of you who throw around charges of torture: I certainly hope you've learned your lesson!

(sarcasm now off)

The above story, courtesy of (mainly) Rumsfeld, is a LIE IN PROGRESS. It's nothing more than spoon-fed talking points to the folks at Fox to counter the very real abuses that has occurred at the US-run prisons. If you ever wanted to know what a real live disinformation campaign looks like, this is it.

[aquart]

1. You KNOW it's a lie? Or you believe or suspect it's a lie?

So far as I'm concerned, the disinformation is coming from you.

[RubyCat]

3. Expect to start hearing arguments from right-wing radio hosts

that having Hooters girls dance in thongs in front of prisoners hardly qualifies as torture whenever the subject of torture arises. This is why it is a disinformation/discrediting campaign.

[alittlelark]

2. uh, yeah....... whatever you say.

got anything to back you up?

[sandnsea]

4. Actually

This information seems to bolster the idea that sexual intimidation was a standard interrogation technique, which would mean the Abu Ghraib soldiers weren't a few "bad apples" at all.

[wtmusic]

5. Yeah, who wouldn't want a supersexy menstrual LAP DANCE?

These are very real abuses to devout Muslims. Take off your TF hat and learn a little bit about other cultures.

[RubyCat]

7. It's late and I'm about to retire for the night, but I would refer you to

stories about 70 year old woman being rode around like a dog at Abu Ghraib, rapes, sodomies, beatings, vicious dogs, deaths, electric shocks and the like. That's torture and it occurred. The stories about women in thongs, on the other hand, is elevated to the forefront in the media just to distract from all it. It could have occurred, but even if you're the most devout Muslim who was subjected to a "menstrual lap dance", consider yourself lucky nothing worse happened.

[DulceDecorum]

8. We like you, we really really like you,

so you get to have the menstrual war paint
and the dominatrix,
all courtesy of the House of Pain.

HOOAH!

[GreenPoet64]

6. IF it is disinformation, then it's going to backfire . . .

this is just too over the top.

I'm writing my senators requesting an investigation in to the hiring of prostitutes. Were these women really working for the government or were they poor local women the government was exploiting?

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[henrik larssonisking]

11. lol

got to be one of the funniest posts ive ever seen on DU

[WritersBlock]

10. It IS torture.

The definition of the word in the Concise Oxford English Dictionary is

1. The action or practice of inflicting severe pain as a punishment or a forcible means of persuasion.

2. great suffering or anxiety.

I doubt that I'm able to comprehend, not being Muslim, the magnitude of the shame and anxiety felt by the men who were subjected to this treatment. This will stay with them for the rest of their lives.

This is torture.

On edit: I do see the original poster's point, and agree that it may be a PR exercise to some extent, put out in lieu of reports of physical torture occurring as well. And we probably will be hearing the downplaying spin by the RW pundits as predicted.

But it's still torture in and of itself, and that's what I was trying to point out in my post.

[jmowreader]

12. This is a beautiful torture technique

We silly parochial Americans, who know little of Islamic culture, don't think this is torture. It's a USO show, man! It's a big party! What red blooded male wouldn't love to see a free strip show? To get a free lap dance? Call it R&R, sir, we're just entertaining our guests!

You do know who started the USO, right? That would be one Prescott Bush of Union Banking Corporation fame.

To the poor Islamic bastards who get to suffer through this, it's as bad as getting zapped in the nuts with an electric charge. But it doesn't show marks and the digital pictures that will appear on the Internet won't look like replays of the Lynndie and Chuck Show, so it's all good.

If we get a congressional majority in 2006, this shit needs to be an exhibit at the impeachment trial.