Wednesday
June 22, 2005
'THE NASTIEST OF PRISONERS:' I have no idea why this
Tim Chavez column about Tennessee National Guardsman John
Krenson didn't get more attention:
And
as an intelligence specialist, he [Krenson] came face to face
with the kind of men incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay....
"I
worked with people who had worked at Gitmo earlier, I worked
with people who worked at the primary detention facility in
AFG, and I visited that facility many times. I saw detainees
(many times on their prayer rugs, other times reading, other
times talking when they were not allowed to). I saw the interrogation
rooms. I worked with the soldiers and the leaders who ran this
place.
"I
know those operations fairly well, and I got to know the people
who ran those operations — both active duty and reservists.
They are normal Americans. They are good decent people who believed
in what they were doing. Americans — including Sen. Durbin
— can be and should be proud of them.
"Be
assured the worst of the worst detainees are the ones at Gitmo.
It took a lot of effort to get a detainee shipped over …
. They are no victims. … Their victims are most often
Afghan villagers who have risked their lives simply to vote
or are construction and aid workers from around the world who
are assisting Afghanistan to modernize and develop. The detainees
at Gitmo are the ringleaders and verified trigger-pullers in
these incidents.
"This
is serious business with tens and hundreds of thousands of lives
at stake. People have already lost lives because we've released
Gitmo detainees. I read those reports, when they were captured
— a second time. I can't print the words we used in AFG
when we found out a soldier died at the hands of a terrorist
released from Gitmo. Gitmo didn't make them want to
kill again. Their release allowed them to kill again."
(emphasis added)
Hugh
Hewitt's interview with a Gitmo veteran yesterday told a similar
story: these are some awfully nasty people we're dealing with
at Gitmo. That's something too often glossed over in the debate.
And while they deserve to be treated humanely, they don't deserve
our sympathy.
The process
of detaining, interrogating, and adjudicating cases against prisoners
at Gimo is an extraordinarily difficult task with very serious
consequences - one which I think most people would conclude our
men and women in uniform are doing as admirably and honorably
as possible.
Chavez finished
his column on Guardsman Krenson with words I don't think can be
emphasized enough:
Americans
trust our military to do the right thing — at Gitmo or
wherever — in balancing the need for information and also
be humane. A recent Gallup poll showed 74% of Americans surveyed
expressed trust in the military. That's because the military
is us. And more John Krensons returning home alive as deacons
in their churches, fathers in their families and heroes in their
communities is most important — not the political agendas
of U.S. senators and big media.
-
T. Bevan 9:15 am Link
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