Gitmo detainees serve time by playing games, talking to family on Skype, taking class

[steve_rightwing_christian]

By: Mark Levine of Fox News Channel on July 13, 2010- text not in quotes is commentary by me

“President Obama has not fulfilled his pledge to close the detainee prison at Guantanamo Bay, but he has brought Skype, Playstation3 and ‘life skills’ classes to the detainees at the island facility.” President Obama did not fulfill a pledge. Noooo, surely this cannot be true. (Chants “Fox News bias” in a mocking voice) Skype, Playstation 3, and life skills? Guantanamo Bay has turned into an internet café, arcade, and a school. Is this the dreaded prison supposedly giving America a black eye around the world?

“While the 181 men being held in the prison wait to learn their fates after the administration fell through on its January 2010 deadline to move them out, 90 percent now live in a communal environment that includes Skype, the online video chat service, and access to a 17,000-book library. That's up from 40 percent of detainees a year ago.” Ninety percent of these people are taking a glorified from vacation from jihad. It sounds like Rush Limbaugh was right when he called this place “Club Gitmo: Your tropical retreat from the stress of jihad.”

“The ‘Twilight’ series, a hit among so-called ‘tweens,’ is also popular with detainees, the camp's ‘librarian’ said.” Twilight… (Puke)…Guantanamo has a librarian? What a job that has to be.

“Only ‘highly compliant’ detainees can be a part of ‘communal living,’ which locks detainees in their cells for four hours a day and means they are ‘afforded more liberties’ and ‘more freedom of movement,’ said Lt. Col. Andrew McManus, who oversees operations for the detention camps at Guantanamo Bay, as Fox News tagged along for a tour of the facilities there.” Four hours a day in your cell if you are a compliant terrorist is the most ridiculous thing I have heard…well today considering that I keep up with the Obama people daily and ridiculous things are common place with them.

“At Camp 6, a minimum security facility within sight of bright Caribbean waters, detainees can now watch flatscreen TVs suspended from above (and encased in protective plastic) or attend classes on personal finance -- all while their feet are chained to the floor. At first, detainees were offered four channels via satellite television, but now detainees can choose from among 18 channels, including Al Jazeera English, a sports channel, and broadcasts focusing on Tunisia, Libya or Kuwait, according to McManus, who said ‘nature shows are very popular.’ Introduction of television is the number one thing we've changed [in the year] since I've been here,’ McManus said.” Well at least they have their priorities straight. Need I remind anyone that these are TERRORISTS! This is not little Johnny, the poor kid down the road who fell in with the wrong crowd and a made a stupid decision without thinking through the consequences. These are terrorists with a committed lifetime agenda of destroying America and our way of life in order to promote, among other things, a global Islamic caliphate.

“Detainees were very interested in watching the World Cup, but Guantanamo Bay is ‘in a bad satellite area’ so ‘we had a little problem,’ he said.” Oh no. How sad. My heart bleeds for their plight.

“To resolve the issue, detention facility officials began recording World Games and playing them the next morning. As a result, detainees began playing soccer more frequently, and the hospital at the Guantanamo Bay camps increasingly saw more injuries related to the game, one hospital official said.” So now only is this a school, but the kids get recess. Are these officials in charge or are they butlers at the disposal of the prisoners?

“With a landscape dominated by concrete and steel, Camp 6 mirrors U.S. prisons featured in ‘prison life’ documentaries on cable TV. Detainees are able to enroll in classes, including English classes and the new ‘life skills’ class, which begins with ‘basic building blocks of personal finance’ and then moves into ‘business finance’ and other ‘vocational’ subjects, said McManus, calling the skills class ‘probably the biggest recent change.’ At Camp 4, another minimum security facility, detainees live among barbed-wire fences and can play games on a Playstation3 console or enjoy a game of foosball, just feet away from a copy of President Obama's executive order, signed two days after taking office, to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camps by the end of January 2010.” Actually, that last part about them playing games next to the order Obama signed to close the place is funny I have to admit. It is symbolic of the Obama Administration.

“McManus said detainees get a ‘sense of hope’ from the U.S. government press releases often posted on boards inside the camps, announcing the transfer of detainees to their home countries.” Ah yes, that should be foremost in the minds of all Americans. How can we give hope to our enemies? I am so glad there are people running all this that are in touch with the real needs of the country. We can all sleep better at night now.

“’I think a lot of them are realizing they're going to get released,’ McManus said. ‘They know some of their brothers are leaving, so they see hope because of that.’ It's unclear whether detainees such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the other alleged Sept. 11 conspirators are allowed to use Skype, the most popular form of communication. Access to Skype began within the past year, but detainees can use it for only one hour every three months, according to McManus. Detainees who do not wish to use Skype are allowed one phone call every three months. ‘It allows them to see their family members,’ McManus said. ‘They can have their whole family -- they can have a dozen family members -- in that screen right now.’” How heart-warming.

“But, McManus said, the Skype sessions are monitored ‘so they won't give away force protection information. Obviously we don't want them to say, “I'm here at this camp. There's this many people here, and this is where the guards are,”’ he said. President Obama is now six months past his self-imposed deadline, and Guantanamo Bay is not expected to close anytime soon, but detainees' moods are "a little bit better" thanks to the changes brought under the Obama administration, according to McManus, the deputy commander for the Joint Detention Group.
In fact, he said, the new changes have made the detention camps more ‘quiet.’ And with a better environment for detainees comes a better environment for the guards overseeing them.” I am glad that the guards are apparently safer because of these changes, but the fact remains that this is supposed to be a prison, not a resort.

 

[DeathMagus]

Depends. Have they been found guilty yet?

 

[green wolverine]

Here's another take on Gitmo from the Times Online:

George W. Bush 'knew Guantánamo prisoners were innocent'

Tim Reid, Washinton

George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld covered up that hundreds of innocent men were sent to the Guantánamo Bay prison camp because they feared that releasing them would harm the push for war in Iraq and the broader War on Terror, according to a new document obtained by The Times.

The accusations were made by Lawrence Wilkerson, a top aide to Colin Powell, the former Republican Secretary of State, in a signed declaration to support a lawsuit filed by a Guantánamo detainee. It is the first time that such allegations have been made by a senior member of the Bush Administration.

Colonel Wilkerson, who was General Powell’s chief of staff when he ran the State Department, was most critical of Mr Cheney and Mr Rumsfeld. He claimed that the former Vice-President and Defence Secretary knew that the majority of the initial 742 detainees sent to Guantánamo in 2002 were innocent but believed that it was “politically impossible to release them”.

General Powell, who left the Bush Administration in 2005, angry about the misinformation that he unwittingly gave the world when he made the case for the invasion of Iraq at the UN, is understood to have backed Colonel Wilkerson’s declaration.

Colonel Wilkerson, a long-time critic of the Bush Administration’s approach to counter-terrorism and the war in Iraq, claimed that the majority of detainees — children as young as 12 and men as old as 93, he said — never saw a US soldier when they were captured. He said that many were turned over by Afghans and Pakistanis for up to $5,000. Little or no evidence was produced as to why they had been taken.

He also claimed that one reason Mr Cheney and Mr Rumsfeld did not want the innocent detainees released was because “the detention efforts would be revealed as the incredibly confused operation that they were”. This was “not acceptable to the Administration and would have been severely detrimental to the leadership at DoD [Mr Rumsfeld at the Defence Department]”.

Referring to Mr Cheney, Colonel Wilkerson, who served 31 years in the US Army, asserted: “He had absolutely no concern that the vast majority of Guantánamo detainees were innocent ... If hundreds of innocent individuals had to suffer in order to detain a handful of hardcore terrorists, so be it.”

He alleged that for Mr Cheney and Mr Rumsfeld “innocent people languishing in Guantánamo for years was justified by the broader War on Terror and the small number of terrorists who were responsible for the September 11 attacks”.
He added: “I discussed the issue of the Guantánamo detainees with Secretary Powell. I learnt that it was his view that it was not just Vice-President Cheney and Secretary Rumsfeld, but also President Bush who was involved in all of the Guantánamo decision making.”

Mr Cheney and Mr Rumsfeld, Colonel Wilkerson said, deemed the incarceration of innocent men acceptable if some genuine militants were captured, leading to a better intelligence picture of Iraq at a time when the Bush Administration was desperate to find a link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11, “thus justifying the Administration’s plans for war with that country”.

He signed the declaration in support of Adel Hassan Hamad, a Sudanese man who was held at Guantánamo Bay from March 2003 until December 2007. Mr Hamad claims that he was tortured by US agents while in custody and yesterday filed a damages action against a list of American officials.

Defenders of Guantánamo said that detainees began to be released as early as September 2002, nine months after the first prisoners were sent to the jail at the US naval base in Cuba. By the time Mr Bush left office more than 530 detainees had been freed.

A spokesman for Mr Bush said of Colonel Wilkerson’s allegations: “We are not going to have any comment on that.” A former associate to Mr Rumsfeld said that Mr Wilkerson's assertions were completely untrue.

The associate said the former Defence Secretary had worked harder than anyone to get detainees released and worked assiduously to keep the prison population as small as possible. Mr Cheney’s office did not respond.

There are currently about 180 detainees left in the facility.

 

[nolongerhome]

Depends. Have they been found guilty yet?

Have they even been charged yet?

The fact that Guantanamo is still in service is a black eye against America - the fact that certain compliant detainees have been given some basic priviledges does nothing to take away the fact that it is an example of the US undermining the principles of the law and justice that it tells us it has been trying to defend.

Steve, I'm not sure what you would have a prison or the daily actions of a prisoner look like - I would think all prisons have libraries, access to televisions and forms of education. That is hardly a resort. I don't think I would consider being locked up in Guantanamo for years as a holiday.

What should it be like? (Assuming you think it should continue to exist, which it shouldn't).

 

[steve_rightwing_christian]

Have they even been charged yet?

The fact that Guantanamo is still in service is a black eye against America - the fact that certain compliant detainees have been given some basic priviledges does nothing to take away the fact that it is an example of the US undermining the principles of the law and justice that it tells us it has been trying to defend.

Steve, I'm not sure what you would have a prison or the daily actions of a prisoner look like - I would think all prisons have libraries, access to televisions and forms of education. That is hardly a resort. I don't think I would consider being locked up in Guantanamo for years as a holiday.

What should it be like? (Assuming you think it should continue to exist, which it shouldn't).

Prison, Guantanamo or domestic, should be one of the most miserable places to be on Earth. Basically, you get food, water, medical care when needed, showers to stay clean, and then you sit in a cell until your time is up and think about how terrible this is and how "I do not want to ever come back here again."

 

[nolongerhome]

Prison, Guantanamo or domestic, should be one of the most miserable places to be on Earth. Basically, you get food, water, medical care when needed, showers to stay clean, and then you sit in a cell until your time is up and think about how terrible this is and how "I do not want to ever come back here again."

Right.

Do you think such a dehumanising condition is likely to encourage the rehabilitation of prisoners as productive and functional members of society?

Prison should be a punishment, but it isn't just punishment. I think that being stuck in Guantanamo Bay for years in captivity, whatever TV I had or what books I had or what internet access I had would be a tough punishment. Particularly if I hadn't yet been charged or convicted of any crime.

 

[green wolverine]

Prison, Guantanamo or domestic, should be one of the most miserable places to be on Earth. Basically, you get food, water, medical care when needed, showers to stay clean, and then you sit in a cell until your time is up and think about how terrible this is and how "I do not want to ever come back here again."

I'd agree with you if it weren't for the fact that most of these poor men are totally innocent and were turned in to collect a reward. It's a shame and disgrace how many people have been killed to justify the lie of 9/11. God will surely punish us greatly.

 

[lemmings]

Prison, Guantanamo or domestic, should be one of the most miserable places to be on Earth. Basically, you get food, water, medical care when needed, showers to stay clean, and then you sit in a cell until your time is up and think about how terrible this is and how "I do not want to ever come back here again."

What about those who are going on more than 8 years without trial? It is almost certain that there are still innocent people in Gitmo. Eventually, they will receive trials and they will be released back into Afghanistan, Iraq, or any other place that we took people from. When that happens, do you really want them [wash my mouth][wash my mouth][wash my mouth][wash my mouth]ed off at the US for making their lives hell for a decade?

 

[DaisyDay]

Prison, Guantanamo or domestic, should be one of the most miserable places to be on Earth. Basically, you get food, water, medical care when needed, showers to stay clean, and then you sit in a cell until your time is up and think about how terrible this is and how "I do not want to ever come back here again."

It's not like they chose to be there in the first place. They've been stolen from their families, from their country, from their lives and you want to torment them even more? Why the sadism?

 

[blueapplepaste]

Prison, Guantanamo or domestic, should be one of the most miserable places to be on Earth. Basically, you get food, water, medical care when needed, showers to stay clean, and then you sit in a cell until your time is up and think about how terrible this is and how "I do not want to ever come back here again."

So even people who haven't been proven guilty should be treated as such?

It's a shame how so many, especially many from the right, have taken a guilty until proven innocent approach. That's not the America I know and love.

 

[Drekkan85]

What about the fact that if you make prison a truly terrible place you end up dehumanizing the prisoners and making them less well adjusted instead of trying to rehabilitate them.

By providing educational opportunities, libraries, and job training you can help criminals learn a trade and be more able to get a job after their release. People with jobs, and who aren't desperately poor and with no opportunities, are less likely to commit crimes.

 

[serephim01]

Because we all know how well those prisons work elsewhere. Beating people or leaving them up to prisoner justice does no good for anyone. They learn how to be better criminals. Let's focus on rehabilitation rather than just getting revenge on them for doing what they did. After all doesn't the bible teach forgive and forget or is that just conveniently forgotten when a "dog" bites you?

Besides aren't they just being held there because they are "suspected" terrorists with no real proof? What happened to innocent until proven guilty?

 

[blueapplepaste]

What about the fact that if you make prison a truly terrible place you end up dehumanizing the prisoners and making them less well adjusted instead of trying to rehabilitate them.

By providing educational opportunities, libraries, and job training you can help criminals learn a trade and be more able to get a job after their release. People with jobs, and who aren't desperately poor and with no opportunities, are less likely to commit crimes.

It is a never ending cycle. People say "They're criminals, treat them like garbage!!" So they get treated like garbage, get released, and end up committing more crime. So people say "See, they're criminals for life! Lock them up for a long time. There's no helping them!" And the cycle continues.

Not saying they should have a plush vacation, but I think money and resources would be better spent on some of the things you mention. Help give them skills to succeed and end the cycle.

 

[kermit]

It is a never ending cycle. People say "They're criminals, treat them like garbage!!" So they get treated like garbage, get released, and end up committing more crime. So people say "See, they're criminals for life! Lock them up for a long time. There's no helping them!" And the cycle continues.

Not saying they should have a plush vacation, but I think money and resources would be better spent on some of the things you mention. Help give them skills to succeed and end the cycle.

With the ever expanding market of private prisons conservative leaders (whom have no interest in conservative ideals and only care about money and power) are increasingly convincing their sheeple that we need harsher sentencing and less rehabilitation.

Just look at the snow job these "conservative" leaders have pulled with supply-side economics. Over the past 30 years or so the supply of investment capital has grown to the point where we've had excesses of capital for years and this imbalance has decimated our economy yet they still call for more and their sheeple go along with it and ignore that the very people saying we need more have become exceedingly wealthy (the highest concentration of wealth since 1928) from supply-side economics while Joe Conservative has seen his wages decline.