C’mon, Veb. Take heart. This strategy worked for Joe McCarthy. 
Robin
As you probably know, I’m a Swede, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that many of my countrymen are right royally pissed about the whole thing.
Mr US9SWE000166, as he was always called by his captors as a name would make him too human, was a naïve young man (and haven’t we all been naïve young men or women?) who travelled to Pakistan to learn about Islam. He also made a short trip across the border to Afghanistan, but turned back when he heard the Americans had invaded. Back in Pakistan, he was captured by enterprising villagers and sold to the Pakistani police. He was no more a terrorist than you or me.
Once in Guantanamo, this charming Betty Ford clinic for recovering terrorists, he was introduced to what would become his home during the next two and a half years - a six by ten feet chickenwire cage furnished with the latest in minimalist bathroom design: a shitbucket.
He was tortured by being put in a freezing meatlocker during endless interogations, by loud noises, by being forced to wear very tight chains and hand- and footcuffs (he has nerve damage now) and by not being allowed to sleep. He was deprived of all contact with other human beings. He was deprived of a name and of his humanity. He wasn’t even allowed to know where he was or what day it was.
He was let go after two and a half years of pressure from the Swedish government (well, as much pressure as we can apply, which is hardly any pressure at all to be honest).
Of course, there’s no question of issuing an excuse, and in fact a representative of the Bush administration went to the media to explain that US9SWE000166 was certainly a terrorist but was currently not as important a threat as he used to be and that the Swedish authorities would guard him day and night to prevent him from the dastardly deeds of terror he would otherwise be sure to commit.
Whatever does it for you.
Well, it may be fairly said that your tone implies a degree of skepticism
By golly, you’ve put your finger right on it! Indeed, yes, the Japanese atrocities fifty years ago is directly relevent to Japanese atrocities of fifty years ago. If the subject of Japanese misbehavior should come up, you will be right on the spot!
(Is typing entirely pointless rejoinders part of your excercise program? Weight loss?)
Your post is commendably brief and free of spelling errors. Should you, by some accident, stumble upon something relevent to say, please rush to advise.
Yes, a healthy degree. Not everyone tells the truth.
Someone find the guys in Pakistan who sold this guy to the police. They are the ones who belong in Guantanamo.
You’re right about that. Especially if they occupy high positions in the US government.
Revtim, I can’t believe you forgot the “the terrorists beheaded people, so whatever we do is okay” argument. Oh, and qts, we tried some of the Japanese for war crimes. I assume your point is that the Bush Administration is bucking for the same treatment.
But Lib, many of them really, really don’t care. Here on this messageboard, in the Administration, in the press, in our day-to-day lives. It’s one of the most disheartening aspects of these torture-of-innocents stories that so many are willing to shrug and think “If Bush did it, I’m fine with it. Better we torture people than we get attacked again like on 9/11.” Don’t you know these people? I talk to them every day. They. really. don’t. care.
I find it funny that Bush supporters love pissing over threads discussing so-called trivial matters (GWB’s slips of tongues, his poorly spent moments during the WTC attacks, whether or not he went AWOL) but they stay silent when real undebateable shit is presented to them.
They’re waiting for the next “Let’s Bash Bush for Digging in his Nose” thread.
For once, I’d love for Shodan, Sam Stone, or even Brutus to post: “You know, this is just fucked up.” It would give me hope that it’s possible for objectivity to trump partisan bias. Right now, I don’t feel that way.
You answer your own stupid quip. When the OP is based on a lie, (Incorrect assumption, whatever), there is no point in trying to wade into the poop flinging that will ensue. You folks just aren’t worth the effort.
Pointing out the worse actions of others does not absolve some one from their heinous acts. By torturing prisoners, we make ourselves eligible for inclusion in groups containing Saddam, the Khmer Rouge, etc etc. Not something we should aspire to.
Ok, with regard to this OP, what, exactly are you contending is a lie?
Are you saying it’s a lie that this man was sold to a foreign police force who turned him over to us for imprisonment?
Are you contending that he wasn’t really falsely imprisoned at all?
Are you contending that he wasn’t imprisoned without charge, without representation and without legal recourse at all?
Are you saying you don’t believe it’s possible he was tortured by our unaccountable military personnel in the ways he has claimed?
Are you saying this entire thing is one big, fat lie?
And if that’s not what you’re contending and you do believe his story to be true, how, exactly, do you feel about how this administration and its policies caused this man to be treated?
Congratuations on knowing a WW2 vet. The people in charge of the Japanese Empire in WW2 also ended up being hanged.
Are you suggesting hanging the heads of the government of the USA? If you’re in, I’m in.
Anyways, enough from this qts fool.
Were the British stores fakes? Anyone have a site?
Here you go, Merijeek.
Care to expand on that? Where exactly are the lies or incorrect assumptions in Apos’s post? Can you back your assertions up with cites? Or are you just trying to sling the shit as usual? If you are going to try and defend as indefensible act as this, you’re going to have to do a whole lot better than that.
Don’t you know that everything bad about Bush and the Administration is automatically a lie?
‘Bush did this…’ Obviously not true.
Nope. And good on all involved for getting him to us; Running off to Pakistan and Afghanistan to ‘learn about Islam’ smacks of bullshit.
Of course. Circumstantial evidence is pretty damning in this case.
As an enemy combatant, I could care less. And let us save the ‘OMG it could happen to YOU!’ for other sky-is-falling threads. All sorts of things happen to our enemies that do not happen to the rest of us. I do not sit in fear of having a JDAM dropped in my house, so why should I be concerned about being arrested (in Afghanstan!)?
What he claimed hardly strikes me as torture. Just another example of cheapening that word.
The OP is a big fat lie.
See above. We do all sorts of things, without ‘legal representation’ to our enemies. Throwing some idiot in jail for a few years, an idiot that circumstance damns completely, doesn’t bother me. May as well worry about your house getting shelled or SEALS whacking you on your way to work.
You’re quite a piece of work Brutus.
Don’t expect to capture any hearts and minds anytime soon.
He doesn’t try to capture them. When you have neither, you don’t really care what you’re missing…
Ah, good to see I was right. Brutus is just slinging shit. What a tool.
If you’re an excessively literalist idiot, sure.
If suspected bullshit is punishable by two years in an internment camp beyond legal recourse, can we expect your imminent departure?
Really? And that would be … what? Being brown in a country the USA is invading? Having a funny name?
Erm, cite that he was an enemy combatant?
I await the impending “Defence Of Torture Act” with bated breath. This traducement of our mother tongue is getting beyond the pale; when we really want to order our troops to break out the thumbscrews, how will they know!?
It may surprise you to learn this, but Afghanistan is about 20% bigger than France. Do you really think that every single foreigner in that country was there for the sole purpose of attacking America? Wouldn’t that be just a little bit of a coincidence?
Ah, what am I saying? You probably think that about everyone in France, too.
So, I’ll just go invoke Godwin now.
According to Brutus’s illogic, since old Uncle Adolf didn’t actually spin the taps on any gas chambers, he’s not responsible for any dead Jews, right?
-Joe