Posted on 07/24/2003 8:54:02 PM PDT by blam
Most detainees have confessed to terror, says Guantanamo army chief
The general in charge of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay says the terror suspects there are becoming more compliant and offering dozens more prime intelligence tips.
Major General Geoffrey D Miller said the vast majority of the 660 detainees have confessed to some involvement in terrorism.
Many have turned on former friends and colleagues, he said, giving information based on "incentive-based interrogations".
Rewards include more recreation time, extra food rations to keep in their cells, or a move to the medium-security facility.
"We have a large number of detainees who have been very co-operative describing their actions - either terrorist actions or in support of terrorism - more than 75% (of them)," Miller said.
"In February we were able to get 35 high value - the highest value - intelligence (pieces) ... In June we had more than 225."
Some tips led to more arrests, others revealed terrorist recruiting techniques, he said.
But what Miller calls progress, lawyers call a violation of rights. None of the detainees have been charged or allowed lawyers.
US Senator Jeff Bingamon, a Democrat from New Mexico, pushed for Congress to force the Bush administration to be more accountable and reveal its intentions toward the detainees, but the measure failed.
"It's an embarrassment for us to be going ahead with proceedings that go against our own Constitution," Bingamon said. "One of the ways the rest of the world is going to judge us is how we deal with these detainees and what legal process we follow."
Although crimes have been spelled out, no detainees have been charged in the 18 months since the detention mission began - and there are still no sentencing guidelines.
Story filed: 21:28 Thursday 24th July 2003
Are ya'll gonna marry that there al qaeda? Cause we here don't take kindly to folks triflin' with the affections of our al qaedas 'round here.
It is my understanding to the contrary that the Guantanamo incarceration has withstood every constitutional challange.
"One of the ways the rest of the world is going to judge us is how we deal with these detainees and what legal process we follow."
In the long run the rest of the world will judge us not on process but on substantive results. If, as the article suggests, we are gaining important intelligence the results will in time become evident.
Meanwhile, the world will judge that we are resolute in waging this war. I can only image the chilling effect the prospect of spending the rest of one's existence in this kind of incarceration. To the Islamist's mind this must be a terror far worse than martyrdom.
In that sense, I suspect that a lot of the nonsense leftist rhetoric relating to how "brutal" or "inhumane" the Gitmo camp is has caught on with our enemies. So maybe the whining liberals are doing us a favor there. I have little doubt that the captured Fedayeen believe that Gitmo is 100x worse than it really is. So much the better.
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