Sunday, March 01, 2009

Getting into GITMO

This quote from Lt Colonel Gordon Cucullu's "Inside GITMO" helps temper the rhetoric and explain the conditions which set an individual up for confinement to Guantanamo Bay:

"...evacuation for a terrorist is not automatically assumed by American field force commanders; just the opposite. Evacuation is a needs-driven process.

"It must be strongly demonstrated that a particular individual merits in-depth interrogation, extra-secure confinement, or both. Hard questions are asked: Is there good and sufficient reason to think tha tby his possible position, access, or relationships he has high-value intelligence information? Do we consider him a high-level security threat? Has he confessed to being a bomb-maker, financier, ideologue, or possible martyr? Any of these reasons could be sufficient to get him a ride to Guantanamo." ~ Inside GITMO, pg 54

Not all terrorists, and certainly not all suspected terrorists, make it to Guantanamo Bay. In fact, of the thousands who have been screened, only a small percentage are moved to the isolated facility on the far eastern-edge of Cuba. Righteous, but well-meaning constitutional and human rights activists should bear this in mind, when advocating the release of these hardened radicals.

No comments: