Peter King & Flag

(photo by Robert Swanson)

In the wake of finding out that a detainee has suffered multiple attacks upon his genitals with a scalpel, and that incidents of detainee abuse have INCREASED since December, Long Island Congressman Peter King has found a new scandal [spew alert].

Detainees at Guantanamo are treated far better than most American prisoners in the US jails and prisons I’ve inspected over the years. The unfounded accusations that are so regularly and cavalierly made about Guantanamo are a slander against the brave men and women of our armed forces, who perform their duties at that facility so professionally and under such duress.

If there’s any scandal at Guantanamo, it is that the detainees are treated too well.

I hate to give the New York Post the traffic, but you gotta read this piece of fantasy. He equates being a Gitmo detainee with being a retiree in Palm Beach–I kid you not. This is his quote:

It was particularly galling to observe a vicious terrorist reclining in the sun like a Palm Beach retiree.

I don’t know what kind of information blackout or fantasy world Congressman King is living in, or whether he has simply lost all of his humanity and ability to empathize with the suffering of fellow humans, but people kidnapped and sold to the CIA by rival tribesman, held for years without trial or due process, not convicted of any crimes, are not equivalent to convicted felons incarcerated in US prisons. Though Congressman King seems to think detainees have the Life of Riley compared to felons in the US.

"Detainees at Guantanamo are treated far better than most American prisoners in the US jails and prisons I’ve inspected over the years." Here’s the scoop, Mr. King: You don’t know, and I don’t know, that any of the detainees in Gitmo ever commited any crime or act of war or aggression against the US or any of our citizens. Do you understand why we don’t KNOW that? Because there have’t been trials to establish that with competent evidence.

Now you may BELIEVE that, as an act of some kind of jingoistic faith, but you don’t actually know that. Nobody knows that until there are legitimate trials. Until then, these are simply people held in captivity without due process of law. That is inhumane.