Okay, regarding Guantanamo Bay....
1. I agree that holding people without formal charges sucks. That should be stopped.
2. The perception of what's going on at Guantanamo is way off. No one's using thumbscrews on the prisoners. No one's getting their eyes gouged out. No one's having hot pokers shoved up their... you know.
Time Magazine got its hands on an interrogation log of what goes on at Gitmo.
-The detainee's physical condition is frequently checked by medical corpsmen sometimes as often as three times a day which indicates either spectacular concern about al-Qahtani s health or persistent worry about just how much stress he can take.
-...the interrogators could use stress strategies like standing for prolonged periods, isolation for as long as 30 days, removal of clothing, forced shaving of facial hair, playing on individual phobias (such as dogs) and mild, non-injurious physical contact such as grabbing, poking in the chest with the finger and light pushing.
-Techniques Rumsfeld balked at included use of a wet towel or dripping water to induce the misperception of suffocation.
-...the log shows that interrogators poured bottles of water on al-Qahtani's head when he refused to drink. Interrogators called this game Drink Water or Wear It.
-The quizzing now starts at midnight, and when Detainee 063 dozes off, interrogators rouse him by dripping water on his head or playing Christina Aguilera music.
-According to the log, his handlers at one point perform a puppet show satirizing the detainee's involvement with al-Qaeda.
You get the idea. These are definitely measures to get someone to talk, but compared to what North Korea or China or Russia does on a regular basis, we're treating the detainees with kid gloves.
Which brings me to my last point: why is everyone up in arms over what goes on a Guantanamo Bay but the true torture that goes on in other countries is virtually ignored? People actually die in North Korea, and for crimes like being politically opposed to the regime.
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