Watch - "X-ray photographs"

"X-Ray Photographs"

"I had a nightmare that I was flying on an airplane with both a terrorist and Liberal MP John Godfrey. The terrorist tried to ignite the fuse in his shoe bomb and blow the plane to smithereens. As the other passengers jumped all over him and strapped him down with belts and ties, Mr. Godfrey leaped to his feet and started shouting, 'Remember the Geneva Convention!'" (Margaret Wente)

News and commentary on the debate on the treatment of the prisoners at Camp X-Ray.

June 2002
"From Camp X-Ray to Eggshell City" (The Washington Times, 2002/06/01)

March 2002
"U.S. Adds Legal Rights In Tribunals" (John Mintz, The Washington Post, 2002/03/21)
"Egyptian Columnist: Guantanamo is the Real Auschwitz" (Special Dispatch No. 351, MEMRI, 2002/03/05)

February 2002
"Aftermath of war" (Alistair Cooke, BBC News, 2002/02/04)

January 2002
"Egyptian Government Daily: America's Torture of Al-Qa'ida Prisoners Worse Than Hitler's Treatment of Jewish and Christian 'Rivals'" (MEMRI, Special Dispatch No. 340, 2002/01/31)
"Saudi bomb victim's torture ordeal - and Britain's silence" (Paul Kelso, The Guardian, 2002/01/31)
"Camp X-Ray exposes a deeper malaise" (Fatima Najm, Arab News, 2002/01/31)
"X-Ray, From Close Up - The only thing tortured is the anti-American arguments" (Toby Harnden, The Wall Street Journal, 2002/01/30)
"Let Them Be P.O.W.'s" (Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times, 2002/01/29)
"Bush Reconsiders Stand on Treating Captives of War" (Katharine Q. Seylee et al., The New York Times, 2002/01/29)
"Detainees Are Not P.O.W.'s, Cheney and Rumsfeld Declare" (Katharine Q. Seylee, The New York Times, 2002/01/28)
"Pity the al-Qa'eda detainees, being guarded by women" (Barbara Amiel, The Daily Telegraph, 2002/01/28)
"The Jackals Are Wrong" (Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post, 2002/01/25)
"Tolerance does not mean stupidity" (Marianne M. Jennings, Jewish World Review, 2002/01/24)
"Rumsfeld Defends U.S. Treatment of Detainees in Cuba" (Katharine Q. Seeyle, The New York Times, 2002/01/23)
"Atrocities in Guantanamo and other Fruit Loops tales" (Margaret Wente, The Globe and Mail, 2002/01/22)
"X-ray photographs" (The Times, 2002/01/22)
"Don't shed any tears for prisoners in Cuba" (Clifford Orwin, National Post, 2002/01/21)
"Captive Britons have 'no complaints'" (BBC News, 2002/01/21)
"Not your business, Mr Straw" (The Daily Telegraph, 2002/01/21)
"The West's security rests safely in American hands" (Bruce Anderson, Independent, 2002/01/21)
"What the hell are you doing in OUR name Mister Blair?" (The Mirror, 2002/01/21)
"Stop this brutality in our name, Mister Blair" (The Mirror, 2002/01/20)

"From Camp X-Ray to Eggshell City" (The Washington Times, 2002/06/01)
"According to a former interpreter named William Tierney, the [Times of London] reports, the interrogation center at Guantanamo Bay has become "a politically correct regime that puts prisoners' complaints ahead of intelligence gathering." Washington, it seems, is less afraid of al Qaeda and the next attack than the human-rights lobby and the next report. So goodbye Gitmo, hello Eggshell City — the ultra-sensitive, politically correct (dare we say Clintonesque?) center for suspected terrorists, where only the guards have to suffer in silence, and a Marine can get himself transferred for being too tough. ... "Suspected terrorists are allowed to treat their captors with derision," the newspaper reports, "lying, chanting the Koran in unison, mocking and threatening guards and throwing water at them. Americans are under orders not to react roughly." ... "Prisoners were being treated so carefully, for fear of accusations of torture, that no serious pressure was being put on them to cooperate," the newspaper reports. Mr. Tierney says he doesn't believe in resorting to torture. "But we can't have it both ways," he explains. "We can't obtain the information we need without offending anyone." But how to do it when self-defense seems to mean never being offensive?"

"U.S. Adds Legal Rights In Tribunals" (John Mintz, The Washington Post, 2002/03/21)
"The Bush administration has settled on a complex set of military tribunal regulations more advantageous to al Qaeda and Taliban defendants than the guidelines President Bush originally issued in November, knowledgeable sources said yesterday. The new rules would require a unanimous vote of judges to impose the death penalty on convicted terrorists - not the two-thirds vote Bush had suggested in his Nov. 13 executive order establishing the tribunals. And while the president's original order barred appeals after conviction, the new regulations allow military officers to review a tribunal's decision on appeal."

"Egyptian Columnist: Guantanamo is the Real Auschwitz" (Special Dispatch No. 351, MEMRI, 2002/03/05)
"An article by Islamist Dr. Rif'at Sayyid Ahmad, titled "Guantanamo, the Auschwitz of the American era: J'accuse!!" recently appeared in the Lebanese daily Al-Liwa. ... '...We always see how human beings prey upon each other, how values are trampled, and how tragedies recur. This is exactly what happened, and is still happening, at the 'American Auschwitz' detention camp...excuse me, I meant the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay!! This is one of the worst deeds of the American era in which we live, and one of the most infamous of its crimes, and will go down in history if [history] is written by men of honor, not by traitors.'"

"Aftermath of war" (Alistair Cooke, BBC News, 2002/02/04)
"And as for the gusher of pious rage that sprang up from the dumb release of that wretched photograph of detainees shackled for a hazardous moment or two, I can only offer the first-hand testimony of a serious and respected British correspondent who's just been done there. He says, frankly, that what he saw for years in the prisons of Northern Ireland made Guantanamo look like a Holiday Inn. He found the men well-fed, with hot Muslim meals apart from various snacks and candy bars. They enjoy hot showers, they write home, they have room to jump around in. Perhaps the Pentagon would make up for its dumb blunder by releasing a new, true photograph of the whole 158 detainees standing alongside the 161 surgeons, doctors, paramedics and nurses assigned to them - 161 for 158 patients, a ration of personal medical care unknown I should think to prisoners anywhere or even I daresay to the English newspaper editors who are so outraged by the barbarity of American treatment."

"Egyptian Government Daily: America's Torture of Al-Qa'ida Prisoners Worse Than Hitler's Treatment of Jewish and Christian 'Rivals'" (MEMRI, Special Dispatch No. 340, 2002/01/31)
Al-Ahram outdoes even British tabloids in it's description of the treatment of the prisoners at Camp X-Ray: "Renowned Egyptian author and columnist for the Egyptian government daily Al-Ahram, Anis Mansour, describes the treatment of the Al-Qa'ida and Taliban prisoners as 'worse than prisoners under the Nazis.' Following are excerpts from his article: 'No one expected it to be turned into a base for torturing Al-Qa'ida members from Afghanistan, in a way unprecedented in history - worse than what Hitler did to his rivals from among the Jews and Christians. ... Hitler's soldiers burned, strangled, and then killed. But America's prisoners were transferred in planes, on [a trip] lasting twenty hours. Under normal circumstances, the trip would not have been exhausting. But what was done to the prisoners is abominable! ... In the solitary confinement cells, the darkness is absolute. Suddenly, [the Americans] shine a brilliant light and make aggressive [loud] noise for a few moments; then quiet and darkness are restored. Those moments are enough to make the prisoners blind, deaf, and brain-damaged.'"

"Saudi bomb victim's torture ordeal - and Britain's silence" (Paul Kelso, The Guardian, 2002/01/31)
It's interesting to note the difference between how Mr. Straw treated this case and his concern over the treatment of the prisoners at Camp X-Ray: "British victim of a terrorist explosion in Riyadh was tortured by Saudi secret police and forced to confess to the bombing in which he was injured, the Guardian can reveal. Ron Jones, 48, a tax adviser from Scotland, was seized from the hospital bed where he was recovering from the explosion by agents from the feared interior ministry, and taken to an interrogation centre where he was systematically tortured for 67 days. ... Mr Jones met the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, last August and told him his story. He was left in no doubt that the best policy was to keep quiet." (See also: "Not your business, Mr Straw" (The Daily Telegraph, 2002/01/21): "Yesterday's Mail on Sunday, on the basis of a few photographs, told its readers that the suspects had been "tortured". ... Responding to the tabloid outrage, the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, has raised the issue with the authorities.")

"Camp X-Ray exposes a deeper malaise" (Fatima Najm, Arab News, 2002/01/31)
An anti-American editorial criticizing the treatment of the prisoners at Camp X-Ray: "And yet, almighty America has decided it will do as it pleases with its prisoners: and to heck with international law. They have humiliated the prisoners by shaving their heads and beards, made them strip, and then wear a uniform that includes goggles to blind them, ear muffs to block sound and hoods to further disorient them. And gloves too. No wonder British tabloid headlines are screaming "TORTURE". It's sensory deprivation. Others have used this method as have the Israelis and now America has joined their infamous ranks. So much for civilized society." (See also: "Human Rights in Saudi Arabia: A Deafening Silence" (Human Rights Watch, December 2001) for some perspective on what constitutes a "civilized society".)

"X-Ray, From Close Up - The only thing tortured is the anti-American arguments" (Toby Harnden, The Wall Street Journal, 2002/01/30)
"The sad thing is that the British media don't care what's really happening. On the left, the story is a way to attack Donald Rumsfeld, who is the new European bogeyman now that it is no longer tenable to portray President Bush as an amiable doofus. ... The central rationale for Camp X-Ray is that proper interrogations need to be carried out and future al Qaeda attacks prevented. Guarding the inmates is dangerous but vital work. My own carping countrymen, who may well be saved from an atrocity in Britain as a result, stand to be among the principal beneficiaries of the exercise. But my advice to Americans would be to expect precious little thanks for it."

"Let Them Be P.O.W.'s" (Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times, 2002/01/29)
"When I first wrestled with this issue, I thought I was going to wind up endorsing President Bush's view that the prisoners are, as he put it today, "killers" rather than P.O.W.'s. But as I read the convention and talked to legal experts, it became clear that the administration's arguments, while initially persuasive, have the disadvantage of being wrong. ... But the law is clear: We should presume that detainees are P.O.W.'s and then convene a tribunal to sift among them and exclude those who did not fight in the Taliban army. This corresponds to what we did in the gulf war, when the first Bush administration meticulously followed the Geneva Conventions."

"Bush Reconsiders Stand on Treating Captives of War" (Katharine Q. Seylee et al., The New York Times, 2002/01/29)
"After a lengthy meeting with his national security team today, President Bush said he was reconsidering whether Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, should be protected under the Third Geneva Convention. But he quickly added that they were "killers" who would not be granted the status of prisoners of war. ... Secretary Powell agrees with the president's view that the captives should not be classified as prisoners of war, but he has sought to have the Bush administration affirm that the international law of war does govern the United States in its treatment of the captives."

"Detainees Are Not P.O.W.'s, Cheney and Rumsfeld Declare" (Katharine Q. Seylee, The New York Times, 2002/01/28)
"Mr. Rumsfeld told reporters traveling with him today to Guantánamo, "There is no ambiguity in this case." "They are not P.O.W.'s," he said before touring the United States naval base at Guantánamo, where 158 prisoners from Afghanistan are being held. "They will not be determined to be P.O.W.'s." Mr. Rumsfeld said he was touring the detention center, known as Camp X-Ray, not so much to inspect the conditions as to buck up the troops who are guarding the prisoners, whom he called 'among the most dangerous, best trained, vicious killers on the face of the earth.'"

"Pity the al-Qa'eda detainees, being guarded by women" (Barbara Amiel, The Daily Telegraph, 2002/01/28)
"The rhetorical device of a president declaring war on terrorism doesn't confer legal status on assassins under the Geneva Convention. Presidents have declared war on drugs, poverty and sin, but it hardly follows that the authorities have to treat arrested drug dealers as prisoners of war. This doesn't mean that the detainees have no rights or that they may be subjected to inhumane treatment. It simply means that they have no rights under the Geneva Conventions or any other convention regulating the conduct of belligerents."

"How ridiculous can you guys get" (Mark Steyn, The Spectator, from the 2002/01/26 issue)
"Still, my colleagues may be heartened to know that Britain’s getting far more attention for its anti-Americanism than it did when it was backing Bush 100 per cent. ... Your side really has got a coalition: Britain, Mary Robinson, the EU, UN, Red Cross. And it’s making quite an impression: many people over here had no idea quite how ridiculous you are. You’re shocked by us, we’re laughing at you. ... The West won’t work if every country’s Canada and every leader’s Trudeau. The only thing that enables Belgium to be Belgium and Norway to be Norway and Britain to be Britain is the fact that America’s America - for all the reasons my Spectator colleagues deplore."

"The Jackals Are Wrong" (Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post, 2002/01/25)
"An Iraqi soldier captured in Kuwait is a prisoner of war entitled to the protections of the Geneva Convention. An al Qaeda fighter captured anywhere is not. By self-definition, al Qaeda members are unlawful combatants, meaning people who fight outside the recognized rules of war. Among the distinguishing characteristics of unlawful combatants are these: They deliberately attack civilians, and they deliberately infiltrate among civilians by not wearing an insignia or uniform. ... You join al Qaeda, you join an outlaw army. You explicitly violate -- and thus forfeit the protection of -- the Geneva Convention. Indeed, denying such murderers POW rights vindicates the Geneva Convention and encourages others to adhere to it, by reserving its protections for those who observe its strictures."

"Tolerance does not mean stupidity" (Marianne M. Jennings, Jewish World Review, 2002/01/24)
"While the U.S. was the victim on September 11, it remains an apologist, running a global sensitivity seminar while trying to wage war. ... Reuters News Service has banned the term "terrorist" as judgmental. ... "Operation Enduring Freedom" was nearly halted during Ramadan because Muslim leaders hooted. The State Department wrung its hands. ... Hair removal was the only method for delousing that was available in Afghanistan. Prior to boarding them on ships bound for Guantanamo Bay the Navy felt it hygienically best that the men be shaved and shorn. War is hell. ... Military action and sensitivity don't mix. Lice trump religious beards. War trumps holiday breaks. Safety trumps offense. Tolerance does not mean stupidity."

"Rumsfeld Defends U.S. Treatment of Detainees in Cuba" (Katharine Q. Seeyle, The New York Times, 2002/01/23)
"Mr. Rumsfeld said it was "probably unfortunate" that the photographs were released, at least without an explanation. He said the prisoners had been photographed in a holding area just before their restraints were removed and they were put in their cages. "If you want to think the worst about things, you can," he said. But he argued that whenever prisoners, especially those who are dangerous and suicidal, are transported, it only makes sense to lock them in restraints. 'When they are being moved from place to place, will they be restrained in a way so that they are less likely to be able to kill an American soldier? You bet. Is it inhumane to do that? No. Would it be stupid to do anything else? Yes.'"

"Atrocities in Guantanamo and other Fruit Loops tales" (Margaret Wente, The Globe and Mail, 2002/01/22)
"I had a nightmare that I was flying on an airplane with both a terrorist and Liberal MP John Godfrey. The terrorist tried to ignite the fuse in his shoe bomb and blow the plane to smithereens. As the other passengers jumped all over him and strapped him down with belts and ties, Mr. Godfrey leaped to his feet and started shouting, "Remember the Geneva Convention!" ... There are a lot of people who are out to catch the Americans committing war crimes. They keep at it in the teeth of all the evidence. "Torture!" screamed the Daily Mail, a British tabloid, over a picture of some Taliban fighters in shackles. ... So far, there's not a shred of evidence that the Americans have mistreated anyone, unless you call forced shaving mistreatment." (Note: The Independent incidentally sees it as far worse than mistreatment: "To take one example, the shaving of heads and beards of some prisoners is not just degrading; it also hands America's enemies a priceless propaganda gift. It is almost as if America seems bent on confirming the claims of the fanatics that the war on terror was, in fact, a war on Islam." (The Independent, 2002/01/22))

"X-ray photographs" (The Times, 2002/01/22)
"The allies are fighting a fierce enemy, one that must not be underestimated. It is this realistic view of the position that explains both the treatment of the prisoners and the decision to publish photographs of them. ... Some believe releasing these photographs to be a bad blunder, undermining the moral case for the allies and strengthening Islamic fundamentalism. This is wrong. Despite brave talk about loving death the way that Westerners love life, many of the followers and potential followers of Osama bin Laden are moved by the threat and reality of force. Showing the toughness of the United States and its willingness to do what is necessary will not recruit new Muslim extremists, it will do the opposite."

"Don't shed any tears for prisoners in Cuba" (Clifford Orwin, National Post, 2002/01/21)
"But the Americans' main concern with these detainees cannot be to punish them. For so long as al-Qaeda remains a menace, trial and punishment are beside the point, except inasmuch as the threat of them facilitates intelligence gathering. Convictions won't help the Americans, but plea bargains can. ... Nothing the Americans have done so far presents a clear violation of international law. But we have to put first things first. A government's first duty is to defend its people. You be the U.S. President who informs his people that he would really have liked to do everything in his power to protect them from further acts of mass murder, but it would have offended Amnesty International. Should the West ever be so delusional as to respond to a lawless enemy by lapsing into feckless legalism, on that day - although I hate a cliché as much as the next man, still, there's no denying it: The Terrorists Will Have Won."

"Captive Britons have 'no complaints'" (BBC News, 2002/01/21)
One would think that the Guantanamo Bay prisoners themselves would complain if they were "brutalised, tortured and humiliated" as The Mirror formulated it yesterday: "The three British al-Qaeda suspects being held at Camp X-Ray in Cuba have "no complaints" about their treatment, according to British officials who have seen them. The three are in "good physical health" and are being treated well, they reported. ... The three British nationals in the camp were "able to speak freely and without inhibition," he added. 'There is no sign of any mistreatment.'"

"Not your business, Mr Straw" (The Daily Telegraph, 2002/01/21)
"Yesterday's Mail on Sunday, on the basis of a few photographs, told its readers that the suspects had been "tortured". This has sparked some predictable howls of rage from America's traditional foes on the Left - may [sic] of whom were oddly silent when the Taliban were practising genuine torture on their own citizens. ... Responding to the tabloid outrage, the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, has raised the issue with the authorities. ... Unless we have evidence that they have been wrongly arrested, we have no business interfering. America is a close ally, and a country with which we have an extradition treaty. We should be very sure of our ground before we start questioning the validity of its legal system. Perhaps Mr Straw would be better occupied in turning his mind to the question of why people raised in this country should feel so little loyalty to it that they are prepared to cross half the world to fight against us."

"The West's security rests safely in American hands" (Bruce Anderson, Independent, 2002/01/21)
"Yet some British newspapers, which normally know better, have been using the word "torture'' to describe the Americans' treatment of these Afghan irreconcilables. In order to remind themselves as to the meaning of the word torture, the editorial staffs ought to examine the pictures taken in the dungeons where the Taliban used to deal with its prisoners. Whips, bludgeons, flesh-tearing pincers; that was torture, and it was not administered during the brisk exigencies of a disciplined air flight. It was administered over months, and it caused hideous suffering. ... The treatment of the prisoners on Guantanamo is of a piece with the rest of the Bush administration's behaviour since 11 September. It is based on tough-minded, unillusioned realism. The President and his associates instantly understood that they were dealing with a ruthless, implacable foe who hated everything America stood for and all Americans. Discarding the option of surrender, there can only be one response to such a foe: kill or be killed."

"What the hell are you doing in OUR name Mister Blair?"
(The Mirror, 2002/01/21)

"Stop this brutality in our name, Mister Blair" (The Mirror, 2002/01/20)
An example of British medias hysterical overreaction to the fact that arriving Camp X-Ray prisoners were manacled and "forced to kneel". Never mind that even small scale offenders are routinely "forced to kneel" or even lie down by virtually all military and police forces around the world: "This is what is being done in the name of humanity, civilisation and the British people. These prisoners are trapped in open cages, manacled hand and foot, brutalised, tortured and humiliated. ... The treatment of the prisoners in Cuba is no more than a sick attempt to appeal to the worst red-neck prejudices. ... The President and his head-banging associates are proud of them, proud of the cruelty inflicted in their name, proud of the vengeance they are taking."

"When people accept futility and the absurd as normal, the culture is decadent. The term is not a slur; it is a technical label."

Jacques Barzun

Articles of the week

"Losing the Enlightenment" (Victor Davis Hanson, OpinionJournal, 2006/11/29)

"Allah’s England?" (Daniel Johnson, Commentary. November 2006)

"'Sex in the Park': The latest doings of the Danish imams" (Henrik Bering, The Weekly Standard, 2006/11/18)

"Narcissism on Stilts" (Harold Evans, New York Sun, 2006/11/16)

"Terrorists are recruiting in our schools, says MI5 boss" (Philip Johnston, The Daily Telegraph, 2006/11/10)

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Oriana Fallaci, R.I.P.

"The Rage, the Pride and the Doubt" (Oriana Fallaci, The Wall Street Journal, 2003/03/13)

"How the West Was Won and How It Will Be Lost" (Oriana Fallaci, The American Enterprise, from the January/February 2003 issue)

"On Jew-hatred in Europe" (Oriana Fallaci, dennisprager.com, 2002/04/13)

"Anger and Pride" (Oriana Fallaci, dennisprager.com, 2001/12/19)

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