Decision ‘08

Shut Down Gitmo - Before The Tourists Get Wind!

Asadullah strives to make his point, switching to English lest there be any mistaking him. “I am lucky I went there, and now I miss it. Cuba was great,” said the 14-year-old, knotting his brow in the effort to make sure he is understood.

Not that Asadullah saw much of the Caribbean island. During his 14-month stay, he went to the beach only a couple of times - a shame, as he loved to snorkel. And though he learned a few words of Spanish, Asadullah had zero contact with the locals.

He spent a typical day watching movies, going to class and playing football. He was fascinated to learn about the solar system, and now enjoys reciting the names of the planets, starting with Earth. Less diverting were the twice-monthly interrogations about his knowledge of al-Qaida and the Taliban.

Um - twice monthly interrogations?

Sure, for we’re talking about the notorious house of horrors at Guantanamo Bay:

Tracked down to his remote village in south-eastern Afghanistan, Naqibullah has memories of Guantanamo that are almost identical to Asadullah’s. Prison life was good, he said shyly, nervous to be receiving a foreigner to his family’s mud-fortress home.

The food in the camp was delicious, the teaching was excellent, and his warders were kind. “Americans are good people, they were always friendly, I don’t have anything against them,” he said. “If my father didn’t need me, I would want to live in America.”

Asadullah is even more sure of this. “Americans are great people, better than anyone else,” he said, when found at his elder brother’s tiny fruit and nut shop in a muddy backstreet of Kabul. “Americans are polite and friendly when you speak to them. They are not rude like Afghans. If I could be anywhere, I would be in America. I would like to be a doctor, an engineer _ or an American soldier.”

Hmmm…I smell a new way to win hearts and minds in the Middle East - okay, scatch that, I was just thinking out loud…

(hat tip to LGF via Pajamas)…

4 Responses to “Shut Down Gitmo - Before The Tourists Get Wind!”

1 Gwedd Says:
April 8th, 2006 at 3:13 pm
Comrades,

Yeah, I can’t wait to see the spin THAT story gets by the deciduous dailies. Probably about how we brainwashed him for all those months, how he was afraid to NOT speak nicely for fear of his life, etc… yadda yadda yadda…

Respects,

Gwedd
2 dmac Says:
April 8th, 2006 at 3:44 pm
The congressional delegation that visited there not too long ago, and came to pretty much the same conclusion - even Dickie “The Hack” Durbin said as much.
3 Jacques Distler Says:
April 8th, 2006 at 3:48 pm
1) This was reported in a “deciduous daily”. Two years ago.

2) A better question is: how did you expect 12 and 13 year old boys to be treated? What possible intelligence could one hope to have gleaned from their twice-monthly interrogations over the space of more than a year of captivity?

3) Why is this story being recycled by the right-wing blogsphere now?
4 Mark Says:
April 8th, 2006 at 4:19 pm
Jacques - full disclosure: I didn’t even notice the date…sloppy, and I’ll take the fall…as to why the ‘right-wing blogosphere’ is resurrecting the story now - I can’t speak for anyone else, but I thought it was interesting, and somewhat appealing in that it shows the universality of kids - even kids held in a environment like Gitmo…