unfortunately, i have told many friends whose children were/are being sent over to Iraq to get them out: desert or otherwise refuse to serve. that that is the patriotic thing to do to uphold our laws and Constitution. illegal war (illegal invasion, etc.) means orders to fight it are also illegal and you may be subject to charges of war crimes.

it's a shame and loss this woman refused in this tragic manner. nevertheless she is hero and should be posthumously awarded as such. this is how we lead, this is how we teach our own, this is we show what and who we are as civil society.

we do not invade other countries who are no threat to us less imminent attack is upon us. no, we were not attacked on 9/11/01 by Iraq.

What an unpatriotic slut.

Sincerely

The Right

There were prisoners that were burned with lit cigarettes.

That wasn't torture those were "Freedom burns"!

~The Right

This is the slippery slope of allowing torture.

Once a gung ho interrogator is given permission to "soften up" a captive with beatings the scenario generally turn very grim, very quickly.

All bets are off.

The use of dogs to install fear, sexual humiliation, burning with cigarettes, electric shock, sleep deprivation, prolonged exposure to heat and cold, drowning to the brink of death, rape and, ultimately, murder are all suddenly okay.

The tacit understanding that the "end justifies the means" argument is in play plus the foreknowledge that any crimes will be covered up gives people free license to do their worst.

This instructive, albeit deeply sad, story of the suicide of this young officer and especially the subsequent coverup should put the lie to the bullshit "We don't torture" and "This was a few bad apples and not official policy" arguments.

It won't, of course, in the minds of the NeoNazi like cowards who support torture but sane people with a shred of humanity will be able to see this clearly.

Be Well.

Coulda been worse-the first thing could have seen was a naked Rush Limbaugh. Crazy ramadamadingdong had the Feds and local cops running all over NY with his torture derived ravings, but the Right will continue to sanctify Dubya and his actions.

"she found it ironic that suicide prevention training had taught her how to commit suicide."

Hell, watching Full Metal Jacket would have done the same thing.

True Patriotic American. She would rather die than to torture a fellow Human Being. Good on Her.

Larry

way to go bush, another notch in your belt

Not being extremely familiar with the story, was it for sure a suicide?

The conspiracy theroist in me wants to know...

Patriotic but unbalanced. A soldier has the right to refuse orders that he/she may consider to be derelict to duty, or that may put his or her life in a situation that will result in multiple casualties.

This woman could have just said "No."

Btw, here's an interesting site..

Sorry --but I call BS.

Interrogating prisoners is grim business.
It's a fact of life that interrogators are
not nice to prisoners and sometimes they go
too far (torture).

Abuses are going to occur - we are human; however,
the techniques are sophisticated and they work. The
drugging of prisoners is especially effective; I am
surprised not to hear about more of its value.

War is serious business - not a 'puppies & rainbows' scenerio.

No one (no sane person) wants to be evil to another
person, but we need to get intel. Withholding morning
coffee or the evening's cigarette will not get it done.

All in all - the general public should not know about
the dirty work that people do to make us safer. It is
naive to think that we are safer because our enemies
know about many of our interrogation techniques.

Too many liberals seem to have very few survival instincts:

Regrettably, it is sometimes necessary to be mean
to folks who intend to harm you.

"Sorry --but I call BS.

#11 | Posted by MURPHY"

What else would we expect from you, dumbass?

Murphy,

what do you call BS...please elaborate? Was it the whole story....or that she killed herself. I might agree with the latter knowing how the military murdered Pat Tillman for being an atheist.

LM

War is serious business - not a 'puppies & rainbows' scenerio.

#12 | Posted by dean_buvia

Funny, it seems that only Liberals really understand that. That's why they only want to use it as a last resort. It's the gung-ho Cons that feel we should go to war at the drop of a hat, without trying everything else first.

poor poor terorists! they just need a hug and a pat on the back!

big bad mean US! so bad...

bad bad...

bad military...

misunderstood terrorist needs a hug!

Such typical drivel from Huffpo that you witless libtards eat right up.

"Appalled when ordered to take part in interrogations that, no doubt, involved what we would call torture, she refused, then killed herself a few days later, in September 2003."

Appalled? How the fuck does Mitchel know? Did he speak with her?

No doubt? Apparently there is quite a bit of doubt as evidenced by this ongoing debate.

"she refused, then killed herself" Absent specific proof, such as a suicide note, there is no way anyone can reasonably state there is a direct correlation between her refusal and her suicide.

sorry Jay , you saying Peterson (RIP) or other current and past Army personnel are terrorist?

@JUSTANOVERSITE

uh, sure whatever you say, FTFA:

he filed a Freedom of Information Act [FOIA] request. When the documents of the official investigation of her death arrived, they contained bombshell revelations. Here's what the Flagstaff public radio station, KNAU, where Elston worked, reported:

"Peterson objected to the interrogation techniques used on prisoners. She refused to participate after only two nights working in the unit known as the cage. Army spokespersons for her unit have refused to describe the interrogation techniques Alyssa objected to. They say all records of those techniques have now been destroyed."

The official report revealed that a notebook she had written in was found next to her body, but blacked out its contents.

The Army talked to some of Peterson's colleagues. Asked to summarize their comments, Elston told me: "The reactions to the suicide were that she was having a difficult time separating her personal feelings from her professional duties. That was the consistent point in the testimonies, that she objected to the interrogation techniques, without describing what those techniques were."

Elston said that the {FOIA obtained] documents also refer to a suicide note found on her body, which suggested that she found it ironic that suicide prevention training had taught her how to commit suicide. He filed another FOIA request for a copy of the actual note. It did not emerge.

Peterson, [was] a devout Mormon.

asshat.

it's called morals. she died also for her country. there can be valid question about that, especially if you have any idea of the circumstances... what role model does she follow here in making her decision, she was 27 and devout.

if she did anything the least bit irrational it was joining the military when she did then actually going to war in Iraq... would be war criminal repents -- sees the light -- and martyrs self.

martyr
Pronunciation:
?mr-t?r
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Middle English, from Old English, from Late Latin, from Greek martyr-, martys witness
Date:
before 12th century

1: a person who voluntarily suffers death as the penalty of witnessing to and refusing to renounce a religion.

2: a person who sacrifices something of great value and especially life itself for the sake of principle.

correction: ...there can be NO valid question about that...

Alyssa Peterson was never in the military, was a communist and probably related to Osama bin Laden. she killed herself to embarrass President Bush.

The Right

@ICHYHO

I read the article. Your post does not refute one single point from mine.

shit for brains

The conspiracy theroist in me wants to know...

#8 | Posted by LIVE_OR_DIE

She was killed by poisonous chemtrails.

"Kayla Williams, a woman who served with Alyssa, who told me me that she talked to her about her problems shortly before she killed herself. Kayla also was forced to take part in torture interrogations, where she saw detainees punched. Another favorite technique: strip the prisoners and then remove their blindfolds so that the first thing they saw was Kayla Williams."

I'd like to remind everyone that the appalling torture as described above was administered to men who would happily hand-carve you head clean off your shoulders...even IF you voted for BHO.

What is interesting is people here are trying to find some type of justification for torture.

The question here is was our nation under threat and this individual held the keys to that threat, nope. It was torture just for malicious torture sake to experiment on technics that might work for future.

Here's what Williams told Soledad O'Brien of CNN : "I was asked to assist. And what I saw was that individuals who were doing interrogations had slipped over a line and were really doing things that were inappropriate. There were prisoners that were burned with lit cigarettes."

Burning prisoners with lit cigarettes sounds like torture to me. We would certainly think so if it was done to one of our captured soldiers.

Peterson, a devout Mormon, had graduated from Flagstaff High School and earned a psychology degree from Northern Arizona University on a military scholarship. She was trained in interrogation techniques at Fort Huachuca in Arizona, and was sent to the Middle East in 2003.

I wonder if she could have objected on religious grounds? Murphy wants Christian counselors to be able to object to treating homosexuals in those grounds, so why not Morman soldiers?

All I know is my mail-order prescriptions haven't arrived since that nice Christian Scientist postal worker took over the route.

I wonder if she could have objected on religious grounds?

Think she would have given back her degree paid for by ROTC? You liberals kill me, joining the military then not wanting to fulfill your obligation to do what the military does..

True Patriotic American.

If she is a patriotic american, and this is what becoming an american is going to be, then we are all fucked...

Suicide is a cowards way out, no matter what the reason..

Boaz-
re: "joining the military then not wanting to fulfill your obligation to do what the military does.."

I'm guessing that when she signed up the pitch from the recruiter was not 'and as a bonus you'll get to use Chi-com torture on prisoners'.

...joining the military then not wanting to fulfill your obligation to do what the military does..

#30 | Posted by boaz at 2009-04-24 04:03 AM | Reply | Flag:

Or is that "what the military does" now?

Suck my dick, boyd.

I'm guessing that when she signed up the pitch from the recruiter was not 'and as a bonus you'll get to use Chi-com torture on prisoners'.

#32 | Posted by BetelG at 2009-04-24 04:08 AM | Reply | Flag:

You may be wrong there. Rex probably looks like a guy who wants to use commie torture on brown skinned people. You know, for fun.

Probably has a mullet too.

I'm guessing that when she signed up the pitch from the recruiter

She should have known she wasnt going to a normal 9 to 5 job....

Probably has a mullet too.

#35 | Posted by Alexandrite

Like me late mammie ass.

...and that it included torturing prisoners using methods the Chi-coms used against US captives?

She should have known she wasnt going to a normal 9 to 5 job....

#36 | Posted by boaz at 2009-04-24 04:20 AM | Reply | Flag:

Funny, those "be all you can be" commercials don't show soldiers burning detainees with cigarettes.

Figure out why, boaz...and you'll be one step closer to humanity. (hint: because they're not supposed to be doing shit like that)

Alex-
Burning prisoners with cigarettes is actually a deviation from the Chi-com methods adopted by Bush/Cheney. You're not supposed to leave visible marks.

Now that we know that Rumsfeld authorized the methods that the plebes at Guantanamo were prosecuted for, shouldn't the defenders of torture demand that the "bad apples" be pardoned? After all, what they did was secretly declared SOP and legal by Bush/Cheney lawyers.

Sorry, Abu Ghraib. No one using the same methods at Guantanamo took photos that escaped the grasp of the Ministry of Truth.

Sleep well.

Boaz I dont remember which one of Our fellow Drudgies said this. It was either Trooper or Walt. He said that He carries a bullet around His neck just in case He became captured by the enemy and there was no way out. He said He would eat a bullet than to give them anything. Is that fellow Drudgie a coward?? It's damned easy to call someone a coward that takes their own life until it's them that faces them at that bleakest of moments.

Larry

I can't believe that there are still half retarded people that believe the bullshit "Muslim terrorist" story...
It's amazing how stupid a lot of people are. That's the reason the bankers are able to swindle our futures away from us and our children, because humanity is dragging moronic dead weight along with it.
BTW, She was probably murdered to keep her quiet. Just like Pat Tillman.

It not only costs lives to win freedom it also may cost lives to live free. What we are talking about here is the "cost of freedom". American soldiers have not died for our freedom for over 200 years. They die defending/winning freedom for others. On 9/11 for the first time in over 200 years American freedom was threatened but not by terrorists but by our lack courage to pay the cost of freedom. Every time we give up a portion of our freedom for safety they win. We don't need to stoop to their level to protect our freedom. We are better then that.

So are we willing to pay the full price of our own freedom?

Sorry --but I call BS.

#11 | Posted by MURPHY

Why am I not surprised?

Your dummy sign is on crooked.

joining the military then not wanting to fulfill your obligation to do what the military does..

#30 | Posted by boaz at 2009-04-24 04:03 AM

You are a disappointment.

You're not supposed to leave visible marks.

#40 | Posted by BetelG at 2009-04-24 04:28 AM |

That's why they worked so hard to reclassify waterboarding as "not torture". It leaves no visible marks although it can leave long term physical damage to the brain, lungs, limbs, etc.

So why was waterboarding "torture" when the Japs did it to our soldiers in WWII, but now is not?

Sorry --but I call BS.

#11 | POSTED BY MURPHY AT 2009-04-23 10:08 PM | REPLY | FLAG:FINGERS STUCK IN EARS

And Abu Ghraib was just a few bad apples nothing to see there, ABSOLUTLY no systemic problem.
~McAnkles

So why was waterboarding "torture" when the Japs did it to our soldiers in WWII, but now is not?

#50 | POSTED BY 726

Because the japs were evil!
~McAnkles

So why was waterboarding "torture" when the Japs did it to our soldiers in WWII, but now is not?

We can change our minds can't we?

How can Pluto be a planet and then it's not?

I'm joking really. The shoe's on the other foot and now we want to "reclassify" waterboarding.

Yeah, torture of prisoner is such a chuckler.

Appalled when ordered to take part in interrogations that, no doubt, involved what we would call torture, she refused, then killed herself a few days later, in September 2003.

Where is the PROOF thsat she was ordered to waterboard?

we do not invade other countries who are no threat to us less imminent attack is upon us. no, we were not attacked on 9/11/01 by Iraq.

#1 | Posted by ichiro

Why did we go to war against Germany> They never attacked American soil?

You are a fucking pussy.

If she killed herself over this, which I find hard to believe, then goodbye. She was week and should not have been allowed to breed.

weak

He said that He carries a bullet around His neck just in case He became captured by the enemy and there was no way out.

Larry,

If we were fighting humans, he wouldnt have to kill himself in the first place. Why dont you see the irony of the statement you just said. Why would he have to kill himself? Is it because our enemy would do far worse to him than we do to when we capture them? At least they get to walk away one day, the majority of my battle buddies would not if captured by these animals.

Why did we go to war against Germany> They never attacked American soil? - Posted by Chicken Rancher

If you read up on your history, you would find that Japan joined Germany and Italy (the Axis Powers) in 1940 after they invaded what is now Vietnam; so therefore, yes, we were at war with them also when we declared war on Japan.

Why did we go to war against Germany> They never attacked American soil?

You are a fucking pussy.

#55 | Posted by chickenchoker

Uhhh, Germany declared war on US after we declared war on Japan.
Damn, you're stupid!

Why did we go to war against Germany> They never attacked American soil?

#55 | Posted by chickenrancher at 2009-04-24 10:03 AM |

Fat drunk and stupid is no way to go through life.

"Why did we go to war against Germany"

Uh, because Germany and Italy declared war on the US after the US declared war on Japan?

Let's see what's behind Door Number Two.

Let's see what's behind Door Number Two.

#62 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis

'Oh, look, it's a lifetime supply of Denial'.

'Now you can take the Denial or you can pick another door, remembering that behind one of them is a lifetimes supply of Arrogance and unfounded Moral Superiority'.

'Um, Um, Um, 'we don't need the arrogance, we have plenty, and moral superiority is not what it used to be, so I think I'll just stick with the Denial'.

Patriotic but unbalanced. A soldier has the right to refuse orders that he/she may consider to be derelict to duty, or that may put his or her life in a situation that will result in multiple casualties.

This woman could have just said "No."

#9 | Posted by dxlingr at 2009-04-23 10:01 PM | Reply

Winner winner, chicken dinner.

OK, so sleep dep is torture? That means that Clinton and Reno are as Evil as Bush for Using Sleep Dep operations on the Branch Dividions in WACO in the early 90's right. I mean if its torture NOW then it was THEN right? That would be a consistant stance. SO i wanna hear all the Anit-Bush folks(and I am one for several reasons) type a big: FUCK THAT EVIL TORTURER BILL CLINTON AND HIS ACCOMPLISE JANET RENO. I wont hold my breath.

aslo I dout this Soldier commited suiced. More than likely she was "retired" by a C.I.A. spook after voicing strong opposition to the order.

#63 | Posted by Lipzoidial at 2009-04-24 11:10 AM | Reply | Flag: Toasted Before Noon

Hey, Doc...you'd be proud!I had some tofu in my soup at a Mexican restaurant yesterday and I ate it! I was in a real good mood though, I had just left the Reagan Presidential Library where I got tingles up my leg.

I thought you'd escaped Alta California by now.

Tofu in soup in a Mexican restaurant? Ay carramba!

Tofu in soup in a Mexican restaurant?

What's next? Refried soy beans?

How about some of that Ben and Jerry's Jalapeno-Frijole-Posole ice cream?

Jest -

See if they'll give you a potfull of Cafe Combate. You won't sleep a wink till you reach the Blue Ridge Mountains.

...or some mole with real mole meat...

How about some of that Ben and Jerry's Jalapeno-Frijole-Posole ice cream?

At Avery Island, LA, where Tabasco (tm) is made, they serve Tabasco ice cream. It is surprisingly good. I never would've guessed it to be so.

#73 - Damn, Goat this sounds good. Kinda like a Mexican fruit salad I once ate in San Jose CA, with chili powder and cilantro on top. Yum.

DOH!! Oh no - I said I ate a Mexican fruit salad in the Bay Area.

#73 - Damn, Goat this sounds good. Kinda like a Mexican fruit salad I once ate in San Jose CA, with chili powder and cilantro on top.

In San Antonio fruit cups ala Mexico are popular. We go to a place that is authentic as they come. You would think you were south of the border.

You choose your fruits, which are traditionally tropical, but they have melons, too. I like pineapple and mango. They put it in a cut, then they liberally sprinkle it with a salt and chili powder mixture and squirt a lime over it. Man, it's good!

The local food chain in S Texas (HEB) sells the chili mixture that is made just for fruit. I love it on watermelon. I have brought it to the rig where most of the folks are from LA and MS and have never seen it. They love it and I am always bringing some for them since they can't get it where they live.

San Antonio sucks

San Antonio sucks

I like it. I can live anywhere in the 48 states with my job and I haven't found a better place. But if you thnink it sucks, stay away. duh

SA does not suck. It is my second favorite city in America behind El Paso. Lots of great fine young bitches all over the riverwalk.

Even our interrogation techniques that we consider acceptable is torture.

There's a reason you can't do this with Americans being charged with crimes in the USA. We consider it wrong. We consider punishing someone to tell the truth to be wrong.

Why should doing this to the innocent until proven guilty be any different to the innocents we picked up and put in guantanamo bay?

Man I wish I could stay away but I have to live there.

try working in this town, they pay third world wages around here so I work in Austin.

Rasta,

There is a huge difference between a place that's nice to visit El Paso for instance and actually living there.

JESUS CHRIST!!!

I can't believe people are still sucking GOP dick.

try working in this town, they pay third world wages around here so I work in Austin.

Is 'this town' SA? They do pay lower. That's proably why the cost of living is lower, too.

Isn't that a painful commute, though? (assuming SA)

I can't believe people are still sucking GOP dick.

I think the right enjoys oral sex as much as the left, but I could be wrong.

I think the right enjoys oral sex as much as the left, but I could be wrong.

But for the right, it's not an impeachable offense.

Funny, it seems that only Liberals really understand that. That's why they only want to use it as a last resort. It's the gung-ho Cons that feel we should go to war at the drop of a hat, without trying everything else first.

#15 | POSTED BY TFDNIHILIST AT 2009-04-23 11:13 PM | REPLY | FLAG

"Last resort?" WTF does that mean? I thought libs didn't support it under any circumstances...

But for the right, it's not an impeachable offense.

I don't think it is for the left either is it? I've never heard of it happening anyway.

Cost of living is not significantly lower in SA.

Commute is not bad I have two small children so it' sthe only peace and quiet I ever get.

Cost of living is not significantly lower in SA.

???

4 years ago I bought a ~1600 ft^2 home -- typical suburban 3-2-2 brick home in SA for $104k. There is no way I could have gotten a home like this in a comparably neighborhood for that in Austin. Groceries are definitely cheaper. Gas is too, though admittedly, a dime only accounts to a few bucks a month.

If COL not lower, why do you make a 150 mile per day commute? (jokes about kids aside. FF, btw)

Gas and groceries are most certainly not cheaper and if they are it by a penny or two. I can't speak for buying but rent is about the same in SA as Austin.

The reason I make the commute is my company "encouraged" me to move to SA from Austin where I grew up. Subsequently the contract went bye bye and I got the boot. My wife is from SA so I'm stuck here.

These two cost of living tables show quite a disparity between Austin and San Antonio. As you can see, the index is based on a US average of 100. Texas is 95. Most things on the list for Austin are 101-02 (higher than both Texas and US) whereas SA roughly averages 85. That's quite a difference.

oops. Screwed up and put SA twice. Here is Austin's dataset:

there are lies DAMN lies and statistics.

I eat and shop in both town and I will tell you that for a regular guy it cost the same in either town.

Something you should realize is just about everything inside loop 410 is basically ghetto and drags down the average.

Something you should realize is just about everything inside loop 410 is basically ghetto and drags down the average.

#93 | Posted by Salaryman

The good folks in Alamo Heights beg to differ.

I lived there a year and a half and found the COL much less expensive than Dallas (prior home) and Cleveland (current home). I don't know how it compares to Austin, but overall SA was a pretty reasonable place to live... and a pretty nice city if you gave it a chance.

I eat and shop in both town and I will tell you that for a regular guy it cost the same in either town.

I simply posted numbers from an unbiased source. Make of them what you will.

The good folks in Alamo Heights beg to differ.

You probably heard me mention several times that I baked bread for three years after a layoff? It was at the Central Market on Broadway.

Greg Mitchell, a left wing hack reporting as fact from another left wing hack, Kevin Elston, who presents as fact pure speculation.

LOL, news you can use to push an agenda.

I truly believe from the bottom of my heart that if you have not been in combat you have no right to express an opinion about torture and if works or not.

You were not brave enough to serve in our military so you do not get a say in how it works.

Period...

I am tired of seeing people who never put on uniform continue to say torture works. How do you know? Where does your insight come from? 24? Jack Baur? Fox Opinion? O'Rielly? Limbaugh? These are all fictional characters. All Stage Props to get you to group think.

You are fools.

Each and every one of you.

The more you cry the more I laugh and shake my head.

You are weak.

You are fools...

I stand and salute you Alyssa Peterson. Our nation is better because you served it.

God Bless your family for their loss.

Rest in Peace...

Well said prolix!!

"If you have not been in combat you have no right to express an opinion about torture. You were not brave enough to serve in our military so you do not get a say in how it works."

Idiocy of idiocies! If I've never been hung from a tree, I don't get to oppose lynching? If I never delivered an infant. I don't get to support reproductive rights? herm

"If you have not been in combat you have no right to express an opinion about torture. You were not brave enough to serve in our military so you do not get a say in how it works."

Idiocy of idiocies! If I've never been hung from a tree, I don't get to oppose lynching? If I never delivered an infant. I don't get to support reproductive rights? herm

Indeed, let me add, I must have killed Islamic children to oppose killing Islamic children? herm

Hans - read slower,

I am tired of seeing people who never put on uniform continue to say torture works. How do you know? Where does your insight come from? 24? Jack Baur? Fox Opinion? O'Rielly? Limbaugh? These are all fictional characters. All Stage Props to get you to group think.

And no, if you have never served you have no right or reason to think torture works.

It is everyone's duty to oppose torture.

I staked my life on Geneva during Gulf 1, I pity those there now as they no longer have that protection...

Meant Herm -

Someone cool posted this at Digg:

Per Long Island Rep. Pete King:

THE REAL GITMO 100% HUMANE
HAVING just re turned from leading a congressional delegation to the terrorist-detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, I am more convinced than ever that President Obama's executive order to close Gitmo by next Jan. 22 is wrong and misguided and, if fully implemented, will threaten American security at home and abroad.

To be fair, the president deserves much credit for a series of key decisions he has made in the war against terrorism: 1) launching predator missiles against Taliban and al Qaeda locations in the Afghanistan-Pakistan theater; 2) detaining, without trial, enemy combatants captured and imprisoned overseas, and 3) invoking the "state secrets" privilege to block a lawsuit on CIA renditions (the practice of allowing other nations to interrogate non-US citizen terror detainees).

Unfortunately, his Gitmo decision undercuts these positive actions.

It has become an article of faith among the MoveOn.org crowd and the Democratic Party's liberal base to denounce Guantanamo as a symbol of inhumane treatment and torture. (Indeed, in his address to Congress on Tuesday, the president announced the closing of Guantanamo in the same paragraph in which he said "that is why I can stand here tonight and say . . . the United States of America does not torture.")

Yet that symbolism doesn't square with the real Gitmo.

Detainees at Guantanamo are treated far better than most American prisoners in the US jails and prisons I've inspected over the years. The unfounded accusations that are so regularly and cavalierly made about Guantanamo are a slander against the brave men and women of our armed forces, who perform their duties at that facility so professionally and under such duress.

If there's any scandal at Guantanamo, it is that the detainees are treated too well. Consider what I observed:

* Detainees get three full meals a day with a choice of menu.

* Each detainee receives a Koran and a prayer rug.

* Arrows throughout the facility point toward Mecca.

* Detainees receive full medical treatment - including psychiatric services. There is one medical personnel for every two detainees.

* Detainees who comply with regulations are allowed out of their cells for 16 to 20 hours a day and participate in various recreational and educational activities including soccer, language training and art classes.

* Noncompliant detainees - including the hardest of the hard core - are allowed out of their cells for four to seven hours a day. (It was particularly galling to observe a vicious terrorist reclining in the sun like a Palm Beach retiree.)

* Detainees have access to live TV, books and two daily Arab newspapers plus USA Today. (I suppose it would be inhumane to subject them to The New York Times.)

* Detainees are allowed to confer to discuss courtroom strategy.

* Guards within the facility are not armed and are regularly subjected to abuse and harassment, including having human feces and urine thrown at them.

These are not just my conclusions. The Defense Department has just finished its review of Guantanamo as ordered by President Obama and determined that conditions comply with the Geneva Conventions: "No prohibited acts were found and conditions are humane."

We are at war with Islamic terrorism. Gitmo is a major front in that war. Closing Guantanamo could well mean releasing deadly Islamic terrorists overseas or bringing them to American soil. It would be craven surrender to left-wing groups and uninformed, self-righteous world opinion. We must do all we can to convince President Obama to reverse his decision.

Rep. Pete King (R-LI) is the ranking member on the House Homeland Security Committee.

You're not supposed to leave visible marks.
#40 | Posted by BetelG at 2009-04-24 04:28 AM

That's why they worked so hard to reclassify waterboarding as "not torture". It leaves no visible marks although it can leave long term physical damage to the brain, lungs, limbs, etc.
So why was waterboarding "torture" when the Japs did it to our soldiers in WWII, but now is not?
#50 | Posted by 726 at 2009-04-24 09:04 AM

I always understood it to mean both - stress positions used as a main form of "interrogation" often does lasting and easily permanent physical injury that is obvious when examined by any professional. Cigarette burns or scarring, cutting, abrasions, lesions, etc would have shown how recently each "interrogation" incident occurred and to an extent under what condition. Again, I'm afraid that professionals would not have easily missed from a thorough physical examination, let alone a proper medical one.

So, it would be in my estimation that these prisoners never went nude through a medical evaluation, or they were not permitted any physical examination. Probably the medical persons were directly involved, as is apparently being determined through the released information. I'm not sure if they could contract out the medical staff for further layers of plausible deniability, but as with the Arab translators and interrogators aren't they Israeli intelligence? That could account for the "suicides" reported.

Lets see she refused to sprinkle water on a terrorist face and that led to her killing herself.

I am sorry I ain't buying it. She was obviously mentally ill long before that.

You libs have the most stupid logic I have ever seen. You are perfectly OK with us bombing the house of a terrorist and killing him and whoever is their with him including women and children but boy let him listen to loud music for 30 minutes and that just unacceptable.

Lets see she refused to sprinkle water on a terrorist face and that led to her killing herself.

I'm sorry I ain't buying it. She was obviously mentally ill long before that.

If you think America's torture techniques consist purly of ""sprinkling water on a terrorists face" then yer the one who's mentally ill.

You libs have the most stupid logic I have ever seen. You are perfectly OK with us bombing the house of a terrorist and killing him and whoever is their with him including women and children but boy let him listen to loud music for 30 minutes and that just unacceptable

You gotta cite fer that, idiot?

Bombing terrorists if they are armed and dangerous and posing a threat is one thing. Just willy nilly blowing shit up and killing women and children in hte process is part of the reason why the Taliban are enjopying such a resurgence in Afghanistan and, now, Pakistan.

Be Well.

You libs have the most stupid logic I have ever seen. You are perfectly OK with us bombing the house of a terrorist and killing him and whoever is their with him including women and children but boy let him listen to loud music for 30 minutes and that just unacceptable.
#107 | Posted by buzkiller at 2009-04-25 02:03 PM

No. YOU are perfectly fine with bombing anything with little to no actionable intelligence. YOU plainly cannot appreciate the gravity of such "power" and could never wield it.

Alyssa Peterson certainly DID understand and experienced incredibly damning moral dilemmas.

YOU are perfectly fine with bombing anything with little to no actionable intelligence.

You could get into big trouble for bombing congress.

from the article --

...Kayla Williams, a woman who served with Alyssa,...also was forced to take part in torture interrogations, where she saw detainees punched. Another favorite technique: strip the prisoners and then remove their blindfolds so that the first thing they saw was Kayla Williams.

YOU are perfectly fine with bombing anything with little to no actionable intelligence.

You could get into big trouble for bombing congress.
#110 | Posted by goatman at 2009-04-25 03:18 PM

That's why I always pay a hobo in 40oz's to do my dirty work. My lice-infested indigent armada of the streets.

"Anthrax pizza delivery? Did anyone order in? HEY, you guys shut up, I'm trying to figure out to whom this deadly Department of Defense classified bioweapon is delivered! Jesus Christ you Chatty Cathys are hungry.."

Hey, the ranking Republican on something likens Guantanamo to Club Med. If a rank Repub sez so, it's GOTTA be true. herm