July 1, 2005

TONIGHT ON DURBIN'S HEROES...:

AP: Documents show Gitmo inmates defy U.S. (BEN FOX, 7/01/05, Associated Press)

The prisoners banged on their cells to protest the heat at Guantanamo Bay. They doused guards with whatever liquid was handy - from spit to urine. Sometimes they struck their jailers, one swinging a steel chair at a military police officer.

And the American MPs at times retaliated with force - punches, pepper spray and a splash of cleaning fluid in the face, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press that detail military investigations and eyewitness accounts of alleged abuse.

Military authorities have previously disclosed some incidents of guard retaliation, which resulted in mostly minor disciplinary proceedings. What emerges from 278 pages of the newly released documents is the degree of defiance by the terrorism suspects at Guantanamo.


Forceful resistance is a function of the certain knowledge that your captors can't do much to you.

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 1, 2005 4:41 PM
Comments

oj, did you ever read The Hothouse: Life Inside Leavenworth Prison by Pete Earley? It's an excellent book, even though it is slightly slanted toward the convicts. The prisoners are being treated much better at Gitmo than in our prisons, though they are more confined than at all but the supermax facilities. Their resistance is quite similar and for the same reason.

Posted by: Patrick H at July 1, 2005 5:11 PM

Haven't read that one, read some of Ted Conover's though.

Posted by: oj at July 1, 2005 5:15 PM

Yeah, but do you think they can keep it up for another 15 years?

Posted by: Robert Schwartz at July 1, 2005 6:56 PM

oj, I read Conover's Newjack and I enjoyed Earley's book more. I just sent you a copy. Don't tell The Wife.

Posted by: Patrick H at July 1, 2005 7:12 PM

She pays the mailman to narc me out...

Posted by: oj at July 1, 2005 7:27 PM

Take the most overt pisser for an airplane ride and things will quiet down. Or, let the DNC buy them all air conditioners, but please don't abuse them.

Posted by: Genecis at July 1, 2005 9:01 PM

With all the whining about charging or releasing them, is there any reason we can't sentence them to like 30 years or something? I mean, they are guilty.

Posted by: RC at July 2, 2005 12:55 AM

Since they are all non-uniformed enemy combatants international treaty does not protect them. In fact they could have been executed in the field and no one could complain because of their non-uniformed unorganized status. No need to hurry and charge anyone right now. They are being held and treated like POW’s so they can be held for the duration of the conflict.

Posted by: BillMill at July 2, 2005 4:22 AM

well, if they could have been executed in the field, why not execute a few (say 100-150) now?

pick out the main hellraisers, give 'em a quick military trial, and shoot 'em.

that should quiet the rest down a bit.

Posted by: JonofAtlanta at July 2, 2005 9:13 AM
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