Department of the Blindingly Obvious (re Guantanamo)

[Plaid Adder]

Yes, I know today is September 11. I did my September 11 post a couple weeks early, so tonight you get a link to an AP article about testimony that is coming out from some recently released detainees about conditions at Guantanamo.

It seems obvious to me that the article is really stretching to try to be "fair and balanced," but it does give you an indication of the stories we're soon going to be hearing--and the lies that the officials responsible for Guantanamo will be telling in response. My favorite part is how the Americans who are listening to this testimony are shocked--SHOCKED--to discover that the detainees were lying to their interrogators on a regular basis. What the hell else did they expect? In a situation where your survival depends on people who are predisposed to see you as dogshit, the only way to survive is to make them think you're valuable, and lying to the interrogators was probably the most effective way to do that. Ergo, much of the "intelligence" extracted from these poor bastards is probably completely worthless. I could have told them that. So could most ordinary people with two functioning brain cells. Why they couldn't have figured this out ahead of time and just skipped the whole exercise, I will never understand.

My favorite quote, from one of the detainees: "Who treats me good, I treat them good. Who treats me like a dog, I give them the same treatment." Another obvious thing that our fearless leaders seem to have a lot of trouble grasping.

Ah well,

The Plaid Adder