Posted on 06/25/2005 9:35:57 AM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
American lawmakers on Saturday were touring the U.S. prison for suspected terrorists for the first time since recent harsh condemnation of Guantanamo detainees' treatment and renewed demands that the camp close.
"Guantanamo has become a lightening rod," said Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif.
She was one of 16 members of the House Armed Services Committee who were on a one-day fact-finding trip. Sens Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., were visiting the prison separately.
Lawmakers from both parties fear that the prison at the U.S. Navy base has become an image problem because of claims that U.S. interrogators abuse and torture inmates.
In this photo reviewd by the U.S. military, a guard The chairman of the House committee, Rep. Duncan Hunter, said such criticism amounted to "wild accusations." Hunter, R-Calif., blamed "propagandists" for spreading "rumor and innuendo" to hurt the U.S.
Under increasing attacks over conditions at the prison, the White House and Pentagon have defended almost daily the conditions and treatment of detainees at Guantanamo.
At a recent news conference, President Bush went so far as to invite journalists to see the prison and see that the allegations were false.
Just last week, human rights investigators for the United Nations urged the U.S. to allow them inside to inspect the facility. They cited "persistent and credible" reports of "serious allegations of torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees" as well as arbitrary detentions and violations of rights.
In response, Vice President Dick Cheney told CNN on Thursday that the detainees are well treated, well fed and "living in the tropics."
The prison on the base in eastern Cuba opened in January 2002 to house foreigners believed to be linked to the ousted Taliban in Afghanistan or al-Qaida. U.S. officials hoped to gather intelligence from the detainees after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001.
Bush declared the detainees "enemy combatants," affording them fewer rights than prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions. Some detainees have been held for three years without being charged with any crimes even though the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled they have some rights.
An FBI report last year cited cases of aggressive interrogation techniques and detainee mistreatment.
Condemnation of Guantanamo intensified this spring after Newsweek magazine published - and later retracted - a story that claimed interrogators flushed the Muslim holy book down a toilet.
The Bush administration condemned the report and blamed it for deadly demonstrations in Afghanistan and protests throughout the Middle East. A Pentagon investigation later disclosed five instances of U.S. guards' mishandling the Quran.
Amnesty International then branded Guantanamo "the gulag of our time," compared it with the Soviet work camps where thousands of people perished, and alleged a pattern of mistreatment similar to that at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.
The administration says any proven infractions were isolated.
The debate about Guantanamo's role has taken center stage in Washington.
Presidents Carter and Clinton joined fellow Democrats in saying that it should be shot down. Even some Republicans have questioned whether it should stay open.
White House officials say there are no plans to close the facility because the detainees are too dangerous to release while the fight against terrorism continues.
About 520 prisoners are held at Guantanamo. Already, $110 million has been spent on construction at the base. The prison costs about $95 million a year to operate.
Lawmakers in both parties want Congress to take a stand on the legal rights of detainees. Other lawmakers are pushing for an independent commission to investigate abuse allegations. The White House objects and says the Pentagon already has investigated.
The last lawmaker to visit the prison was Rep. Vito Fossella, R-N.Y., in March. Not including Saturday's trip, 11 senators and 77 representatives have toured the prison.
My congressperson....What an embarrassment.
The fact that Al Jazeera picks up THOSE news stories and uses them to inflame the Muslims, is more than enough proof.
Also -- all those riots, where people got killed, which where the radical Mulsims used the Nesweek phony charges that the US at Gitmo mishandled the Koran.
The Dems keep giving ammunition and legitimizing the terrorist, making it sound, as if they were justified to attack us.
Your liberal "discussion partners" don't want to accept the obvious truth, because it shows them for what they are, what Rove showed them to be, a bunch of terrorist loving, blame America first, America haters.
Imagine that!!!! I looked high; and I looked low; I looked in between everyone; I looked in suitcases; I looked under seats on the plane; I looked in the cock-pit; I looked in the bathrooms; I looked in the galley and I never seen DURBIN!!! Now just where do you suppost the idiot is????
Let me see, wasn't he the one that called Camp GITMO as the German Gulag????
And wasn't he the one that said our Military are Natiz????
Just goes to show you folks, if it smells like an idiot; and it talks like and idiot; and it looks like an idiot then by gosh it must be an IDIOT!!!
Thanks, that's what I kept telling them, but you know how liberals are. Nothing I rebutted them with was good enough.
There comes a point where I run out of information to show them. And still, they deny it.
And if ,in fact, they don't find abuse they will make something up anyway.
No matter what iron clad evidence you would show them, they would still deny it.
But their own actions and words speak for themselves for all, but the most deluded to see whose side they are on: on the side of the terrorists, against the US.
Only because the press has kept it front and center Liz, you media puke.
Even that would have been too good for them.
Big whoop indeed. I say if things get bad, inflict pain. Massive amounts of it.
Debating with them is like talking to a brick wall.They are really hung up about why the WH won't release the information on Bolton.
I had to take a break from their insanity.
"They are really hung up about why the WH won't release the information on Bolton."
That is a big red herring. If the WH would release that, then they would ask for MORE and MORE.
They are obstructing, but don't want to be called obstructionists.
Good comment. I suggest that the Congressional Jackasses visit some mass graves in Iraq, to see the bones of hundreds of thousands of Saddam Hussein's victims. Perhaps they can determine if their rights were violated.
Hi---betcha the dems come back spinning tales just the opposite of what the REPS say about Gitmo!!!
Just heard on Fox that Reid, Hillary, Lautenberg, Schumer, OBAMA, Kennedy have sent a letter to President Bush today, demanding Rove's resignation!!!!! LOL, ROFLMAO---
I think my reaction is the same as the White House's actually!!!! LOL
"What ??? ... Durbin didn't go?"Well... with Durbin's love and support for these service men and women, he is smart NOT to go :)
The following is actually a post I made on another thread, but I think it works well here too:
Feminists because men 'dominate' and women 'relate' or 'link', they decided that hierarchy is a bad thing, so they scraped hierarchy in favor of equality- in other words, everything is equal, there is no such thing as better or worse, good or bad, right or wrong, because they're all equal.
So what does this give us? A hierarchy that says equality is better than hierarchy- basically a hierarchy that denies the existence of hierarchies. This is an operational fallacy. To deny the existence of hierarchies is also to deny the existence of values, since a thing has value in relation to another thing- more valuable or less valuable, which is why self-destructive behaviors such as homo-sexuality, and a lack of education, etc. are seen as equal to hetro-sexuality, a quality education and so on- there's no value distinction.
Hierarchies exist, no amount of denial will change that, but in order to balance the scales, feminists and liberals emphasize the traditionally negative and minimize the traditionally positive.
That, in my opinion, is what it is about socialism that seems to appeal to that "vast swath of women". Now, I believe there is such a thing as 'equal but different', but have you noticed how many publicly prominent women have hair styles that make them appear disturbingly like men? The more we minimize the differences between men and women, the less attractive the one will be to the other.
Before painting everyone with a broad brush, you should have checked to see who was part of this group.
Duncan Hunter (R-CA) led this group and he is totally pro-military. My Congressman Tom Cole (R-OK) is among the group as well. He is honest and supports our military 100%. He has been in and out of Iraq numerous times and came back with glowing reports of how well our military was doing.
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