Larry Johnson, former CIA and State Dept. analyst, says it all:
If we lower ourselves to use the tactics and methods of terrorists we become the very thing we are fighting against. We cannot be content to argue that it only happened to a few. One act of deliberate abuse is one too many.
Last evening, I watched Vanessa Redgrave, human rights activist and actress, interviewed by Bob Costas on CNN’s Larry King Live. Over and over, Ms. Redgrave said her guiding principle — and ours — is that we are “a nation of laws.”
That precludes our nation from committing the atrocious, savage beating that Larry Johnson goes on to describe in his commentary, “YEAH, BUT HE ENJOYED THE GLAZED CHICKEN AND PITA”:
Posted by Johnson at the Counterterrorism blog:
Hopefully this causes Congressman Duncan “Two Fruit” Hunter to reflect on his idiotic assertion that what a prisoner eats determines how well they are treated. We are confronted with an uncomfortable reality that U.S. soldiers were beating unarmed prisoners. That my friends is the conduct of bullies and cowards. When you have guns and clubs and your opponent is unarmed and you proceed to beat the hell out of your opponent then you are a bully and a coward.
Maybe Representative “Two Fruit” Hunter could take Specialist Baker out for a lunch of glazed chicken and warm pita bread and try to persuade him that his brain damage is no big deal. Maybe it is Hunter who is brain damaged? Too much time at altitude without oxygen Congressman?
And, of course, MY BIG QUESTION IS: How many savage beatings have taken place by guards against detainees? Beatings about which we have no information?
Larry Johnson’s bio.
A snippet from the LAT story to which Johnson refers:
Soldier Sues Over Guantanamo Beating
Spc. Sean Baker, who was medically retired after a drill went awry, asks for $15 million.
By David Zucchino, Times Staff Writer
A U.S. military policeman who was beaten by fellow MPs during a botched training drill at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison for detainees has sued the Pentagon for $15 million, alleging that the incident violated his constitutional rights.
Spc. Sean D. Baker, 38, was assaulted in January 2003 after he volunteered to wear an orange jumpsuit and portray an uncooperative detainee. Baker said the MPs, who were told that he was an unruly detainee who had assaulted an American sergeant, inflicted a beating that resulted in a traumatic brain injury.
Baker, a Gulf War veteran who reenlisted after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was medically retired in April 2004. He said the assault left him with seizures, blackouts, headaches, insomnia and psychological problems. …