Gitmo: Baklava and Beatings

Last week the US military hosted several journalists at Gitmo for the regular 'look how wonderful this place really is' guided tour, prompting news reports like this giving the facility glowing reviews. It's quite amazing that these news agencies still fall into the propaganda trap of softening up public perception on behalf of the US government. You'd think the pre-Iraq war fiasco a la Judith Miller/WMD shilling would have left them a bit more skeptical. Apparently not.

Today, AP reports on Gitmo guards bragging about beating detainees.

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. - Guards at Guantanamo Bay bragged about beating detainees and described it as common practice, a Marine sergeant said in a sworn statement obtained by The Associated Press.

The two-page statement was sent Wednesday to the Inspector General at the
Department of Defense by a high-ranking Marine Corps defense lawyer.
[...]
A 19-year-old sailor referred to only as Bo "told the other guards and me about him beating different detainees being held in the prison," the statement said.

"One such story Bo told involved him taking a detainee by the head and hitting the detainee's head into the cell door. Bo said that his actions were known by others," the statement said. The sailor said he was never punished.

The statement was provided to the AP on Thursday night by Lt. Col. Colby Vokey. He is the Marine Corps' defense coordinator for the western United States and based at Camp Pendleton.

Other guards "also told their own stories of abuse towards the detainees" that included hitting them, denying them water and "removing privileges for no reason."

"About 5 others in the group admitted hitting detainees" and that included "punching in the face," the affidavit said.

"From the whole conversation, I understood that striking detainees was a common practice," the sergeant wrote. "Everyone in the group laughed at the others stories of beating detainees."

There are more than just 'a few bad apples' in the US military. There's a whole bloody orchard.

And, who are some of these detainees who continue to be abused?

The road to Guantánamo starts in Pakistan.

More than 85 percent of detainees unlawfully held at the US detention centre in Cuba were arrested by the Afghan Northern Alliance and in Pakistan at a time when rewards of up to US$5,000 were paid for every unidentified terror suspect handed over to the USA.

Bounty hunters – including police officers and local people – took advantage of this routine practice that facilitated illegal detention and enforced disappearance, almost unheard in Pakistan before the US-led "war on terror". The Pakistani courts have failed to offer protection.

Hundreds of Pakistani and foreign nationals have been picked up in mass arrests in Pakistan since 2001, many have been “sold” to the USA as ‘terrorists’ simply on the word of their captor, and hundreds have been transferred to Guantánamo Bay, Bagram Airbase or secret detention centres run by the USA.

Some 300 people have since been released from Guantánamo Bay without charge. Many detainees remain unaccounted for, their fate and whereabouts unknown. They are at risk of torture and "rendition".

Victims include terror suspects - men, women and children -, journalists who have reported on the "war on terror" and medical personnel who allegedly treated terror suspects.

Source: Amnesty International

Yet the mainstream media are quite happy reporting about how fat the Gitmo detainees are because they are being so well fed. Rumsfeld must be quite proud of them.