Ample evidence of torture at Gitmo. And elsewhere. Hell, we do things to US prisoners in the USA that qualify as inhumane treatment and torture under international law.

we have been running Gitmo for the past 6 years.

calling for it's shutdown on several occasions but was always answered with a resounding chorus of bullshit from the GOP.

Ignoring the fact they rape, kill, mutilate women and children and force others into religious dogma.

an United States run facility? Does it make it all better that they were tortured?


Tikki

Maybe we should be equally concerned with what is being done in our name by our military?

While I certainly don't think anyone here believe the Taliban are righteous by any means, I also don't see how debasing ourselves to their level assists justice in any way...

Nor do I see anyone ignoring what they have done. Recognizing our own faults does not diminish in any way the faults of others-- except maybe to hacks, simpletons and the under-educated.

I like that logic. It's so malleable. All I have to do is define somebody as a pox on the world and I can pretty much do anything I want to them without being held responsible for it.

they have no bases around the world as we do. They have never gone outside their country to attack another country. They are fighting us and killing us when they can because we are THERE!! They are strict religious conservatives...similar to our RW evangelicals only more brutal. But you need to check out what happens to some of our own women and children in some of these so-called Christian cults. The Taliban are not people I would choose to live with but they are far from being a pox on the WORLD.

Their Quranic worldview is off the charts. Taleb means "book" and they aren't talking about "Gone With The Wind," either.

The way they treat women is nothing short of disgraceful. It's barbaric, in fact. The last time they held sway in Afghanistan, they outlawed music, dancing, clean-shaven males, anything that had any resemblance to "fun." And of course, the beekeeper suits for the women--don't show an ankle or you will be beaten!

of our military?

Will that be blamed on rescuing Bergdahl by trading 5 dangerous prisoners from Gitgo?

Or will the attack be blamed on the fact the 5 were abused and tortured while in Gitmo and it's payback time?

Makes for a muddy situation, doesn't it?

Keeping people locked up for 13 years while you torture them & their buddies repeatedly while not giving them any type of trial or possible release date pretty much guarantees an enemy.

I seriously doubt that our elected government honestly believes any of the BS they give, or the BS they get, as the real reasons for aggresion towards other countires or groups.
That being said, the good ole USa has most certainly done decades of enough overt and covert activities in countless other countries
to rile up a whole lot of people.

Point of information: the Taliban never attacked the United States.

against their country. This article tells me they are in worse condition than Bergdahl.

Please understand the difference between Al Queda and Taliban. It is an important distinction.

Then there was a determined effort by the Bush Administration and its lapdog press to conflate the two in the minds of the populace. Now, too many people see them as the same entity.

They are definitely different entities. In fact, the Taliban wasn't all that cozy with Al Qaeda at the time of the 9/11 attacks. Bin Laden established himself in the lawless regions of Afghanistan and the Taliban were unable to force him to leave.

train there and be there. That was the excuse for attacking.

Further, we have been at war with Afghanistan, of which the Taliban are seen as a legitimate political faction. Bergdahl was a POW, and so were the Taliban members released from Gitmo.

The war is ending soon, so they would have been released anyway....others will too when the time comes. They can't just sit there and rot indefinitely; we didn't do that with Nazi soldiers after WWII. Either try and convict them or let them go.

Your questions echo right wing hysteria.

I guess I should have used a "sarcasm" thingie!

Didn't really come across as sarcasm, especially the last sentence.

didn't make that at all clear. I KNEW what I meant, but didn't make it clear to others. Sorry.

constitution. They just want things their way, and jingoistic bumper sticker slogans incorporating those terms are often convenient tools to peddle their empty headed mean spirited bullshit.

... That makes it true?

Who is 'if he'?


Tikki

Gitmo (and black site) torture as "enhanced interrogation techniques"?

My point is that he came right out and called it "abuse" and "torture", as if there is no debate. That is highly unusual and was probably an unapproved and unscripted statement.

I think the rest of the world looks at our "enhanced interrogation techniques" as what is really is: torture.

Thank you, Dr. Frist.

are determining it from a completey vague mention in an article.

Which these pictures trump in terms of evidence.

Good to see you, Daemons.

And no, I'm not a sock puppet for "Daemons."

That some of the Gitmo POW's have been left insane by the torture and mental abuse and there is no place that could accept them unless they could be housed in some protective facility to make sure the get their Zyprexa, Sertraline, and Abilify so they won't go berserker on them.

You know how that asymmetrical warfare requires having rags stuffed down your gullet as a method of 'suicide' to get back at your captors.

And no one remembers 'The US soldier Beaten at Guantonimo Bay' story as confirmation of the harsh techniques used on detainees.

Our county right or wrong has been pretty Damn wrong on this.

We do things that we'd gleefully call torture if other people did it, but when we do it it's uh...freedom interrogations.

The other I-word is too scary.

there reason that it is forbidden in the Geneva rules.

is a term thrown around in the media.

The entire world knows some of what the Gitmos and many others 'captured' by our military went through. Even some guards wrote stories about the prisoners who scream all night. They had to ask for toilet paper, because the guards were warned "they could make weapons" out of toilet paper.

I thought it was a good thing, the day President Obama took office he mandated the change in Gitmo treatment. He tried to close it then and still keeps on trying.

Republicans/congress- need to allow Gitmo to be closed and give the land and bay back to Cuba.

We will hopefully get GITMO closed, but I can't see us giving up the base in the near term. It's one handy piece of real estate.

I think Qatar will get some "flies with honey" information off of those guys. Qatar has an interest in assisting us; they also have an interest in establishing and maintaining good regional relationships. They are perfectly situated to pivot between the two interest groups.

Qatar will handle this fine, there won't be much info these prisoners can share other than their bad treatment.

Sure Qatar has a good relationship. I know Americans/others who worked, live there for years. It's a great place to live & work. Other than they don't care for pet dogs much

Or maybe it is just a bad place for construction workers.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/over-900-workers-have-already-died-building-qatars-world-cup-facilities-180950088/?no-ist
http://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/the_case_against_qatar_en_web170314.pdf

Roosevelt Roads some years ago and we need a regional presence with husbanding/fleet freight capabilities in a secure environment for USN vessels. GITMO is compact, handy and does the trick.

Dogs are not man's best friend throughout the Middle East. It's one of the stupidest cultural disconnects on the planet and one I just don't get--I supposed the Prophet, PBUH, didn't care for them, and that's the reason--but that is definitely a loss for the people of the area. I will say, the feral dogs in the region are so damn smart, they KNOW right off if someone is a good person or not. Get yourself one of those dogs, and you are getting a "human smart" dog who is so attuned to personalities and intentions that they can spot a jerk at a thousand paces.

They sure are better with the 'big dogs' horses than America, by a long shot.

Today we do not need Gitmo anymore. The DOD 'wants' be damned. That is Cuba's land and they deserve it back.

DOD can put up a floating platform in the open sea and have their 'secure' shipping or pay land rent to someone in Miami or South America.

Probably won't have an opportunity for awhile.

GITMO will stay on the books, I can't see it going away. It's too fine a facility that has enjoyed regular upgrades. It has strategic utility as well. It is an "offshore" gray area and -- like it or not -- those come in handy on occasion.

If we wanted a base in Miami, we wouldn't pay rent to anyone. We'd take the land, pay what we regarded as fair market value for it, and do our thing. We don't want a base in Miami, though. We don't want one in Panama, either. We gave that up, along with our Naval base in PR.

The decision-making tree that led us to keep Gitmo over Rosie Roads considered a number of factors, including ones that had plausible deniability at their core. I don't see that changing at least in the near term. Further, if we rapproche with Cuba, THEY will probably want us to stay. Why? Because we'd hire Cubans hand over fist, and we'd once again become a big employer to contribute to the economy. We used to hire Cubans, in fact, for years, even after Castro took power, we had Cuban workers on the base who had to change clothes completely to come in/go out. They were an oddball 'exception to the rule,' and as they retired, they got their pensions. Much easier to hire locals than have to import people, which is what we do now--there isn't a large enough dependent population at the base to handle all the civilian/MWR jobs, so Jamaicans fill a lot of those positions.

I think the world knows the difference by now. Though maybe about 47.2% of Americans don't even remember or care who shrub or darth were.

If they weren't terrorists when they went in, they are now--or at least have plenty of motivation.

would have you believe this 5 guys are 10 feet tall.