Whenever a Congressman, Senator or investigative agency heads down to Guantanamo Bay, they are looking for what most clear-thinking people assume is going on there. Yet when the big names go to inspect the jails, the prisoners and what they are eating, everything looks great. Prisoners are getting great health care, five-star dining and nothing looks like there could be torture going on...but there's a reason for it, and Rep. Alcee Hastings caught the prison officials red-handed.
From ThinkProgress:
Yesterday, the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe held a hearing regarding the future of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. During the hearing, Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) recounted his experiences visiting the detention center. Hastings, who arrived at the facility “two hours early one day” during his visit, said he witnessed Guantanamo staffers “whitewashing the walls” in anticipation of the arrival of the other members of congress:
I know that they had washed it that day. Cleaned it up. And the prisoners were eating the best meal that they had gotten in a week. And I could go on and on and on and on. I even remember I got there — I did so deliberately — two hours early one day. And they were still whitewashing the walls and what have you.
Hastings said he “wasn’t impressed” by the “dog and pony show.”
The dog and pony show down in Cuba is emblematic of the entire Bush Administration. Not only does George Bush use smoke and mirrors to get the American people to believe him (or at least they used to) but the Congress and anyone else he and his Administration thinks needs a heavy sheet of wool to be pulled over their eyes. Everyone knows what goes on in that prison is not legit. Thank you Congressman Hastings for refusing to believe their BS...and for going the distance to uncover it first-hand.
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