Guantanamo: A Living Hell?

For some absurd reason, President Obama decided to make public documents that showed the world the techniques we used to assist in extracting information from terrorist prisoners at Guantanamo. According to our new president, we have been commanded to stop calling these murderers, terrorists. It’s not good for our image and relationships.

So what exactly did we do at Guantanamo that was so torturous? Did we cut off fingers? Did we use electric drills and begin boring through prisoners skulls until they couldn’t stand it anymore? What about shock treatment or battery acid in the eyes?

Today Ann Coulter, in her usual manner, helps us troubled Americans come to grips with the dastardly deeds we used that stopped a major terror attack on Los Angeles.

The techniques used against the most stalwart al-Qaida members, such as Abu Zubaydah, included one terrifying procedure referred to as “the attention grasp.” As described in horrifying detail in the Justice Department memo, the “attention grasp” consisted of:

“(G)rasping the individual with both hands, one hand on each side of the collar opening, in a controlled and quick motion. In the same motion as the grasp, the individual is drawn toward the interrogator.”

The end.

Disturbing isn’t it! Sad to say, it gets much worse than that.

“Walling” (it’s so hard to speak of) is done after the prisoner is equipped with neck support, is forced against a soft plastic wall that makes a loud noise when he hits it. And if that isn’t enough, the memo says that interrogators actually invade the personal space of the detainee being questioned. Gasp!

I can’t even bring myself to describe the torture that must exist when interrogators are allowed to put a live caterpillar or even a ladybug, in the cell WITH THE PRISONER!

But lets get right down to the nitty gritty! It’s all about the waterboarding isn’t it? Of course we don’t really know what it is. I envision taking an old galvanized wash tub full of half sudsy, filthy water and an old fashioned scrub board. Then take the person and while at the same time dunking their heads in the water, rubbing their faces vigorously on the scrub board.

Or, as we used to do in high school to those who stole lunch money, hold them by the feet and dangle their head in the toilet and then flush it several times. Sometimes we even did it in a bowl that had only clear water in it.

Sorry! This isn’t quite the same. Waterboarding is a method that makes the person receiving the treatment feel like they might lose their breath for a second. Some liken it to drowning but that’s really not the case. Put a towel over the face and slowly pour water onto the towel.

Bear in mind that many of our own troops are waterboarded as part of their training. This way, in case they are captured by terrorists, who use real torture tactics, our troops will have an idea what they might expect…….”on their first date”.

Coulter says that releasing these memos has damaged our relationship with Arab countries because the memos are so laughable, they don’t believe them to be real.

At Al-Jazeera, they don’t believe these interrogation memos are for real. Muslims look at them and say: THIS IS ALL THEY’RE DOING? We do that for practice. We do that to our friends.

But The New York Times is populated with people who can’t believe they live in a country where people would put a caterpillar in a terrorist’s cell.

Tom Remington