At 03:38 PM Saturday 6/11/2005, Robert Seeberger wrote:
Dan Minette wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Robert Seeberger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[email protected]>
> Sent: Saturday, June 11, 2005 12:25 PM
> Subject: Re: Gulags
>
>
>> Ronn!Blankenship wrote:
>>> At 11:31 PM Friday 6/10/2005, Dan Minette wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> 2) The treatment of prisoners in our regular prisons. Prison
>>>> rape
>>>> is
>>>> winked at by government officials on both sides of the aisle.
>>>> There
>>>> is no national outrage concerning this. You may think it is an
>>>> outrage, as do others of us on this list, but it really is off
>>>> the
>>>> radar.
>>>
>>>
>>> In fact, the whole topic is treated as fodder by comedians. And
>>> many
>>> otherwise reasonable people think it is no worse than many of them
>>> deserve, especially those convicted of rape or child abuse.
>>>
>>
>> Ahhh....so let Joe Bob Redneck be the standard by which our moral
>> compass is set?
I'd like to apologize to Ronn! for misreading him. I found it very
disappointing to think someone I find to be a reasonable person might
harbor such a sentiment. At work, I am constantly surrounded by Joe
Bob Rednecks who do harbor such sentiments, and it is an endless
source of frustration for me.
No problem. This must be one of those days when I am not making myself
clear: I've had to go back and clarify things I've posted on two or three
other lists, too.
[snip]
One of the things that is done with regularity at Gitmo (according to
one our Congresspersons who was *allowed* to visit there), is tying a
prisoner down till he defecates and urinates on himself and then
leaving him there for 18 - 24 hours.
This is supposed to deliver intelligence to our Mil/Int services.
But I see no valid comparisons between the abuses of our penal system
and the way political prisoners are handled at Gitmo and the other
places where Americans are paid to leave their humanity at the door.
Without making excuses or attempting to justify any abuses in either prison
system, I did make a point in a post to another list earlier today in
response to a reference to the alleged desecration of the Qu'ran at
Gitmo: whatever else we may have done there, we at least have made
provision for Muslim prisoners we are holding to exercise their religion by
allowing them to have copies of their holy book, by giving them something
to use as a prayer rug and allowing them to pray, by giving them meals
which meet their religious dietary restrictions, etc. I have not heard
that the Muslims have, frex, provided captured Christians with Bibles or
captured Jews with yarmulkes, or otherwise facilitated them in their
exercise of their religions. (If I am incorrect in that, I would
appreciate correction.) And whatever we may have done as far as abuse or
mistreatment of prisoners at Gitmo, I have not heard of us kidnapping known
non-combatants such as aid workers and posting video of their decapitation
on the Internet . . .
-- Ronn! :)
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