G
gerry
Guest
Lost in the discussion of the Guantanamo gulag is a fact admitted by
Major General Hood in 2006 to NPR, as he was about to leave his job as
Guantanamo commander. Until 2005, all the evidence snatched with the
detainees was stored away and forgotten, dumped in a storage locker.
If gathering intelligence was a key purpose of the Guantanamo
facility, why treat like garbage evidence from the prisoners sent
there? Unless it was not evidence from arrested Afghani cabdrivers
that was the interest of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and company. From day
one, these guys have been concerned with one thing, hijacking the
Iraqi oil fields.
How torturing prisoners at Guantanamo fits into this plan is something
I can't figure out. Cheney could probably give an answer, but the way
he looks now, he is looking for a replacement heart and a cardiac
surgeon willing to chance the risky operation.
----
>From NPR 2006 article below:
General Hood says when the detainees were captured about four years
ago, the evidence was gathered up and stuffed into garbage bags and
boxes. "It was hastily inventoried, stacked up, sealed and then
transported here to Guantanamo," he says. "Frankly, it's just in the
last year that we've been able to take a closer look at what we've got
here."
-----
Guantanamo Commander Prepares to Leave Post
by Jackie Northam
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5280165&ft=1&f=1001
---
Maj. Gen. Jay Hood has spent two years in command of the U.S. military
prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He leaves in a few weeks. He doesn't
know yet what his next assignment will be. U.S. Navy
"There are a group of men here who are extremely well-educated, very
familiar with the West... and many of them have looked us in the eyeball
and said, 'When I get out of here, I'm going to kill you.'"
Maj. Gen. Jay Hood
---
All Things Considered, March 14, 2006
For the past two years, Maj. Gen. Jay Hood has been commander of the
U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Hood's tenure has been
marked by a series of scandals, and an increasing controversy over the
administration's policies on detention and interrogation. In the next
few weeks, Hood winds up his assignment at the remote base.
There was controversy over Guantanamo Bay long before Hood arrived.
But that controversy was ratcheted up several notches one week after
he took command, when the prisoner abuse scandal at Iraq's Abu Ghraib
prison broke. Hood's predecessor, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, was
implicated in the scandal. Although the abuse happened in Iraq, it
didn't take long before a huge spotlight swung half-way around the
world, where it landed -- and has stayed -- on Guantanamo Bay. Hood
says that since then, the detention operations at the base have been
continually scrutinized.
"There have been so many wild and outrageous statements that have
appeared in the media which would indicate that we are an abusive,
coercive, torturous sort of group," Hood says. "The idea that we have
rogue guards roaming around who might beat or abuse detainees is
simply absurd."
But a cloud continues to hang over Guantanamo, stemming from several
damning reports regarding abusive and coercive interrogation
techniques -- mostly from the early days, before Hood arrived.
Some detainees who have been recently released still say they're being
subjected to harsh questioning. The 52-year-old Hood, who grew up in
an Army family, says that under his watch, interrogators use only
techniques laid out in the Army Field Manual. Hood adds that over the
past few months, interrogators haven't bothered with many of the
detainees.
"A number of detainees, very obviously acting on advice of their legal
counsel, have been told 'Whatever you do, don't talk to the Americans.
Don't tell them anything,'" Hood says. "And that group, I think, is
certainly less cooperative."
Hood says interrogators are focusing their efforts on about one-
quarter of the prisoners, who have what he calls "high intelligence
value." The question that often comes up is what possible relevant
information a detainee could have after four years of incarceration.
Hood says you'd be surprised.
"I'm not telling you that some critical piece of information that we
gathered today, or this week -- or even this month -- is going to be
essential in preventing some terrorist attack, some place in the
world," he says. But the information being gathered helps shed light
on how terrorist organizations operate -- " how they recruit, how they
move around the globe, how they're financed, how they command and
control operations," he says.
Hood is both passionate and slightly defensive over the persistent
questions about the relevancy of intelligence being gathered. Perhaps
that's why he is allowing a peek at some new evidence in a so-called
evidence locker -- a long, low building that overlooks the sparkling
blue waters of the Caribbean. This is the first time a journalist has
been allowed inside. Metal shelves, crammed with dark green boxes fill
the cavernous rooms. In them are more than 120,000 documents:
telephone records, captured notebooks with all sorts of engineering
data in them, both real and forged money, passports.
General Hood says when the detainees were captured about four years
ago, the evidence was gathered up and stuffed into garbage bags and
boxes. "It was hastily inventoried, stacked up, sealed and then
transported here to Guantanamo," he says. "Frankly, it's just in the
last year that we've been able to take a closer look at what we've got
here."
Hood says what they're finding is that some of the detainees they
thought were low-level players in fact held more important positions
in the Taliban and al Qaeda. Hood is unabashedly unapologetic about
Guantanamo. He says if he felt detainees had no intelligence value or
could all be safely integrated back into their societies, then he
would tell his chain of command.
"That's not what I'm seeing," he says. "What I'm telling you is there
are a group of men here who are extremely well-educated, were very
familiar with the West. Many of them have extraordinary financial
resources back home, and many of them have looked us in the eyeball
and said, 'When I get out of here, I'm going to kill you.'"
But there are chronic complaints that some of the detainees being held
are innocent goat farmers or the like and have not been given their
due legal process. Only 10 of the nearly 500 remaining prisoners have
been charged. For Hood, solving those type of issues is -- in military
parlance -- "out of his lane." He is dealing with detainees finding
their own way to protest their open-ended detentions. Since August,
many detainees have staged a hunger strike.
Hood has come under sharp, widespread criticism for his decision to
force feed the detainees with the use of a restraining chair. Hood
defends the decision, saying he would not allow one of the detainees
to become a martyr, thereby creating more pressure to close the camp.
"Imagine, if you will, if we simply allowed them, contrary to U.S.
law, to kill themselves," Hood says. "What would that mean to the rest
of the Islamic world? You have Muslim men dying at Guantanamo Bay."
Hood will leave this and other problems behind when he wraps up his
posting in a few weeks' time. He still has not been told where he
heads to next.
Major General Hood in 2006 to NPR, as he was about to leave his job as
Guantanamo commander. Until 2005, all the evidence snatched with the
detainees was stored away and forgotten, dumped in a storage locker.
If gathering intelligence was a key purpose of the Guantanamo
facility, why treat like garbage evidence from the prisoners sent
there? Unless it was not evidence from arrested Afghani cabdrivers
that was the interest of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and company. From day
one, these guys have been concerned with one thing, hijacking the
Iraqi oil fields.
How torturing prisoners at Guantanamo fits into this plan is something
I can't figure out. Cheney could probably give an answer, but the way
he looks now, he is looking for a replacement heart and a cardiac
surgeon willing to chance the risky operation.
----
>From NPR 2006 article below:
General Hood says when the detainees were captured about four years
ago, the evidence was gathered up and stuffed into garbage bags and
boxes. "It was hastily inventoried, stacked up, sealed and then
transported here to Guantanamo," he says. "Frankly, it's just in the
last year that we've been able to take a closer look at what we've got
here."
-----
Guantanamo Commander Prepares to Leave Post
by Jackie Northam
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5280165&ft=1&f=1001
---
Maj. Gen. Jay Hood has spent two years in command of the U.S. military
prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He leaves in a few weeks. He doesn't
know yet what his next assignment will be. U.S. Navy
"There are a group of men here who are extremely well-educated, very
familiar with the West... and many of them have looked us in the eyeball
and said, 'When I get out of here, I'm going to kill you.'"
Maj. Gen. Jay Hood
---
All Things Considered, March 14, 2006
For the past two years, Maj. Gen. Jay Hood has been commander of the
U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Hood's tenure has been
marked by a series of scandals, and an increasing controversy over the
administration's policies on detention and interrogation. In the next
few weeks, Hood winds up his assignment at the remote base.
There was controversy over Guantanamo Bay long before Hood arrived.
But that controversy was ratcheted up several notches one week after
he took command, when the prisoner abuse scandal at Iraq's Abu Ghraib
prison broke. Hood's predecessor, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, was
implicated in the scandal. Although the abuse happened in Iraq, it
didn't take long before a huge spotlight swung half-way around the
world, where it landed -- and has stayed -- on Guantanamo Bay. Hood
says that since then, the detention operations at the base have been
continually scrutinized.
"There have been so many wild and outrageous statements that have
appeared in the media which would indicate that we are an abusive,
coercive, torturous sort of group," Hood says. "The idea that we have
rogue guards roaming around who might beat or abuse detainees is
simply absurd."
But a cloud continues to hang over Guantanamo, stemming from several
damning reports regarding abusive and coercive interrogation
techniques -- mostly from the early days, before Hood arrived.
Some detainees who have been recently released still say they're being
subjected to harsh questioning. The 52-year-old Hood, who grew up in
an Army family, says that under his watch, interrogators use only
techniques laid out in the Army Field Manual. Hood adds that over the
past few months, interrogators haven't bothered with many of the
detainees.
"A number of detainees, very obviously acting on advice of their legal
counsel, have been told 'Whatever you do, don't talk to the Americans.
Don't tell them anything,'" Hood says. "And that group, I think, is
certainly less cooperative."
Hood says interrogators are focusing their efforts on about one-
quarter of the prisoners, who have what he calls "high intelligence
value." The question that often comes up is what possible relevant
information a detainee could have after four years of incarceration.
Hood says you'd be surprised.
"I'm not telling you that some critical piece of information that we
gathered today, or this week -- or even this month -- is going to be
essential in preventing some terrorist attack, some place in the
world," he says. But the information being gathered helps shed light
on how terrorist organizations operate -- " how they recruit, how they
move around the globe, how they're financed, how they command and
control operations," he says.
Hood is both passionate and slightly defensive over the persistent
questions about the relevancy of intelligence being gathered. Perhaps
that's why he is allowing a peek at some new evidence in a so-called
evidence locker -- a long, low building that overlooks the sparkling
blue waters of the Caribbean. This is the first time a journalist has
been allowed inside. Metal shelves, crammed with dark green boxes fill
the cavernous rooms. In them are more than 120,000 documents:
telephone records, captured notebooks with all sorts of engineering
data in them, both real and forged money, passports.
General Hood says when the detainees were captured about four years
ago, the evidence was gathered up and stuffed into garbage bags and
boxes. "It was hastily inventoried, stacked up, sealed and then
transported here to Guantanamo," he says. "Frankly, it's just in the
last year that we've been able to take a closer look at what we've got
here."
Hood says what they're finding is that some of the detainees they
thought were low-level players in fact held more important positions
in the Taliban and al Qaeda. Hood is unabashedly unapologetic about
Guantanamo. He says if he felt detainees had no intelligence value or
could all be safely integrated back into their societies, then he
would tell his chain of command.
"That's not what I'm seeing," he says. "What I'm telling you is there
are a group of men here who are extremely well-educated, were very
familiar with the West. Many of them have extraordinary financial
resources back home, and many of them have looked us in the eyeball
and said, 'When I get out of here, I'm going to kill you.'"
But there are chronic complaints that some of the detainees being held
are innocent goat farmers or the like and have not been given their
due legal process. Only 10 of the nearly 500 remaining prisoners have
been charged. For Hood, solving those type of issues is -- in military
parlance -- "out of his lane." He is dealing with detainees finding
their own way to protest their open-ended detentions. Since August,
many detainees have staged a hunger strike.
Hood has come under sharp, widespread criticism for his decision to
force feed the detainees with the use of a restraining chair. Hood
defends the decision, saying he would not allow one of the detainees
to become a martyr, thereby creating more pressure to close the camp.
"Imagine, if you will, if we simply allowed them, contrary to U.S.
law, to kill themselves," Hood says. "What would that mean to the rest
of the Islamic world? You have Muslim men dying at Guantanamo Bay."
Hood will leave this and other problems behind when he wraps up his
posting in a few weeks' time. He still has not been told where he
heads to next.
