FR WAR NEWS!WAR News at Home and Abroad You'll Hear Nowhere Else!
All the News the MSM refuses to use!
Or if they do report it, without the anti-War Agenda Spin!
Posted on 04/28/2007 9:38:57 AM PDT by SandRat
FORT HUACHUCA — Media outlets tout horror stories about detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay, a piece of America under the control of the U.S. Navy in communist Cuba.
But the former deputy commander of the terrorist detention center says the tales fall in the fiction category and only have a touch of truth. Hunger strikes happen. But Army Brig. Gen. Edward Leacock said Thursday night that force feeding a detainee through tubes in their nostrils is designed to keep them alive.
The detainees who engage in the non-eating campaigns even tell the people who put in the tubes which nostril to use, he told more than 100 people at a dinner meeting of the Coronado Chapter of the Military Officers Association of America.
A hunger striker who has not taken solid food for more than 500 days “has gained 20 pounds,” Leacock said.
While the subject of his talk was serious, that comment and one of another detainee who has ballooned from about 200 pounds to more than 400 elicited laughter from the audience.
That many of the nearly 400 detainees are doing well physically and eating good — the average caloric intake is 4,200 per person per day — belies the tales of food deprivation, the recently returned deputy commander of Joint Task Force Guantanamo said.
Not a gulag
“It’s not a gulag,” he said.
A gulag is a term that comes from the Soviet systems of prisons of little hope from the Stalinist years. The word has been used by some to describe the series of six camps built to hold enemy combatants, many of whom have connections to al-Qaida or the Taliban.
The detention force of nearly 1,900 people at the Guantanamo facility — mostly military with about 250 civilians, including contractors — is known as JT-GTMO in military jargon.
Leacock said the Geneva Convention is adhered to there, and in some cases the actions with the detainees — they are not called prisoners — exceed the requirements.
The missions of the task force is “the safe and human care and custody of detainees,” with the mission of obtaining intelligence for combat commanders, said the general, who is the assistant adjutant general for the Maryland National Guard.
He, like other soldiers from the Maryland Guard, deployed to Cuba last year and spent 13 months of duty at the detention center.
At one time, nearly 800 detainees were kept at one of the six camps, which are structured from low to maximum security, the general said.
Some detainees have been released to their home nations or another country because arrangements could not be made with their native land or the fear they would be harmed if they returned to a nation of their birth, Leacock said.
No nation in a time of war has released detainees as the United States is doing, he added.
About 80 of the 381 detainees will be released once a nation is found to take them, the general said.
As for allegations Americans torture those in custody, Leacock bristled at the suggestion.
“We don’t torture detainees,” he emphatically said, pointing and shaking his right index as he made his point.
GIs are harassed
On the other hand, the most hardened of those in custody harass the soldiers who are guarding them, he said.
For example, there is the cocktail thrown at Americans, the general said. The cocktails are not pleasant, for they are a mixture of bodily fluids — urine, feces, blood, vomit and spit — thrown on the guards.
His description of the cocktail brought sounds of horror and disgust from the audience.
There are leaders among the detainees, ranging from political to military, and those who are the enforcers, Leacock said.
Leaders and troublemakers are separated from the majority of the detainees, but they’re never put into solitary confinement, the general said. A segregation area has been created that is designed to keep violent people and others who want to do harm away from the general detainee population. While in segregation, the detainees can talk with one another, have time for physical exercise, eat and received medical treatment.
What bothers Leacock is that some media outlets keep referring to Camp X-Ray years after the detention center was created. Camp X-Ray was built years before to keep migrants who failed in their attempts to enter the United States illegally.
That camp, which he admitted was run down, was open for less than a half year while other areas were built.
But as late as last year, an international media outlet did a story about the detention center, implying Camp X-Ray was operating and used a photo of that facility that was at least four years old showing a detainee and American soldiers.
Because of all the media trips and other investigations by American and international groups, the center “is the most transparent detention facility in the world,” the former deputy commander said.
All those who work at the facility ask for is a fair shake in media reporting, the general said. And, surprisingly, that has happened in recent Arabic language media stories.
While Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently said he wants to close the facility, as has President George W. Bush, the question is who would become responsible for the detainees, the general said.
“It’s a policy decision, not a military one,” Leacock said.
Intelligence needed
Some people say there is no longer any intelligence value that can be obtained from the detainees, some of whom have been held for years.
But Leacock said there is always new information that can be obtained, especially when a detainee decides to open up.
Once it is decided a detainee is no longer a threat, which is subjective and could be wrong, action is taken to release that person, Leacock said. One individual who was released went back to the fight, like about 40 others, and he was reportedly killed.
“We take risks when we release detainees,” the general said.
Any intelligence is important, said Leacock, who is an intelligence officer and who has the responsibility of being the deputy commander for reserve affairs at Fort Huachuca’s Intelligence Center as well as his Maryland National Guard job.
Treating some detainees with respect does provide benefits.
“We get more out of them,” Leacock added.
The medical treatment provided them is excellent, and if the medical facility at the detention center needs help, the Navy hospital on the other side of the bay is available and has been used, the general said.
During his tour, three detainees committed suicide in 2006.
Although the investigations into those deaths are still being done, Leacock said he believes they were “political statements” to keep heat on America by alluding to blatantly untrue stories of inhumane treatment.
Detainees well treated
The detainees have access to lawyers, a library where there are books in 13 languages, receive and send mail, have call to prayer five times a day as the Muslim faith dictates and are fed meals based on their religious diets, Leacock said.
“Their favorite book is Harry Potter,” he added.
For the Americans who have to work at the center, the stress is heavy and that is why the military allows for a two-week leave and some rest and recuperation trips, Leacock said.
The center’s senior leaders don’t stay in their offices. Along with senior noncommissioned officers, they are out in the different camps keeping a pulse on those who have the hard jobs of fending off attacks from the detainees and threats that they or their families will be hunted down and killed, the general said.
If there is one thing he would like the American people to realize, it is that “your young men and women are doing a phenomenal job in stressful situations.”
HERALD/REVIEW senior reporter Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615 or by e-mail at bill.hess@svherald.com.
FR WAR NEWS!I have always been of the opinion that force feeding is best done through a rectal catheter - and then, the next day, it could alternate with the nasal one, to provide for the necessary variety. The catheter, of course, should remain the same.
For example, there is the cocktail thrown at Americans, the general said. The cocktails are not pleasant, for they are a mixture of bodily fluids — urine, feces, blood, vomit and spit — thrown on the guards.
No wonder the liberals identify with them.
Purchased from a concession at the Democrat National Convention.
I saw a recreation, supposedly, of the experience of 3 innocent British Muslims picked up by mistake by anti-Taliban Afghanis. These 3 ended up in Gauntanamo and finally got released, but they did not have a pleasant time while in custody.
Long hours in open air “kennels”, and subjection to very loud metal music. Can’t remember any other alleged mistreatment right now.
Treating some detainees with respect does provide benefits.
“We get more out of them,” Leacock added.
Sounds plausible to me.
From this, I have learned to never believe a Demonrat: Never believe a word they say, and I feel much better now.
Artificial nutrition and hydration ping....
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