A DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN WEIRDBEARD:

Human rights groups plan Gitmo protests (Michael Melia, 1/9/07, AP)

A legal aid group representing Guantanamo Bay detainees condemned the U.S. military prison Tuesday as an "abomination" and called on Washington to close the facility, which opened five years ago this week.

Michael Ratner, president of the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, said reports of abuse inside Guantanamo and the prisoners' lack of access to the U.S. justice system damages America's international standing. The center represents hundreds of Guantanamo detainees.

"The abomination that is Guantanamo Bay must be shut down," he said in a conference call with reporters. "There is simply no place in a democracy for offshore penal colonies in which people have no rights."

About 395 foreign men currently held at Guantanamo are allegedly linked to al-Qaida or the Taliban. All are classified as "enemy combatants" - a status that accords them fewer rights than prisoners of war under international law. Most have been held for years without being charged. [...]

To mark the anniversary, demonstrations are planned Thursday in New York, London, Sydney, Australia, and other cities as well as dozens of small towns in the United States and Britain.

A delegation including Cindy Sheehan, who became an anti-war activist after her soldier son was killed in Iraq, plans a protest in Cuba outside a gate leading to the U.S. Navy base. She will be joined by Asif Iqbal, a British Muslim who was held at the prison for 2 1/2 years.

"I've come and joined this delegation to say to the people in Guantanamo Bay that we have not forgotten about you," the 25-year-old told a news conference Tuesday in Havana, two years after his release. "Until that place is closed down, I cannot forget what happened there."

If you want to calibrate just how far removed any particular left-winger is from reality, observe how hysterical they get about Guantanamo Bay -- it's like a litmus test for moonbats. They'll generally condemn either the horrific treatment the prisoners claim to endure, or the kind of mild stunts that most of us endured on the schoolyard.

And if you think that's crazy, consider this: They think the terrorists can be trusted to tell us the truth, but President Bush is a flagrant liar.