Abuse at Gitmo

Gordon Cucullu looks at the abuse that goes on every day at Guantanamo.

Many of the orange jumpsuit-clad detainees fight their captors at every opportunity. They attack guards whenever the soldiers enter their cells, trying to reach up under protective face masks to gouge eyes and tear mouths. They make weapons and try to stab the guards or grab and break limbs as the guards pass them food. These terrorist prisoners openly brag of their desire to kill Americans. One has promised that if he is released he would find MPs in their homes through the Internet, break into their houses at night and 'cut the throats of them and their families like sheep.' These recalcitrant detainees are known euphemistically as being "non-compliant."

And the treatment this behavior brings?

Yet these thugs are treated with an amazing degree of compassion: They are given ice cream treats and recreational time. They live in clean facilities, and receive a full Muslim religious package of Koran, prayer rug, beads, and prayer oils. An arrow in every cell points to Mecca. The call to prayer is played five times daily. They are not abused, hanged, tortured, beheaded, raped, mutilated or in any way treated the way that they once treated their own captives or now treat their guards.

The detention facility at Guantanamo is not a prison. I suspect anyone who was "non-compliant" in that fashion in a prison would soon find himself in solitary confinement, with a number of extra years added to his sentence. The detainees at Guantanamo are free to attack and harass their guards the way they do because there's so little cost to that behavior.