March 23, 2007:
If one thing never seems to go
away, it is the claims of abuse and/or torture at Guantanamo Bay. The latest
claim comes from an Australian detainee captured around the time of the
American Taliban, Johnny Walker Lindh. In this case, the media outlet pushing
the story is the International Herald Tribune, a subsidiary of the New York Times. It is the big lie that never
goes away, having hit everything from newspapers to the floor of the United
States Senate to the TV series "Law and Order: Criminal Intent".
This is just the latest in a number of instances
where torture has been claimed, with no backup to prove it. In 2005, most of
the allegations raised against Guantanamo Bay (some of which were repeated on
the Senate floor) were found to be unfounded or not inhumane. Investigators
found that the protocol used on Mohammed al-Kahtani did not cross the threshold
into inhumane treatment or torture. In at least one other instance, one of the
incidents occurred after an interrogator was spit on by a detainee (the interrogator
proceeded to smear red ink on the detainee). In the three cases where the lines
were crossed (out of numerous allegations), corrective action was taken. In one
case, where a threat was communicated, in violation of the Uniform Code of
Military Justice, the matter was referred for discipline. In the case of
al-Kahtani, the special interrogation plan used extracted valuable intelligence
after he resisted the normal interrogation practices. What is also worth noting
is that al Qaeda manuals instruct members to falsely claim torture if they are
captured.
Some techniques have been used to get information
out of terrorists. Among them have been using variations in temperature (the
room will be very hot or very cold), or playing a lot of music that they do not
care for (the Barney theme has been very useful in this respect). It seems that
human rights groups get the notion that listening to Britney Spears and
Metallica is torture, but doesn't seem to object to terrorists beheading
people.
The other issue the media ignores is what the
detainees have been doing, and what has happened when some have been released.
At least a dozen people, who have been released from Guantanamo Bay, are known
to have returned to fighting against Coalition forces. Another person, Rasul
Kudayev, was released in Russia, then planned a terrorist attack in the
Kabardino-Balkariya region in the Northern Caucasus that killed 45 people.
Another detainee (from Iraq) was part of a planned chemical mortar attack on
the American and British embassies in Pakistan, and traveled to Pakistan with
an Iraqi intelligence agent for purposes of carrying out that attack. Another
detainee killed an U.S. Army medic.
None of this gets mentioned by the mainstream
media. The media has also ignored the attacks on guards at Guantanamo (over 400
attacks occurred in 2006 alone), many of which involved bodily fluids. This
compares to only 42 instances where there was any form of misconduct by the
guards, and some of those came after provocation occurred. Despite this track
record, the media and human rights groups are targeting Guantanamo Bay, once
again showing more concern for terrorists than they do for innocent people or
those who try to stop terrorist attacks from happening. - Harold C. Hutchison
([email protected])