Monday, June 13, 2005

Gitmo "Too Tough" on Would-be Murderers

Check out this story from CNN about the treatment of a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It seems that the US military is accused by Congressmen (Hagel and Feinstein) of using excessive force in their attempts to gain information from detainee Mohammed al-Qahtani.

The horrors included making Mr. al-Qahtani urinate in his pants, late night interrogation sessions, and awakening him with dripping water if he fell asleep. In fact, the staff at Gitmo went so far as to awaken Mr. al-Qahtani with Christina Aguilera music. Oh, the horror! No wonder the Muslim world hates Americans!

By the way, it is widely believe that Mohammed al-Qahtani was to be the fifth hijacker on Flight 93 which crashed in Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001. According to the Pentagon, al-Qahtani told interrogators that he "had been sent to the U.S. by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the lead architect of the 9/11 attack; that he had met Osama bin Laden on several occasions; that he had received terrorist training at two al Qaeda camps; that he had been in contact with many senior al Qaeda leaders."

So putting all the pieces together, let's summarize: The United States has an admitted terrorist in custody, a man who has been dedicating his life to learning how to murder Americans, and attempted to enter the United States to participate in the September 11 attacks. In order to gather information from this man, we've humiliated him and made him listen to Christina Aguilera. Am I the only one who thinks that our interrogation techniques do not even approach "excessive"?

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