Well, this is encouraging.
After the awful Abu Ghraib fiasco there has been a worry in some quarters that a similar scandal might erupt concerning the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. (Remember all the hullabaloo over the Taliban and al-Qa’eda prisoners being taken there–gasp!–in shackles? Murderers and terrorists in shackles? The horror!) The scandal, if it were to happen, also might emerge in the press suspiciously close to this year’s presidential election. An “October surprise,” as it were.
Well, the folks at Gitmo apparently decided to get out ahead of that possibility and invited a group of AP reporters in to tour the facility.
The story is a relief. Nothing horrifically scandalous emerged from their visit. In fact, it was quite reassurring.
That’s not to say that those would might want to see a scandal couldn’t concoct one–nor is it to say that there may be things about conditions at Guantanamo Bay that haven’t yet come to light–but taking the story for what it is, it’s a relief. Unless something changes, the U.S. won’t have to endure an Abu Ghraib-like scandal coming from that facility.
Well, I don’t think there’s anything concocted about this:
“The news comes as the U.S. military admitted for the first time that it had punished soldiers who assaulted prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, and revealed that it had received a critical report from the International Committee of the Red Cross about the running of the camp there.
Eight soldiers had been punished by being reduced in rank or given less serious administrative punishment for offences ranging from humiliating detainees to physical assault, Admiral Albert T. “Tom” Church, the Naval Inspector General told reporters at the pentagon this week, according to a transcript released Friday.
“The directions to the Secretary of Defense with respect to humane treatment of detainees and the interrogation techniques were being carried out as best we could determine,” Church said.”
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20040514-032737-7739r
One can wholeheartedly support the efforts of our armed forces without budging an inch on the
unacceptability of humiliation, abuse, and sometimes, torture of those held by those forces.