Quantanamo "dressed up" for visiting lawmakers?

[kentuck]

I will bet you a dollar to a donut that they "cleaned" the place for the visitors? The Congresspeople that went down there have been used as puppets to whitewash what has been going on in Quantanamo. I think they are naive if they do not recognize that.

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<snip>
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - During a tour of the U.S. prison for suspected terrorists on Saturday, House Republicans and Democrats, including one who has advocated closing the facility, said the United States has made progress in improving conditions and protecting detainees' rights.

The U.S. lawmakers witnessed interrogations, toured cellblocks and ate the same lunch given to detainees on the first congressional visit to the prison for suspected terrorists since criticism of it intensified in the spring. A Senate delegation also was visiting this weekend.

``The Guantanamo we saw today is not the Guantanamo we heard about a few years ago,'' said Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif.

<snip>
After getting a classified briefing from base commanders, the House delegation ate lunch with troops - the same meal of chicken with orange sauce, rice and okra that detainees were served. They then toured several of the barbed-wire camps where detainees are housed, viewing small cells, dusty recreation yards and common areas.

....more

[madeline_con]

1. "The U.S. lawmakers witnessed interrogations ..."

Right...

[Career Prole]

2. Break out the duck l'orange!

Shrub's political prisoners will be eating fine every time a visitor shows up now!

[MisterP]

3. neocon "Blue Dog" Tauscher, of course

she's in a safe seat: we can boot her

[Oversea Visitor]

4. Yeah

They will just fly in all the VIP prisoner
Issue sun tan lotion
Ray Ban glasse
Put out some easy chair
Serve everyone nice cool coconut with straws for sucking
Shift a few palm trees around

Then hey its the tropic see l was right.

[qanda]

5. When I saw the pictures on the news

It reminded me of when the Congressman went down to Jonestown in Guyana. Jim Jones prettied the place up for the delegation, but it certainly didn't stop the truth from getting out about what was really going on there.

[Hissyspit]

6. Of course the place was cleaned up! n/t

[demgurl]

7. I must be retarded!

Or it is just that they think we are retarded? I have yet to figure out the logic in the fact that the prisoners eat well so there can not possibly be torture. Did I sleep through my logic class where they told us that eating well means prisoners are perfectly safe and are never mistreated.

Has this whole country gone mad? Do they honestly believe that chicken three times a week means everything is OK?

[libodem]

8. hell ya its been cleaned up

and they probably just started feeding them. I bet there are multiple closed head injuries considering what the did to that National Guard soldier during the interrogation training, beating.

[LiberalAndProud]

9. I am to expect that torture would take place in front of the investigators

This proves nothing
it disproves nothing

They used my tax dollars for a Propaganda shot.

[cynatnite]

10. Hubby saw a report on the news and he said the same thing

'They cleaned it up real nice'. :rofl:

[NMMNG]

11. Of course it was dressed up for their anticipated visit

Anybody remember Geraldo's famous "Willowbrook" expose? In the 1970's he did a shocking documentary exposing the horrid conditions the mentally retarded residents of the New York state institution known as Willowbrook lived under. He originally took his camera crew in unannounced. The residents were largely unclothed, sitting or lying mostly on the floors. Many of them were wallowing in their own excrement, and it was obvious there were not enough caregivers to provide anything resembling adequate care. The institution was dank and filthy. During meal time the residents who could not feed themselves had food crammed into their mouths so fast they nearly choked on it, as staff had to get to the next person as quickly as possible. No signs of affection were apparent between caregiver and client--the residents might as well have been plants for all the love they got.

Geraldo promised he would return on a specified date to see if things had changed and when he did things were amazingly different. Residents were fully clothed and everything was sparkling. Many more staff were on hand and were doling out hugs like politicians during campaign tours. However when Geraldo popped by unanounced a short while afterward he found things as he had the first time. Residents unclothed and poorly supervised, facilities dirty, and unsafe caregiver:resident ratios.


So there is no reason to think that Gitmo is going to be anything else but business as usual once the official visitors leave. There is going to be a dog and pony show while they are there, but after they leave the prisoners are going to be pissed on, beaten and otherwised maltreated as always.

[Blue_In_AK]

12. We were wondering if they'd have the string quartet

playing classical music at the gate.

[Neshanic]

13. Each cell is named after a Republican R/W nut.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

14. Yup, unannounced visits are the ONLY way for a regulator or overseer

to operate.

It's been a long time since I read Solzhenitsyn's works, but I believe he writes of an American reporter who was given a tour of one of Stalin's prison camps that had been prettied up for the day.

[FreedomAngel82]

15. This is all simply pathetic

This shouldn't have had to happen in the first place. When are those photo's coming out again?

[cynatnite]

16. Done in WW II and Vietnam, if I remember right n/t

[Fridays Child]

17. It's good that they went down there but, honestly, if they thought...

...for one second, that they'd get an accurate picture of everyday life for the detainees, I have a few dozen bridges to sell them.

[Sparkly]

18. Fine, but who the hell is outraged about their menus?!?

And what people are outraged about, they are of COURSE not going to see. :eyes:

[PurityOfEssence]

19. Welcome to Potemkin Bay!

They love it here; it's paradise on earth.

We believe in the rule of law, that's why we want our vacation spots to be completely outside of the law.

[noamnety]

20. Anyone who's been in the military

has gone through the dog and pony shows.

This trip is a waste of tax payer dollars. For the cost of bringing them there, they could install secure webcams and Congress could check it occasionally for oversight. Nobody is seriously worried that they can't stop torturing the prisoners for the amount of time the visit will take.

[kentuck]

21. An enterprising, intelligent young soldier....

who is now stationed or has been stationed in the past at Quantanamo, this would make a great book - an expose of the torture methods at Quantanamo. Of course, that might be a little too much to expect from a mere soldier. After all, they are not usually as poltically aware as some on the "outside". However, that would be a true patriot.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

22. This would only be meaningful if the Congressmen/women could see a list

of all prisoners, bring their own interpreters and tape recorders, randomly select from the prisoner list, and spend an hour with each interviewing them about their experience, tape the interview so as to make sure there were no errors in interpretation.