Meanwhile, Back In The Want Ads...

Back on page A15 of the Times we find this:

Senators Laud Treatment of Detainees in Guantánamo

Senators from both sides of the aisle competed on Monday to extol the humane treatment of detainees whom they said they saw on a weekend trip to the military detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. All said they opposed closing the center.

"I feel very good" about the detainees' treatment, Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, said.

That feeling was also expressed by another Democrat, Ben Nelson of Nebraska.

On Monday, Senator Jim Bunning, Republican of Kentucky, said he learned while visiting Guantánamo that some detainees "even have air-conditioning and semiprivate showers."

Another Republican, Senator Michael D. Crapo of Idaho, said soldiers and sailors at the camp "get more abuse from the detainees than they give to the detainees."

Orrin Judd offers an explanation.

Comments

[Appalled Moderate]

There's also interesting coverage in the Lincoln Journal Star. The emphasis for the good folks in Nebraska is a fasciniating contrast to the NYT.

[Jor]

Hmm, planned audit goes according to plan. Military leaders not grossly incompetent.

[TM]

Nice to see our military can at leastguide a tour.

[rufus_mcdoofus]

Heck, I watched a rerun of "JAG" the other night that did a better job of portraying reality at Camp Delta than the news itself. That says something that isn't very flattering about the media.

Hey, maybe we need to start forcing Congress to watch "JAG" reruns, end-to-end ... no, wait, that would be considered torture, and Amnesty International would intervene and call Bush a Nazi ...

[Katherine]

You're right, "Democratic senators act like patsies" shouldn't be in the Times at all, nor should "guided tour goes as planned".

Do you think believing what you're told because Nebraskans never ever lie and/or it helps your re-election chances is being serious about national security?

Why are you doing this? If you've been reading Belgravia dispatch and that Times Magazine article you know better--don't you? What do you honestly think is going on? Why are you putting yourself on the side of those outraged by the outrage? You don't seem to have your heart in it, entirely, but that's clearly what you're doing.

[Cecil Turner]

"If you've been reading Belgravia dispatch and that Times Magazine article you know better--don't you?"

What exactly were we supposed to get from those? That female interrogators at Gitmo acted suggestively toward detainees in a couple of cases (and BD couldn't be bothered to mention they were disciplined afterward)? Or was there a deeper, darker truth that couldn't be written?

[Tim]

"If you've been reading Belgravia dispatch and that Times Magazine article you know better--don't you?"

Yes, of course, because only Belgravia Dispatch and Times Magazine are impeachable sources of truth, especially when it concerns the endless evils of the U.S. military and Operation Nazi Soviet Gulag Goon Khmer Rouge Mass Murder at Gitmo...

Be sure to wipe the drool off your keyboard - you might slip and write something sensible.

[TM]

Well, let's not be saying Katherine is drooling just because we are different sides of this question.

And I am not going to duck her question forever, just another day or two.

[Katherine]

I promise not to drool until you do.

And, I am mildly hysterical about this because I've done a lot, a lot, a lot of factual research--focused on the rendition stuff, but not only on that.

[Cecil Turner]

"And, I am mildly hysterical about this because I've done a lot, a lot, a lot of factual research . . ."

Could we presume upon you to share the fruits of your labors? Perhaps that'll give us a clue why we should disregard VADM Church, who also did a bit of research:

Throughout the investigation - which included over 800 interviews with personnel serving or having served in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and senior policy makers in Washington, as well as review and analysis of voluminous documentary material . . .

And whose findings on Gitmo didn't show cause for excessive concern:

there are only three cases of closed, substantiated interrogation-related abuse, all consisting of minor assaults in which MI interrogators exceeded the bounds of approved interrogation policy.

"--focused on the rendition stuff, but not only on that. "

I'd point out that rendition (by definition) would appear to have little to do with conditions at Gitmo.