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Guantanamo critics are invited to go see conditions firsthand
SD Tribune ^ | 6/17

Posted on 06/17/2005 11:27:15 AM PDT by ambrose

Guantanamo critics are invited to go see conditions firsthand

By Otto Kreisher

COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

June 17, 2005

WASHINGTON – Two days after Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., likened the U.S. military's conduct at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the brutal practices of the Nazi death camps and Josef Stalin's gulags, the Pentagon spokesman yesterday said such comments "reflect a real ignorance" of conditions at the detention facility for terrorism suspects.

The White House spokesman had an even harsher reaction, calling Durbin's statement on the Senate floor Tuesday "reprehensible."

Pentagon spokesman Larry DiRita did not refer to Durbin by name. "We invite more members to go down to Guantanamo and see what's going on because what's going on down there is not the way it's being described by certain members of Congress," he said.

DiRita said the military would facilitate legislators' visits to Guantanamo to improve their understanding of the detention facility. "Comments that are being made up on Capitol Hill about what's happening at Guantanamo reflect a real ignorance of what's really going on down there," DiRita said.

Durbin press aide Joe Shoemaker said the senator has never visited Guantanamo.

(Excerpt) Read more at signonsandiego.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: durbin; gitmo
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1 posted on 06/17/2005 11:27:21 AM PDT by ambrose
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good idea... just make sure they're given one-way tickets.


2 posted on 06/17/2005 11:27:41 AM PDT by ambrose (.)
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To: ambrose

Does anyone know if red cross has an office at gitmo? I suspect that they do.


3 posted on 06/17/2005 11:28:44 AM PDT by cripplecreek (I zot trolls for fun and profit.)
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To: ambrose

Durbin has never visited Gitmo. Imagine that!


4 posted on 06/17/2005 11:30:24 AM PDT by Sunshine Sister
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To: ambrose

I think someone's bluff has been called. Bush and company are playing poker while the left is playing "Go Fish."


5 posted on 06/17/2005 11:30:29 AM PDT by Honcho
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To: ambrose
We invite more members to go down to Guantanamo and see what's going on because what's going on down there

Good idea - although when I was a freshman in college, the Freshman Dining Hall would always vastly improve the quality of the food on parent's weekend, leading the parents to ask what we were all griping about. So the Dems will probably just claim that the place was gussied up for their visit.

6 posted on 06/17/2005 11:31:29 AM PDT by dirtboy (Drool overflowed my buffer...)
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To: ambrose
I would love them to look at the sleeping quarters of our troops in comparison to the terrorist.

Someone on one of the shows said the other day that OUR troops sleep 6 to a room. A room of equal size sleeps one terrorist.

7 posted on 06/17/2005 11:32:44 AM PDT by mware ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche........ "Nope, you are"-- GOD)
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To: dirtboy

Maybe we can let people like Dickhead Durbin do a private interview while he's there-- you know without any US soldier protection. You think he might be willing to spend a few minutes alone with these "victims"?


8 posted on 06/17/2005 11:35:51 AM PDT by Repealthe17thAmendment (Is this field required?)
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To: dirtboy

We should have an "adopt a terrorist" program... allow one of these liberals to bring a terrorist home for the weekend. Show Mohammed off to all their friends at the Hamptons country club.


9 posted on 06/17/2005 11:38:04 AM PDT by ambrose (.)
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Comment #10 Removed by Moderator

To: Repealthe17thAmendment
You think he might be willing to spend a few minutes alone with these "victims"

Or better yet, let him have a few minutes of 'alone time' with the miltary guards ... you know, the ones he is accusing of being on a equal level to nazi stormtroopers or Hitler himself.

I am sure they would like to sit down and have a little conversation with him.

11 posted on 06/17/2005 11:43:05 AM PDT by softwarecreator (Facts are to liberals as holy water is to vampires)
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To: ambrose
adopt a terrorist"

awwwww ... could anything be cuter than a child getting one in a box on xmas morning.

12 posted on 06/17/2005 11:44:37 AM PDT by softwarecreator (Facts are to liberals as holy water is to vampires)
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To: ambrose

Just make sure that the visitors are not allowed to communicate with the prisoners. The last thing we need is to further enable treason.


13 posted on 06/17/2005 11:45:15 AM PDT by thoughtomator (The U.S. Constitution poses no serious threat to our form of government)
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To: mware

I found this guys Iraq photos a while back. Even in relative comfort in Kuwait they didn't live as good as the animals at gitmo. I won't post the individual photos without his permission. Some photos of the tent he lived in for a while.

http://www.worldisround.com/articles/34040/index.html


14 posted on 06/17/2005 11:47:15 AM PDT by cripplecreek (I zot trolls for fun and profit.)
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To: JanCBurton
There will come a time when people think that Nazis and Gulags were no big deal

That's what I think, they are numbing it so much that pretty soon the Holocaust will be seen as nothing more than 6 million whining jews complaining because they got lousy room service during their all-explenses-paid weekend at the Berlin Hilton.

15 posted on 06/17/2005 11:49:13 AM PDT by softwarecreator (Facts are to liberals as holy water is to vampires)
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To: ambrose
Durbin press aide Joe Shoemaker said the senator has never visited Guantanamo.

He's probably afraid to visit now but if he does keep him.
16 posted on 06/17/2005 11:56:05 AM PDT by jec41 (Screaming Eagle)
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To: dirtboy
. So the Dems will probably just claim that the place was gussied up for their visit.

The marines are the same. Send one congressman everyday, they won't care.
17 posted on 06/17/2005 11:58:48 AM PDT by jec41 (Screaming Eagle)
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To: ambrose

We should have an "adopt a terrorist" program...

You are too late with your suggestion. the liberals have been adopting terrorists for years.


18 posted on 06/17/2005 12:05:11 PM PDT by jec41 (Screaming Eagle)
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To: ambrose

http://redleg07.blogspot.com/2005/06/charle-daniels-on-gitmo.html


Charle Daniels on GITMO

Once again Charlie Daniels speaks his feelings and once again he is right on the money.
Charlie needs to be writing for a major news magazine. This has been out for a while but it needs to be repeated, again and again until the truth is heard.

The Straight Scoop from Charlie Daniels

I've just returned from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba Naval Air Station base where we did three shows for the troops and toured several locations around the post visiting with some of the finest military personnel on planet earth. The kids seemed to really enjoy the shows and especially liked "This Ain't No Rag, It's A Flag" and "In America".

We had a great time with them. We saw Camp X-Ray, where the Taliban detainees are being held only from a distance, but I picked up a lot of what's going on there from talking with a lot of different people.

The truth of the matter is that this operation is under a microscope. The Red Cross has an on site presence there and watches everything that goes on very closely. The media is not telling you the whole truth about what's going on over there. The truth is that these scum bags are not only being treated humanely, but they are probably better off healthwise and medically than they've ever been in their lives. They are fed well, able to take showers and receive state of the art medical care. And have their own Moslem chaplain. I saw several of them in a field hospital ward where they were being treated in a state of the art medical facility.

Now let's talk about the way they treat our people. First of all, they have to be watched constantly. These people are committed and wanton murderers who are willing to die just to kill someone else. One of the doctors told me that when they had Taliban in the hospital the staff had to really be careful with needles, pens and anything else which could possibly be used as a weapon. They also throw their excrement and urine on the troops who are guarding them. And our guys and gals have shown great restraint in not retaliating.

We are spending over a million dollars a day maintaining and guarding these nasty killers and anyone who wants to see them brought to the U.S.A. for trial is either out of their heads or a lawyer looking for money and notoriety. Or both. I wish that the media and the Red Cross and all the rest of the people who are so worried about these criminals would realize that this is not a troop of errant Boy Scouts. These are killers of the worst kind. They don't need protection from us, we need protection from them. If you don't get anything else out of this soapbox, please try to realize that when you see news coverage much of the time you're not getting the whole story, but an account filtered through a liberal mindset with an agenda.

We have two fights on our hands, the war against terror and the one against the loudmouthed lawyers and left wing media who would sap the strength from the American public by making us believe that we're losing the war or doing something wrong in fighting it. Remember these are the same people who told us that Saddam Hussein's Republican guard was going to be an all but invincible enemy and that our smart bombs and other weapons were not really as good as the military said that they were. They also took up for Bill Clinton while he was cavorting around the Oval office with Monica Lewinsky while the terrorists were gaining strength and bombing our Embassies and dragging the bodies of dead American heroes around the dusty streets of Somalia.

It's a shame that we can't have an unbiased media who would just report the truth and let us make up our own minds. Here I must commend Fox News for presenting both sides much better than the other networks. They are leaving the other cable networks in the dust. People like being told the truth. Our military not only needs but deserves our support. Let's give it to them. The next time you read a media account about the bad treatment of the Taliban in Cuba, remember what I told you. Been there done that.

Footnote: I got an e-mail from a rather irate first cousin of mine the other day who has a daughter who's a lawyer and she seemed to think that I was painting all lawyers with the same brush. Please understand that I'm not doing that at all. That would be like saying that all musicians were drug addicts. There are a lot of good and honest attorneys out there. I happen to have one of them. But it seems that they never get any airtime. It's always the radicals who get their opinions heard, who fight the idea of the military tribunals and cite The Constitution and the integrity of America as their source of jus tifying their opinions. Well, first of all The Constitution says "We the people of the United States", it doesn't mention any other country. And secondly as far as integrity is concerned, I don't think some of these folks would know integrity if it bit them in the posterior. What do you think? God Bless America.

Charlie Daniels P.S. send this to everyone you can...the truth needs to be told.


19 posted on 06/17/2005 12:11:08 PM PDT by Thumbellina (As I recall, Kerry referred to terrorism as "overrated".)
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To: ambrose

Rumsfeld Promises Durbin Better Treatment at Gitmo
by Scott Ott

(2006-06-16) -- Just a day after Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin compared U.S. personnel at the military detention facility at Guantanamo to those who worked in Nazi concentration camps, Soviet gulags and in Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld promised the Illinois Senator that he would receive better treatment during his own Gitmo captivity.

"The unspeakable cruelties that Sen. Durbin decried on the Senate floor must stop before his own detention on treason charges," said Mr. Rumsfeld. "After all, Dick Durbin is an American citizen, not an ordinary enemy combatant bent on destroying this nation and increasing the danger to our troops by inflaming the passions of the Muslim world."

A spokesman said Sen. Durbin is still a free man and a patriot, and he has drafted legislation renaming a favorite Gitmo menu item to reflect his solidarity with the oppressed Muslim inmates.

Under the measure, the dish made of ground, spiced and fried chick peas would be called: "Freedom Falafel."


20 posted on 06/17/2005 1:17:51 PM PDT by Thumbellina (As I recall, Kerry referred to terrorism as "overrated".)
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