Guantanamo camp a base of contradictions

[dArKeR]

This quiet outpost hastily turned into a prison for terror suspects looks like a surreal slice of Americana -- families gather at an outdoor movie theater, kids play baseball on tidy fields and pieces of apple pie swirl around dessert carousels to the crackle of The Star-Spangled Banner.

But whispers of espionage have disturbed the peace at this US base where three workers -- a Muslim chaplain and two Arabic translators -- have been charged with crimes ranging from spying to disobeying orders.

It's the latest twist in a tale that began in January last year. Shackled, bearded and fresh from the badlands of Afghanistan, Guantanamo personnel say it was easy to spot potential enemies back then. Now, the task has become harder at the US base in communist Cuba where contrasts abound and few escape the throes of paranoia.

"You think twice about what you do," said army Sergeant Jovani Barber, 24, from the US Virgin Islands, who has been guarding the detainees for about two months. "You watch what you say inside and outside the fence" holding the prisoners.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2003/10/13/2003071513

[slaveplanet]

1. hmmm

I just bet those traitors uncovered some torture or some other dirty deeds....you got to have something pretty juicy to risk doing what they did...

[DulceDecorum]

2. The Nazis

had ovens in their concentration camps.
I wonder what Halliburton is building there......

"You think twice about what you do," said army Sergeant Jovani Barber, 24, from the US Virgin Islands, who has been guarding the detainees for about two months. "You watch what you say inside and outside the fence" holding the prisoners.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2003/10/13/2003071513

Why? In part because of self-censorship. John Ashcroft can relax because people have been listening to their Inner Ashcroft. I know this for a fact because I'm one of them. As a writer and editor, I have been censoring myself and others quite a bit since Sept. 11. By "censoring," I mean deciding not to write or publish things for reasons other than my own judgment of their merits. What reasons? Sometimes it has been a sincere feeling that an ordinarily appropriate remark is inappropriate at this extraordinary moment. Sometimes it is genuine respect for readers who might feel that way even if I don't. But sometimes it is simple cowardice.
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print.php?sid=4746
Well, that is not going to continue.
DulceDecorum has failed to be defined as a coward.
Due to DeLay all the spots were taken up by minority chickenhawks.
http://www.nhgazette.com/cgi-bin/NHGstore.cgi?user_action=list&category=%20NEWS%3B%20Chickenhawks
http://www.nhgazette.com/cgi-bin/NHGstore.cgi
And hemorrhoids.
http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/davismi/rushisadraftdodger.html

We have seen how well the Democrats' surrender approach works for 50 years. We saw it again last week. The United Nations stood shoulder to shoulder with American liberals, France, Germany and Saddam Hussein in opposing war with Iraq. And then last week in Iraq, the little darlings bombed the U.N. embassy in Baghdad. But that's Bush's fault, too. Perhaps Bush is also responsible for J-Lo and Ben Affleck's bomb of a movie. The only people whom liberals absolutely refuse to hold accountable for anything are their friends, the Islamofascists.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/anncoulter/ac20030828.shtml

In a rare public statement, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) condemned the indefinite detentions without charge or access to lawyers and blamed it for "a worrying deterioration" in the prisoners' mental health. Twenty-one detainees have attempted suicide 32 times.
(Death is infinitely preferable to this brand of Yankee hospitality.)
Others questioned the morality of the mission.
"If we don't set an example by treating people honorably, we're in big trouble," said Leslie Jackson, who was captured by the Nazis during World War II and held for 13 months.
Jackson signed one of seven friend-of-the-court briefs filed Thursday by a group of former US judges, diplomats and ex-POWs urging the US Supreme Court to review the appeals of some detainees.
Lower courts have supported the administration's argument that the detainees are aliens held outside US territory and therefore are not entitled to rights granted by the US Constitution.
Human-rights groups have criticized the US refusal to classify the detainees as POWs and reprimanded US officials for holding three teenagers among the detainees the US government classifies as "enemy combatants."
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2003/10/13/2003071513

Gee whiz,
I guess the world is full of liberals and their friends.
What's a McCarthyist to do?
http://www.dailykos.com/archives/003280.html

In his inimitable Stalinist way, Sen. Russell Feingold demanded that no one at the FBI even consider whether racial profiling might have prevented 9/11. Liberals treat racial profiling like the Victorians treated sex. It is not a topic that may be discussed, except to recoil in horror at the practice.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/anncoulter/ac20020620.shtml

Aaah, the race card.
Except now it is called the RELIGION card.
Fellow Democrats and Progressives,
we are witnessing the reBirth of a Nation.


http://www.nhgazette.com/cgi-bin/NHGstore.cgi?user_action=detail&catalogno=NN_Bush_Nazi%20Link

He achieved what no other known man has achieved. To watch his work is like being witness to the beginning of melody, or the first conscious use of the lever or the wheel; the emergence, coordination and first eloquence of language; the birth of an art: and to realize that this is all the work of one man.
http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/greatmovies/birthofanation.html
http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/greatmovies/birthofanation_ii.html

On the other hand, this is not a movie for a DVD party or a date. Taken out of its historical context it is relentlessly offensive, and it was even relentlessly offensive even in its own time. It is a historically important movie that makes me glad that the Internet is starting out as a porn haven instead of starting out with things like this.
http://www.hoboes.com/html/FireBlade/Movies/BirthNation.shtml

The guys in Gitmo will get satisfaction, no matter how hard the worms wriggle.
As will the other victims of
the first holocaust of the 21st Century.

At the end of the bloodiest century in human history, the international community adopted a treaty creating the world's first independent and permanent International Criminal Court. That court is now a reality. The International Criminal Court (ICC) is able to investigate and prosecute those individuals accused of crimes against humanity, genocide, and crimes of war. The ICC complements existing national judicial systems and will step in only if national courts are unwilling or unable to investigate or prosecute such crimes. The ICC will also help defend the rights of those, such as women and children, who have often had little recourse to justice.
At the end of the bloodiest century in human history, the international community adopted a treaty creating the world's first independent and permanent International Criminal Court. That court is now a reality. The International Criminal Court (ICC) is able to investigate and prosecute those individuals accused of crimes against humanity, genocide, and crimes of war. The ICC complements existing national judicial systems and will step in only if national courts are unwilling or unable to investigate or prosecute such crimes. The ICC will also help defend the rights of those, such as women and children, who have often had little recourse to justice.
http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/icc/

"This court was founded on the principle of universal justice, and that principle is under attack from ideologues in the Bush administration," said Richard Dicker, director of the international justice program at Human Rights Watch. "The Security Council was right to rebuff those attacks. We hope that they hold firm in the days to come."
http://www.hrw.org/press/2002/07/icc070302.htm
http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/icc/us.htm
http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/icc/docs/art98analysis.htm

Coming soon to a theatre near you,
The Exorcism of the Coultergeist.