A Rational Military?

Finally, some good news about Guantanamo Bay from someone who would know. A former prisoner there, Moheb Ullah Borezkzai, who was just freed said that Koran abuse stopped after an announcement over loudspeakers about a year ago. The announcement said that "U.S. service members have no right to touch Islam's holy book." Furthermore, Borezkzai noted that "During his three years at Guantanamo he never saw or heard claims from other prisoners of guards abusing the Koran by placing it in toilets. But he said he had seen guards throw the Koran two or three times." However, that was still fairly offensive to the Muslim prisoners. But once the announcement was made, behavior changed. According to the article, Borezkzai reported, "'there has been no abuse of the Koran since last year.'" And further commented that "During Muslim prayer times, guards now are silent and are 'not even talking to each other.'"

Overall I think this shows great progress. Among other things, it shows that the US leadership really did move to change things at GITMO to make sure the conditions were not inhumane. It also shows that when the leadership orders a change that things really do change. Finally, it casts a lot of doubt on the portrayal of GITMO as anywhere near as terrible as we have been led to believe. And all this from the mouth of a prisoner, not a US official, or even a US citizen. GITMO is no day spa, but its not a Nazi torture camp, either. And the best result of all of this is there is now a free man in Afghanistan who was a prisoner at GITMO who can combat the propaganda flowing in his country. Hopefully he will.

I'm sure that those who believe that the military is only capable of evil and that Bush/Rove is a mastermind orchestrating everything behind the scenes to deceive us will have theories for why this report cannot be believed. They may say it's all lies. They may say that we made a deal with this prisoner, granting him freedom in return for good press. They may say any number of things. But to me the words of a former prisoner who was there for three years and could say anything he wanted carry a lot more weight than an anonymous report by an agent who was there for a few hours or maybe days. And they carry infinitely more weight than those of a reporter who may or may not have actually gone to GITMO before he/she wrote a report. Yes, he may be lying or he may not know about the worst of what has gone on at GITMO, but I am far more inclined to believe him than anyone else so far.