DebateGate

I assume you actually intended to reply to me.

No, it was specific to H's snide unprovoked accusation of my stupidity

Fund nationally with income tax, which should go back to 1940 levels.

Amend the Constitution to mandate that the Fed Provide such care 1st, then we'll talk.  If it's so desired by so many, should be no problem, right?

Pardon my controlled bluntness, but after reading this article, for those BDS folks & anti-war folks who still spew the dren of how we "torture & abuse" the prisoners we capture in this current war, comparable to what terrorists perform on their prisoners and who could give a flying flip at the Geneva Convention, your continued asanine portrayals of just how thug like and evil our Military & Administration are, simply demonstrates how utterly devoid you folks are at objectivity and critical reasoning


A DEADLY KINDNESS

AT GITMO, PC RULES LET QAEDAS PLOT ON
by RICHARD MINITER
 
September 15, 2006 -- GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA
ON the military plane back from America's most fa mous terrorist holding pen, the in-flight film was "V for Vendetta," a screed that tries to justify terrorism. It was a fitting end to a surreal, military-sponsored trip.

The Pentagon seemed to be hoping to disarm its critics by showing them how well it cares for captured terrorists. The trip was more alarming than disarming. I spent several hours with Rear Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., who heads the joint task force that houses and interrogates the detainees. (The military isn't allowed to call them "prisoners.")

Harris, a distinguished Navy veteran who was born in Japan and educated at Annapolis and Harvard, is a serious man trying to do a politically impossible job. I spoke with him at length, and with a dozen other officers and guards, and visited three different detention blocks.

The high-minded critics who complain about torture are wrong. We are far too soft on these guys - and, as a result, aren't getting the valuable intelligence we need to save American lives.

The politically correct regulations are unbelievable. Detainees are entitled to a full eight hours sleep and can't be woken up for interrogations. They enjoy three meals and five prayers per day, without interruption. They are entitled to a minimum of two hours of outdoor recreation per day.

Interrogations are limited to four hours, usually running two - and (of course) are interrupted for prayers. One interrogator actually bakes cookies for detainees, while another serves them Subway or McDonald's sandwiches. Both are available on base. (Filet o' Fish is an al Qaeda favorite.)

Interrogations are not video or audio taped, perhaps to preserve detainee privacy.

Call it excessive compassion by a nation devoted to therapy, but it's dangerous. Adm. Harris admitted to me that a multi-cell al Qaeda network has developed in the camp. Military intelligence can't yet identify their leaders, but notes that they have cells for monitoring the movements and identities of guards and doctors, cells dedicated to training, others for making weapons and so on.

And they can make weapons from almost anything. Guards have been attacked with springs taken from inside faucets, broken fluorescent light bulbs and fan blades. Some are more elaborate. "These folks are MacGyvers," Harris said.

Other cells pass messages from leaders in one camp to followers in others. How? Detainees use the envelopes sent to them by their attorneys to pass messages. (Some 1,000 lawyers represent 440 prisoners, all on a pro bono basis, with more than 18,500 letters in and out of Gitmo in the past year.) Guards are not allowed to look inside these envelopes because of "attorney-client privilege" - even if they know the document inside is an Arabic-language note written by a prisoner to another prisoner and not a letter to or from a lawyer.

That's right: Accidentally or not, American lawyers are helping al Qaeda prisoners continue to plot.

There is little doubt what this note-passing and weapons-making is used for. The military recorded 3,232 incidents of detainee misconduct from July 2005 to August 2006 - an average of more than eight incidents per day. Some are nonviolent, but the tally includes coordinated attacks involving everything from throwing bodily fluids on guards (432 times) to 90 stabbings with homemade knives.

One detainee slashed a doctor who was trying to save his life; the doctors wear body armor to treat their patients.

The kinder we are to terrorists, the harsher we are to their potential victims.

Striking the balance between these two goods (humane treatment, foreknowledge of deadly attacks) is difficult, but the Bush administration seems to lean too far in the direction of the detainees. No expense spared for al Qaeda health care: Some 5,000 dental operations (including teeth cleanings) and 5,000 vaccinations on a total of 550 detainees have been performed since 2002 - all at taxpayer expense. Eyeglasses? 174 pairs handed out. Twenty two detainees have taxpayer-paid prosthetic limbs. And so on.

What if a detainee confesses a weakness (like fear of the dark) to a doctor that might be useful to interrogators, I asked the doctor in charge, would he share that information with them? "My job is not to make interrogations more efficient," he said firmly. He cited doctor-patient privacy. (He also asked that his name not be printed, citing the potential for al Qaeda retaliation.)

Food is strictly halal and averages 4,200 calories per day. (The guards eat the same chow as the detainees, unless they venture to one of the on-base fast-food joints.) Most prisoners have gained weight.

Much has been written about the elaborate and unprecedented appeal process. Detainees have their cases reviewed once a year and get rights roughly equivalent to criminals held in domestic prisons. I asked a military legal adviser: In what previous war were captured enemy combatants eligible for review before the war ended? None, he said.

America has never faced an enemy who has so ruthlessly broken all of the rules of war - yet never has an enemy been treated so well.

Of Gitmo's several camps, military records show that the one with the most lenient rules is the one with the most incidents and vice versa. There is a lesson in this: We should worry less about detainee safety and more about our own.

Some 20 current detainees have direct personal knowledge of the 9/11 attacks and nearly everyone of the current 440 say they would honored to attack America again. Let's take them at their word.


 



http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/a_deadly_kindness_opedcolumnists_richard_miniter.htm

Falling Gas Prices Leads NBC, But Williams Raises Election Motive

     NBC anchor Brian Williams deserves kudos for, on one night at least, giving as high a priority to declining gas prices as he and the media gave when they were rising, but then he suggested a political motive. Williams led Wednesday's NBC Nightly News by acknowledging the plunging prices and his own newscast's inaccurate predictions: "If you have filled your tank lately, then you've noticed. After some dire predictions on this broadcast and elsewhere that prices were rocketing to $4 a gallon, gas prices are coming down" to an average of $2.50 per gallon.

     Reporter Anne Thompson attributed the fall to greater supplies and to no interruptions from hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. Thompson concluded, however, on a downbeat note: "Despite the decreases, analysts warn that we are just one hurricane or one major political crisis away from higher prices." Williams then raised wild speculation about oil executives, with the ability to open a "big spigot," manipulating prices for political advantage, "Now Anne, as you know there are skeptics and there are cynics out there who say there's nothing to make voters happier than paying less for gasoline and they're going to wonder: Did somebody just open a big spigot?" Thompson rejected his premise: "No, that's not true..."

     Williams teased the September 20 NBC Nightly News: "Suddenly, prices are plummeting at the gas pump. Why now and for how long?"

     Williams opened his newscast, as taken down by the MRC's Brad Wilmouth:
     "Good evening. If you have filled your tank lately, then you've noticed. After some dire predictions on this broadcast and elsewhere that prices were rocketing to $4 a gallon, gas prices are coming down. The two big questions tonight appear to be how far and why is this happening? First, some stats to begin with. The price of oil was down another $1.20 today to close at $60.46. Gas prices, which hit their peak six weeks ago at $3.04 a gallon, are today down to $2.50. That's on average. It's even cheaper in some places. So we'll begin there tonight. NBC News chief financial correspondent Anne Thompson is with us from the pumps with more. Anne, good evening."

     After outlining the increased supplied and running soundbites from happy drivers, Thompson concluded from an outside location in New York City:
     "Despite the decreases, analysts warn that we are just one hurricane or one major political crisis away from higher prices. Brian"

     Williams then asked her: "Now Anne, as you know there are skeptics and there are cynics out there who say there's nothing to make voters happier than paying less for gasoline and they're going to wonder: Did somebody just open a big spigot?"
     Thompson explained: "No, that's not true. Think about where we were six weeks ago, Brian: The fears were the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah would spread to oil producing countries in the Middle East and BP was having huge pipeline problems at its Alaska oil field that threatened to shut the oil field down. Only half that oil field closed and the fighting never spread to those other countries in the Middle East and that has taken some of the worry out of the price of oil and gasoline."

Congratulations?
 

The UN had everything to do with the forum it provided.  Once an organization focused on dealing with global conflicts and sincere attempts at dealing with such, now simply caters to American Bashing, anti-semetic tripe, and calls it diplomacy.  One big International Elitist debating society, where their word means nothing, and their enforcement of their own resolutions means even less

Hmmmmm, she must have missed seeing the question again              At least that's the only thing that comes to mind, since lanya appeared to be taking a more principled stand at answering questions.  Or so I was lead to believe.  Perhaps that's where the irony is