Military Chaplain at Gitmo: Seek Truth (Contradicts Media)

UCMPage ^ | Chap. Kent Svendsen

[xzins]

FROM: Reverend Kent L. Svendsen, Ordained Elder, United Methodist Church / Northern Illinois Conference

Dear Women's Division,
General Board of Global Ministries
United Methodist Church

I understand that you are about to start a campaign relating to, among other things, human rights protections and the detainees held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

I can speak with some authority on the subject since I served as the chaplain to the Joint Detention Operation Group in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from May 2004 until March 2005. As a United Methodist I have a keen sense of world justice and while serving in Cuba sought to be faithful to our social principles and their concern for social holiness. So I am not speaking to you as a military chaplain but as an Ordained United Methodist.

I have a great concern for our news media sources today. There was a day when the truth and protecting our nation from harm took precedence over being the first to break a story. Now it seems that accusations, no matter how harmful, no matter the source, no matter the possible consequences, are enough to use them as weapons upon the innocent as well as the guilty.

I am also grieved that there seems to be not only an automatic assumption of guilt when the accusations are aimed at our military and our government, but that any explanation aimed at proving them innocent is also automatically viewed as a "cover up". And that when those who are guilty of violations are uncovered, prosecuted, and punished there is a tendency by some to want to use that as evidence that the violations were policy instead a violation of the standing orders and policy. What the news media and groups like the Women's Division need to understand is that accusations cause harm and create damage that a retraction and an admission of error later cannot repair. (I don't think we will ever really know exactly how many died after Newsweek made the false accusation of a Koran being flushed down a toilet.)

There are those who would use accusations such as those recently made against our military as weapons to gain political power. They count on the fact that people will believe something if its said enough times and said by people and organizations they respect. It was the case in the past that our nation's opponents tried to prevent our culture and news sources from reaching their people. After all, the ideas of freedom, democracy, and equality for all doesn't play well in some parts of the world. So since modern technology cannot be stopped and "world news" is now also news to the world there is now a new strategy. They use it to their advantage as a weapon against our nation.

The accusations are flying fast and furious. If your organization would be interested in knowing about my experience. (I cannot talk about the day to day activities in the camp but I can either verify or deny many of the accusations that are being made.) Here's a list that might help you if you're willing to listen to an Ordained Elder who knows the facts rather than accusations made based on speculation. I'll respond here specifically to some of the ones I've heard.

1. The detainees have direct access to the International Red Cross representatives contrary to the accusations that they have no outside contact. Also, all the detainees are allowed to write and receive mail from family.

2. The detainees have their food prepared according to Islamic guidelines. The call to prayer is broadcast for them to go to prayer. Each detainee has the direction to Meccah painted in their cell. They are allowed to practice their religion without interference and are given the religious items they need to do so. They are allowed to observe Ramadan.

3. There are strict guidelines and training concerning human rights protections. If a service member sees a violation they are to report it and if asked to violate someone's human rights they are to consider it as an unlawful order. Those who violate are subject to prosecution.

If you are interested in more information please contact me. There is also an article about my work in Cuba which was published in the July issue of Esquire magazine.

Kent Svendsen
Chaplain (Major) USAR

[xzins]

Excerpt of Esquire Magazine article: The Gospel of Gitmo By Tom Junod | Jul 01 '05

KENT SVENDSEN ARRIVED IN Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, on May 11, 2004, as chaplain for the military-police battalion that was deployed at the same time. He left ten months later, in late March 2005. In that time, no one—that is, none of the approximately 520 men who have been designated enemy combatants by the United States and imprisoned in Guantánamo for nearly four years—was killed. Chaplain Svendsen does not believe that any of the men were tortured, either, because he talked to the guards every day, and they told him that nothing but the proper procedures were being followed. He trusted the guards, and the guards trusted him.

Chaplain Svendsen did not want to go to Guantánamo. Just a few years earlier, in 2000, he'd had to go to Ukraine to serve as a chaplain with a peacekeeping force. Now he was over fifty and had a bad back and wanted to stay home. "I did everything I could to get out of it," he says. "You know in the Acts of the Apostles when the Lord says to Paul, 'Paul, it's hard to kick against the pricks!' Well, that was me. I kicked against the pricks. Now I believe ......

[xzins]

Ping

[Just A Nobody]

I have a great concern for our news media sources today. There was a day when the truth and protecting our nation from harm took precedence over being the first to break a story. Now it seems that accusations, no matter how harmful, no matter the source, no matter the possible consequences, are enough to use them as weapons upon the innocent as well as the guilty.

I would like to see Chaplain Svendsen on every news program there is, shouting from the rooftops, above the front page folds of all the major rags in the print media.

[xzins]

A Chaplain on the ground in the area of concern is an excellent set of eyes and ears for telling the truth.

I agree with you....his comments should be broadcast widely.

[PeterPrinciple]

A Chaplain on the ground in the area of concern is an excellent set of eyes and ears for telling the truth.


I agree but we all know what the old media and liberals think about those religious folk.

[xzins]

They don't like religious folk...I agree with that.

However, the topic is largely about the treatment of "religious terrorists" at Gitmo, and this is a chaplain, a religious guy, who saw the situation daily for nearly a year.

He is also from an otherwise "liberal" denomination, and it's the president's denomination, and Hillary's denomination. (Isn't it even from Hillary's home region...N. Illinois...??)

[Mind-numbed Robot]

I would like to see Chaplain Svendsen on every news program there is, shouting from the rooftops, above the front page folds of all the major rags in the print media.

He is probably not getting a lot of invitations. The media don't seem to want to hear that side of the story. They are having too much fun trying to recapture their glory years of the '60s and '70s when they caused the U.S. to lose the war against the Communists in Vietnam. Those were heady days and they want them back.

The fact that those days of glory were all a pack of lies only inspires them more. That is why they are repeating the practice.

[CyberAnt]

I hope you're not holding your breath waiting for that to happen ..?? While some .. FOX or the WashTimes or the NYP may get around to interviewing him .. I don't expect the left will expose this source of truth.

[Just A Nobody]

Whoops ... guess I should have included a sarcasm tag. Sheesh, step away for a couple of hours and look what happens. LOL

Those were heady days and they want them back.

I am fully aware of this. I am a survivor of that era. I fully recognize the danger of what they are doing. I was married to one of our Marines that actually WAS in Viet Nam on Christmas Eve, 1968. I am painfully aware of the damage Damn Blather and his ilk created then, and are attempting to recreate today.

The media, whether you call them old, mainstream, lame stream or irrelevant, as I do, will not report this. If Fox does, as Cyberant suggests, they will just have some cult leader claiming to be a {Reverend} referring to Chaplain Svendsen as some right wing Christian nut trying to turn the country into a theocracy. He, of course, will be granted more mouth time, while Fox claims "fair and balanced" reporting. With the exception of Cavuto, Gibson and Brit, FNC has become worthless, IMHO.

[Just A Nobody]

Oh ... my point was, it is up to the internet to keep this story alive and promote this Chaplain's eye witness accounts.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Thanks to Nixon
the lies of Hanoi Kerry and Hanoi Jane
are being told again.
And our military are being slandered in Gitmo, Iraq and Afghanistan

Hanoi Kerry and War Crimes in Vietnam

Hanoi Kerry went before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in 1971
to accuse the United States military
of committing massive numbers of war crimes in Vietnam.

Too bad that because Nixon failed to uphold the law,
we are still stuck with Hanoi Jane and Hanoi Kerry.
If Nixon hadn't caved into the minority anti-war crowd
and listened to the Silent Majority
Hanoi Jane AND Hanoi Kerry
would have been prosecuted for their treason in the 70's,
while Nixon was still President.

Keep in mind that Nixon was directly involved in Viet Nam,
as Vice President, going back to at least 1955.

26 Sep 1945 - The first death of an American serviceman in Vietnam occurred.
OSS (Office of Special Operations) Major (Lieutenant Colonel) A. Peter Dewey
was killed in action by the Communist Vietminh near Hanoi.
May 1950 President Harry S Truman authorised $10 million in aid to the French for their war in Viet Nam.
By January 1951, $150 million had been given in aid.
1953-61 Dwight D. Eisenhower 34th US President
1953-61 Richard M. Nixon Vice President
1953 - The US is supporting the French in the amount of $1 billion per year--
33% of all US foreign aid--which is 80% of the total cost to the
. US Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles (under Eisenhower) first voices the 'Domino Theory':
if one country in Southeast Asia falls to the Communists, they will all fall, one by one.

12 Feb 55 - President Eisenhower's administration sends 1st 350 U.S. advisers to South Vietnam
to train the South Vietnamese Army

8 Jun 56 - The first American of record to die in Vietnam
was Air Force Tech Sergeant Richard B. Fitzgibbon Jr.
His son, Richard B. Fitzgibbon III, died in Vietnam Sep 7, 1965.
8 Jun 56 Has been formally recognized by the Pentagon as the first American officially to die in that war.

5 Sep 56 - President Eisenhower tells a news conference that the French are
"involved in a hopelessly losing war in Indochina" 1956 The US believed in that Ho Chi Minh would have won any election held in Viet Nam and used their influence over the government of the State of Viet Nam to ensure that the election was not held



From a Must Visit Site
Vipers Vietnam Veterans Page, A Vietnam Veteran & Proud Web Site
About Vietnam

The Vietnam war was the longest in our nation's history.
1st American advisor was killed on June 08, 1956,
and the last casualties in connection with the war occurred on May 15, 1975, during the Mayaquez incident. Approximately 2.7 million Americans served in the war zone; 300,000 were wounded and approximately 75,000 permanently disabled. Officially there are still 1,991 Americans unaccounted for from SE Asia.

Vietnam was a savage, in your face war where death could and did strike from anywhere with absolutely no warning. The brave young men and women who fought that war paid an awful price of blood, pain and suffering. As it is said: "ALL GAVE SOME ... SOME GAVE ALL"
The Vietnam war was not lost on the battlefield. No American force in ANY other conflict fought with more determination or sheer courage than the Vietnam Veteran.  For the first time in our history America sent it's young men and women into a war run by inept politicians who had no grasp of military strategies and no moral will to win. They were led by "top brass" who were concerned mainly with furthering their own careers, most neither understood the nature of the war nor had a clue about the impossible mission with which they'd tasked their soldiers.  And the war was reported by a self serving Media who penned stories filled with inaccuracies, deliberate omissions, biased presentations and blatant distorted interpretations because they were more interested in a story than the truth! It can be debated that we should never have fought that war. It can also be argued that the young Americans who fought so courageously, never losing a single major battle, helped in a huge way to WIN THE COLD WAR.

[luvie]

Thanks for the (((ping)))! Glad to see some folks are coming out of hiding and are willing to tell the truth about Gitmo and other things! They need to be loud so no one can ignore the truth!

You keep their feet to the fire, Tonkin! We must never forget what these traitors did back then and are trying to do again!

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!!

[SlowBoat407]

I still have a problem with people who have used their religion as a basis for terrorism, war and brutality being enabled to continue practicing that religion. If I understand correctly (and this is in now way meant to be a parallel, just an illustration), our POWs in Vietnam were not given any encouragement to practice Christianity, but somehow managed to keep praying and drawing strength from their faith.

The consideration these prisoners are getting is more than they deserve.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you for the ping!

[La Enchiladita]

Thanks for the ping. I do not like to see anyone in our country on the defensive about how we have conducted operations at Guantanamo. The SOP is mind-boggling in its "sensitivity" and compliance with all known human rights codes. Our leaders need to be strong and vocal in standing up for our boots on the ground. And, when are we going to call a halt to the political correctness that is seeping into the military?

Thank you for your service and your continued patriotism.

[La Enchiladita]

ping

[Interesting Times]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting this one.

Somehow I doubt that the Women's Division of the General Board of Global Ministries of the UMC will be calling Chaplain Svendsen any time soon.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

I am glad you came back after a couple of hours. Good post.

[xzins]

I, too, am a UM ordained elder, and I agree with you that the Women's Div won't give Svendsen's letter a lot of time....unless it gets wide distribution.

That's what FR might provide.

Who knows Hannity or some other media type might find Svendsen's observations interesting. As opposed to everyone else, at least Svendsen can speak from 1st hand experience.