Allen West: Holiday at Guantanamo Bay

By Brandon K. Thorp Fri., Mar. 4 2011 at 3:05 PM

Gitmo!

Today, The Sun Sentinel reported that Allen West intends to tour Guantanamo Bay. West said: "Guantanamo Bay serves a crucial role in our national security, and I am confident that my visit will reaffirm my belief in its importance." Truly, words to inspire belief in the congressman's impartiality.

Before West traipses off to do his reaffirming, I'd like to lob a request in the general direction of Guantanamo's minders: For the love of God, don't let him near your prisoners.

It's gonna be hard enough figuring out what to do with these people. Whether they're guilty, innocent, or anything in between, it's arguable whether any of them will ever see a proper trial after we've stomped so severely on international law and the dicta of our own judicial system by holding onto them so long. The last thing we need is for Col. West to get nostalgic and start unloading his pistol near the prisoners' heads. Then we'll never get to try them.

About that. Yes, the Colonel was probably just doing what he thought was necessary when he illegally tortured and mock-executed Yahya Jhodri Hamoodi in 2003. But why are his fans still spinning the event to make it look like some decisive blow against a terrorist plot? West's Wikipedia page still suggests that the interrogation foiled a planned ambush, and Ann Coulter says West's interrogation of Hamoodi saved lives. According to whom? Not according to West, who's admitted he might have made a mistake in singling out Hamoodi as a collaborator. And not the military, which released Hamoodi without charging him with any crime after 45 days of incarceration. Why the unnecessary whitewash? And if there's gonna be a whitewash, it is really appropriate for Col. West to make proclamations about Guantanamo's efficacy and importance? At its worst, Guantanamo's not guilty of doing anything West hasn't already admitted to doing himself.

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Allen West, Guantanamo Bay

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Sofian Abdelaziz Zakkout

Is Allen West visiting the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to stop torture. Or is he visiting the detainees to see if any one been years without proof of wrong doing. I think Allen West is visiting the facility for the plusure of satisfiying his hate by seeing Muslims suffering. That how much Allen West hate Islam and Muslims. If I am wrong, any one can give me a reason why Allen West visiting the facility? By Sofian Zakkout, www.amanavoice.com

Adamsjefferson

Gitmo detainees return to terrorism:

http://www.reuters.com/article...

One thought on Gitmo: install a guillotine!

Stop with cable TV, soccer time, basketball court, ice cream, video games, etc.

Adamsjefferson

I think Islamocollaborators such a this writer, who writes a hit-piece on Allen West at least once a week (sounds like a paid Democrat agitator to me), should be tried for treason at some point in the future.

Allen West is a hero: he put the lives of his men first in Iraq, unlike Washington traitors.

He will make a great Commander in Chief.

Donations:

https://www.allenwestforcongre...

Virgil Starkwell

Tried for treason for exercising his first amendment rights?

As if we needed any further evidence to prove that you are a fascist pig.

Adamsjefferson

Pot calling the kettle black, you 21st century Nazi collaborator. Islam is worse than National socialism.There is a difference between free speech and collaboration and lies and propaganda to further an agenda.

Virgil Starkwell

There is a difference between someone who is lucid with a brain and you. A big difference.

Adamsjefferson

Make a contribution to American hero Allen West:

https://www.allenwestforcongre...

KennyPowersSays

Do you tithe to Allen West? You know 10 % for god.

Virgil Starkwell

Do you know Joseph Cooke? He's a broken record too.

KennyPowersSays

Maybe this will be Saba al Boor redux.. Don't let him hold any weapons while touring.

Virgil Starkwell

Lifelong Republican, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, who was General Colin Powell's Chief of Staff during George W. Bush's first term, has this to offer about GITMO. And his opinions are based on personal knowledge of military intelligence.

1) Many detainees locked up at Guantanamo were innocent men swept up by U.S. forces unable to distinguish enemies from noncombatants.

2) "There are still innocent people there," "Some have been there six or seven years."

3) "It did not matter if a detainee were innocent. Indeed, because he lived in Afghanistan and was captured on or near the battle area, he must know something of importance,"

4) Vetting on the battlefield during the early stages of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan was incompetent with no meaningful attempt to discriminate "who we were transporting to Cuba for detention and interrogation."

5) "U.S. leadership became aware of this lack of proper vetting very early on and, thus, of the reality that many of the detainees were innocent of any substantial wrongdoing, had little intelligence value, and should be immediately released."

6) Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney fought efforts to address the situation, Wilkerson said, because "to have admitted this reality would have been a black mark on their leadership."

7) Many detainees "clearly had no connection to al Qaeda and the Taliban and were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Pakistanis turned many over for $5,000 a head."

8) Some 800 men have been held at Guantanamo since the prison opened in January 2002, and 240 remain, but only 2 dozen are actual terrorists. TWO DOZEN!

Lets recap.

GITMO held innocent men for years, men who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. These men were never read their rights and have not received a trial to confront their accusers and the evidence against them. The neo-conservative fascists in the Bush administration became aware of this early on, but initially didn't care to do anything about it because it would make them look bad.

Of the approximate 800 men held at GITMO, maybe 12 of them are terrorists. a dozen.

So, my conservative friends, those are what we call FACTS!, as opposed to what most of you spew, which is called propaganda. So, in light of these FACTS, what pearls of wisdom are going to be rolling off the tongue of Alan West?

Is it gong to be the same bullshit fascist propaganda about the world's most dangerous terrorists being held at GITMO?, because if it is, we all know now that is bullshit!

http://articles.sfgate.com/200...

Fishymish

West did not try to hide from his actions. He immediately informed his superiors. He provided testimony. He retired. End of story.

So WHAT if he scared some guy while interrogating him. We're not going to let our military do their best to protect us because we're worried about them being SCARY?

KennyPowersSays

He took a deal. He avoided a court martial proceeding, paid a $5000 fine and was allowed to keep his pension. Not exactly retiring with honor or with a not guilty verdict from his alleged crime.