General Defense

While prisoners reported mistreatments to military tribunals, Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers defends the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay in the wake of the Amnesty International report comparing Camp X-Ray to the Russian Gulags:

The Pentagon's top general yesterday defended the treatment of detainees at the U.S. Navy prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and said the United States thinks al Qaeda leader Abu Musab Zarqawi is wounded, though it is not known how badly.

Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the United States has done a good job of treating detainees humanely. Muslims in several countries have protested in recent weeks about allegations that a Koran was flushed down a toilet at Guantanamo Bay as part of the interrogation of a prisoner.

The human rights group Amnesty International released a report last week calling the prison camp "the gulag of our time."

Myers called that report "absolutely irresponsible." He said the United States is doing its best to detain fighters who, if released, "would turn right around and try to slit our throats, slit our children's throats."

"This is a different kind of struggle, a different kind of war," Myers said on "Fox News Sunday."

"We struggle with how to handle them, but we've always handled them humanely and with the dignity that they should be accorded."

[it should be noted that Myers was not wearing his Abbie Hoffman shirt at the time of his Fox News appearance. This was strictly for formal appearances on Memorial Day.]

Dick Cheney, also, was "offended" by the announcement by Amnesty International:

"For Amnesty International to suggest that somehow the United States is a violator of human rights, I frankly just don't take them seriously," he said in an interview that was to air Monday night on CNN's "Larry King Live."

Amnesty International was scathing last week in its criticism of the way the United States has run the detention center at its naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"We have documented that the U.S. government is a leading purveyor and practitioner of the odious human rights violation," William Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA, said Wednesday.

What is, of course, interesting about this whole issue is how quickly it turned around from Newsweek's fault to the Administration suddenly in defensive position. And, probably, rightfully so.

Keep writing those letters to congressfolk, folks!