September 19, 2006

Country Club Conditions for Terrorists at Gitmo?

So much for those "inhumane" conditions at Guantanamo Bay that we've heard so much about from the Left. According to author Richard Miniter, a frequent guest on the 700 Club and CBN Newswatch who just returned from Gitmo, the jihadists there are not only treated properly, but are being downright pampered by U.S. forces. Here's more, from Rich's outstanding recent piece in The New York Post:

The politically correct regulations are unbelievable. Detainees are entitled to a full eight hours sleep and can't be woken up for interrogations. They enjoy three meals and five prayers per day without interruption. They are entitled to a minimum of two hours of outdoor recreation per day.

Interrogations are limited to four hours, usually running two - and (of course) are interrupted for prayers. One interrogator actually bakes cookies for detainees, while another serves them Subway or McDonald's sandwiches. Both are available on base. (Filet o' Fish is an al-Qaeda favorite.)

Interrogations are not video or audio taped, perhaps to preserve detainee privacy.

Call it excessive compassion by a nation devoted to therapy, but it's dangerous. Adm. Harris admitted to me that a multi-cell al-Qaeda network has developed in the camp. Military intelligence can't yet identify their leaders, but notes that they have cells for monitoring the movements and identities of guards and doctors, cells dedicated to training, others for making weapons and so on.

And they can make weapons from almost anything. Guards have been attacked with springs taken from inside faucets, broken fluorescent light bulbs, and fan blades. Some are more elaborate. "These folks are MacGyvers," Harris said.

Other cells pass messages from leaders in one camp to followers in others. How? Detainees use the envelopes sent to them by their attorneys to pass messages. (Some 1,000 lawyers represent 440 prisoners, all on a pro bono basis, with more than 18,500 letters in and out of Gitmo in the past year.) Guards are not allowed to look inside these envelopes because of "attorney-client privilege" - even if they know the document inside is an Arabic-language note written by a prisoner to another prisoner and not a letter to or from a lawyer.

That's right: Accidentally or not, American lawyers are helping al-Qaeda prisoners continue to plot.

Read it all. Miniter rightly calls his Gitmo experience "surreal," adding: "Do you get eight hours of uninterupted sleep, three square meals, and a minimium of two hours of outdoor recreation per day? If not, the al-Qaeda operatives in Gitmo live better than you do."

 

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