The
terrorist detainees at Guantanamo Bay Cuba and their lawyers are playing the
United Nations these days like an old banjo – and the media appears to be
only too happy to dance to the tune.
Earlier this month the United Nations
released yet another call for the closure of GITMO, claiming that the
facility is a violation of international law and a scar on the United
States' image as a defender of rights and freedom. The thrust of the UN
argument for closing GITMO is that detainees are not being charged. The
subsequent demand for GITMO closure is made despite the knowledge that the
detainees would have been charged but for awaited Supreme Court rulings,
which preclude the U.S. from doing so.
The media, ever faithful to the ideal of
slighting the administration of George W. Bush has reported the UN appeal as
if it were news, and not a re-assertion of their oft-stated viewpoint.
What no-one seems to be reporting is the
manner in which the detainees and their lawyers manipulate the UN and the
press into sympathetic reporting – often based on fallacy. No-one seems to
be reporting that there is no evidence whatsoever of torture at GITMO, other
than the claims of detainees and their lawyers.
The detainees since they arrived at GITMO
have abused the U.S. forces tasked with guarding them, used lawyers highly
sympathetic to their plight to claim torture, and then staged actions the
detainees know will be reported by the press. This strategy of claiming
torture that has not occurred is taken directly from an al Qaeda field
manual captured from an al Qaeda cell in Manchester England.
“At
the beginning of the trial ... the brothers must insist on proving that
torture was inflicted on them by state security before the judge. Complain
of mistreatment while in prison.”
And while the U.S. commanders at Guantanamo
Bay continue to reference this to the media who visit, it is surprisingly
absent in most stories regarding the detainees and their actions. What
happens instead is the type of coverage we have been subjected to this past
week, such as the following excerpt from Carol J. Williams in the Los
Angeles Times:
“Anguish
among the detainees -
all but 10 held without
charges for as long as four years -
was apparent Thursday
when four detainees attempted suicide and detainees in the least restrictive
facility attacked guards when they attempted to rescue a man trying to hang
himself.”
The Times would have us believe that the
detainees were in anguish to the point of attacking the guards who sought to
save the life of their fellow detainee. What the Times fail to tell us is
the calculated manner in which this incident occurred. Prior to the
so-called suicide attempt the detainees smeared the floor with feces and
urine which caused the guards who responded to the attempt to slip and fall
upon entry. The detainees, who had weapons fashioned out of things like fan
blades, attacked the guards immediately. These actions demonstrate a
planned calculated operation and took longer to orchestrate than a few
moments after one of their companions decided to commit suicide.
The Times readily reports that four such
suicide attempts have occurred of late, but will tell us as an afterthought
only that none of these attempts succeeded. In fact no detainee has managed
to die while in U.S. custody in GITMO.
Detainees act out on dates of significance
and important religious holidays and during periods of high news coverage of
GITMO. One needs only to look to a calendar and news reports in order to
accurately predict detainee behavior in Cuba.
This past Christmas season we were treated to
reports of detainee hunger strikes in GITMO. The media likewise reported on
the force-feeding of detainees. The UN picked up quickly on this and
denounced the inhumane treatment of the hunger-strikers by the U.S. - which
itself became a centerpiece of the last UN call for GITMO closure. When the
season and news-cycle had passed nearly every participating detainee
abandoned the strike.
Since the detainees arrived at GITMO we have
been subjected to false claims and actions by detainees and misleading
reporting by the press. Lawyers’ claims of torture have consistently proved
baseless – despite full and thorough investigations. Media reports of abuse
of the Holy Quran were subsequently retracted – the truth being that it was
individual detainees themselves who abused the Quran.
While the press is quick to report these
things they never seem to follow-up when the allegations are proven false,
the hunger strike ends, or the suicide attempt turns out to be staged. We
aren’t told how guards are continually assaulted with feces and urine and
violence and yet do not respond in kind. They fail to tell us that detainee
actions appear to be cyclical and calculated. They don’t seem to mention
that in visiting GITMO (hundreds of reporters have done so since President
Bush invited them en mass in 2005) the detainees appear healthy and well
fed. They still include pictures of Camp X-Ray with their stories –
pictures that show detainees kneeling on gravel in orange jumpsuits – never
mentioning that the camp was open only two and one-half months in 2002 and
was never meant to be permanent housing. They hardly report that the U.S.
believes it has disrupted attacks domestically and abroad based on detainee
information and that when the London subway bombings occurred - detainee
information was instrumental in discovering those responsible.
We never hear of the special meals detainees
receive in order to keep them healthy, or of the priority medical care the
detainees receive (even over that of U.S. forces). Nor are we told much
about the call to prayer the U.S. supplies in Arabic along with an arrow in
every room pointing towards Mecca to assist in their prayers.
Instead
we are treated to more of the same.
Editor's Note: