"Prisoner Abuse"...AGAIN

Yet another story has broken about how the evil military interrogators at Guantanamo Bay have been humiliating detainees and causing 'extreme psychological trauma.' Before we get into the guts of the story, a few things to remember: Contrary to what the MSM tells you, the detainees are not covered under the Geneva Convention. al-Qaida never was a signatory to the Convention, and even if they were, its 'soldiers' are engaging in unlawful combat under the Convention. We are simply using the Convention as a 'guideline' because we are nice and civilized people.

"In the letter obtained by The Associated Press, the FBI official suggested the Pentagon (news - web sites) didn't act on FBI complaints about the incidents, including a female interrogator grabbing a detainee's genitals and bending back his thumbs, another where a prisoner was gagged with duct tape and a third where a dog was used to intimidate a detainee who later was thrown into isolation and showed signs of "extreme psychological trauma.""

A few thoughts about this. First of all, the information that the FBI official is speaking of in the letter was obtained by a FBI interrogation team at Gitmo. One would think that the FBI, of all people, would understand the need for timely and truthful intelligence. Apparently not. Secondly, look at the start of the quotation: "In a letter obtained by the Associated Press". What this says to me is that some FBI official got his panties in a wad over some supposed or real slight by the DoD and decided to leak this document to get back at them. It sounds childish, but you'd be surprised at how things work in Washington.

As for the contents of this letter, make no mistake about it, this 'scandal' is no Abu Ghraib. The interrogators "whispered in the ear of a handcuffed and shackled detainee, caressed him and applied lotion to his arms. This occurred during Ramadan, Islam's holy month when contact with females is considered particularly offensive to a Muslim man."

Sounds awful, doesn't it?

As for the physical abuse, here's the extent of that: " "The Marine said (the interrogator) had grabbed the detainee's thumbs and bent them backward and indicated that she also grabbed his genitals. The Marine also implied that her treatment of that detainee was less harsh than her treatment of others by indicating that he had seen her treatment of other detainees result in detainees curling into a fetal position on the floor and crying in pain"

Do you want good, timely intelligence or not? Sometimes you have to get a little rough with a prisoner in order to convince them you mean business.

I'm sure this will be blown out of proportion by the MSM, and comparisons will be made to Abu Ghraib and how Bush and Rumsfeld are starting a series of concentration camps. In any case, there was one part of the letter that made me chuckle a bit: "About a month later, agents saw the same detainee "after he had been subjected to intense isolation for over three months ... totally isolated in a cell that was always flooded with light. By late November, the detainee was evidencing behavior consistent with extreme psychological trauma ... talking to nonexistent people, reported hearing voices (and) crouching in a corner of the cell covered with a sheet," the letter said."

The idea of a hardened al-Q operative "talking to nonexistent people, hearing voices, and crouching in a corner of a cell covered with a sheet" is enough to make me laugh.