Posted on 02/09/2008 12:24:36 AM PST by Tennessee Nana
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — Seeking to ease conditions for angry and frustrated detainees, the commander of Guantanamo's prison camps has instituted language classes and a literacy program, plans humanities courses and wants to open communal areas for men now held in isolation 22 hours a day.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Army Col. Bruce Vargo said he hopes the changes will lead to fewer attacks on guards by the 275 prisoners suspected of links to Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
"Make no bones about it, these are very dangerous men," Vargo said, citing incidents in which detainees splashed guards with bodily fluids, and head-butted, kicked and bit them. "But at the same time, you have to provide them with some type of out."
The makeover represents a policy reversal on the isolated base, where facilities were hardened to maximum-security and communal living areas were eliminated in 2006 after a guard-detainee clash and the suicides of three detainees.
Attorneys for detainees say the assaults are triggered partly by frustration among men who, more often than not, were captured far from any battlefield and have been locked up for as much as six years with no real chance to confront accusations that they are enemy combatants.
David Remes of Washington, who represents 16 Guantanamo detainees, said the military must improve its treatment of detainees and not simply justify minor changes by saying they are aimed at reducing assaults. He said most detainees are in virtual solitary confinement, reportedly leading to mental problems.
Vargo, who commands the military's Joint Detention Group at Guantanamo, says it is important to give the detainees more to look forward to each day.
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(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Some of the best-behaved detainees now get TV night, with DVDs of movies and TV shows shown on a high-definition Sony TV. A classroom in Camp 4, designated for the most compliant detainees, has metal desks and plastic chairs, although detainees remain shackled by the leg to the floor in class.
Language courses have begun in English, Arabic and Pashto, Vargo said in the interview last week. He intends to soon offer classes on subjects as diverse as oceanography.
"If we can get them to focus on humanities programs, if we can get them to focus on recreation, then their sole focus is not going to be on the guard force," Vargo said. "It is my thought that if they are focused on those things, then the level of assaults and things of that nature will go down."
The only movies these scumbags should ever be allowed to watch should be all the ones of great US troops and special forces slaughtering jihadists, over and over and over again!! Oh, wait, Hollyweird doesn’t like to make any such films???? Well damn, it’s time to make some and show them 24/7 to the Guantanamo scumbags. I’ll settle for Marine Corps recruiting videos, vids of JDAMs hitting terrorist targets, Taliban positions being carpet-bombed in 2001, Saddam hanging from a noose, etc. etc. There are lots of good videos that we COULD show to these scumbags, if only we had the nerve........
Wish the rats in DC were as concerned about our troops as they are about these vermin
Why not bungee jumping without the chord?
Paging John Wayne
Why not
I think technicallly we’re just supposed to keep them detained... out of circulation.
I kinda like this idea. May I offer some video choices for these folks? Ole Yeller, Rocky 1, Red River, True Grit, Cast a Giant Shadow, The Bridge at Remagen, and Paint Your Wagon. I figure if you pipe in a dozen movies a day....we might actually brain-wash them...very easily.
Oh brother. Keep them entertained so they won’t get angry. How about cracking the skulls of those who assault guards?
For the same price of one DVD we could assure at least 100 of the frustrated detainees were cured permanently with a well placed round. Ammo which is readily available and the guards are previously trained to use, avoiding costly shipping, construction and retraining in todays economic downturn where we should be trying to contain costs.
They need to be offered a firing squad and an unmarked grave.
Movies at Gitmo?
How about The Patriot, or the life and times of Jesus?
Its my thought that if the guards could defend themselves, these attacks would be reduced.
I will leave how to run the prison to the COL but I would think there are other less friendly ways to ensure that the prisoners behave. Of course, these days those methods would be atacked.
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