Club Gitmo

It is characteristic of the military mentality that nonhuman factors (atom bombs, strategic bases, weapons of all sorts, the possession of raw materials, etc) are held essential, while the human being, his desires, and thoughts - in short, the psychological factors - are considered as unimportant and secondary...The individual is degraded...to "human materiel."
--Albert Einstein

This administration, along with fraternal military organizations, portray Gitmo as a Club Med, minus women. Anti-war protesters portray it as a gulag. It would seem there is no middle ground.

The AP recently reported that life will be "harsher" in the new Guantanamo unit. Camp 6--built for $37 million by KBR, a subsidiary of Houston-based Halliburton Co.--houses about 160 men, and "is similar to the highest security U.S. prisons, even though no one at the prison has been convicted."

"The U.S. holds nearly 400 men suspected to be linked to Al Quaida or Taliban." So, being a suspect now lands one in prison for an indeterminate, indefinite, vacation. The view is to die for, if only it weren't obstructed by concrete walls.

A petition in Federal court indicates that "infinite tedium and loneliness," and the "predicted lack of human interaction in Camp 6 will cause detainees to lose their grip on reality." Well, if this is so, then they have a great future ahead working for the administration, or possibly even in U.S. politics. A loose grip on reality seems a fine basis for presidential aspirations.

"It will soon become an insane asylum," the article reports. Sounds like a description of Homeland Security, or the Departments of Defense or State.

Army Colonel Wade Dennis said, "I firmly believe that the detainee population that we have is literally still at war with us." Yes, indeed Col. Dennis, yet they're still denied the honors of war--POW status. And of course, why shouldn't they remain at war, since they are imprisoned against Geneva Convention (GC) strictures and are treated as common criminals?

Under U.S. laws, the Uighers held in Camp 6 can't be deported to China because they would face political persecution. "Uighurs have been accused by China of leading a violent Islamic separatist movement in the western province of Xinjiang, though their supporters say Beijing uses claims of terrorism as an excuse to crack down on peaceful pro-independence sentiment." We don't need Chinese compliance on that one.

The prisoners used to live in barracks and share meals; now, the inmates live in solitary cells, and are allowed two hours per day in a solitary concrete courtyard with high walls, separated from the other inmates.

Navy Rear Admiral Harris said, "that (previous) plan changed after 10 detainees attacked guards." This is reminiscent of grade school group punishment, and is taken right out of the movie, "Bridge On the River Kwai." Reprisals against POW's are also a violation of the GC.

And of course, Rear Admiral Harris will be promoted for his patriotism, manifested in his true and diligent GC violations.

America now rewards War Criminals with Congressionally-approved promotions.