Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was hit with a series of hostile questions at Tuesday’s Pentagon briefing which assumed that U.S. soldiers guarding the prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay are the real threat to human rights in the world.
ABC’s John McWethy lamented that a “future entity could say to the U.S., ‘You didn’t abide by the Geneva Convention on this. You didn’t call them prisoners of war. Why should we?’” NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski worried: “Is there a concern that the U.S. will somehow lose the high moral authority in this war on terrorism by the treatment of these detainees?”
CNN’s Jamie McIntyre, noting how the Pentagon argues the detainees were illegal combatants, not soldiers entitled to POW rights, contended U.S. operatives inside Afghanistan were the same as Al Qaeda terrorists inside the U.S.: “Weren’t there times when U.S. troops, Special Forces and others, wore native garb in Afghanistan and did not display insignias and uniforms?”
In the ultimate complaint, AP Broadcast service reporter Thelma LeBrecht seemed to worry about the lack of air conditioning: “As you know, in a few months it’s going to be very, very hot down there and there is going to be more complaints about them being held in open conditions like that.” Rumsfeld shot down that concern in a way only he could.
The wackiest media complaint, however, popped up in a Reuters dispatch caught by James Taranto’s “Best of the Web” column. An unbylined story, headlined, “Rumsfeld: U.S. Not Mistreating Afghan Detainees,” included this recitation of facts:
“Rumsfeld also noted the climate in Cuba was warmer than in Afghanistan and so holding the detainees in open-air cells with roofs was not mistreatment.
“‘Guantanamo Bay's climate is different than Afghanistan. To be in a eight-(feet)-by-eight (2.5-meters-by-2.5- meters) cell in beautiful sunny Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is not inhumane treatment,’ he said. He did not mention the disease-carrying mosquitoes on the Caribbean island.”
Click here for the entire Reuters story.
Below are some of the odder questions posed at the January 22 briefing, a listing made possible by the MRC’s Rich Noyes who compared the transcript to the videotape in order to provide accurate quotes:
- A reporter named “Charlie” demanded: “Mr. Secretary, you intimated that people who criticize the condition of these detainees are charging that military people, that individual members of the U.S. military, are mistreating these people. Aren’t these charges that U.S. policy is unfair and inhumane, in that these people are being kept in eight-by-eight outdoor cells for an indeterminate time? Do you plan any — any — immediate changes to address these charges?”
- John McWethy of ABC News: “Mr. Secretary, two points: Why not call them prisoners of war? And you’re indicating that that’s just some legal debate which is up there. Are you not concerned that this could come back and somehow haunt the United States in potential future treatment of American soldiers who are taken in whatever kind of conditions, so that [a] future entity could say to the U.S., ‘You didn’t abide by the Geneva Convention on this. You didn’t call them prisoners of war. Why should we?’”
- Jim Miklaszewski of NBC News: “Mr. Secretary, last week, Friday, the U.S. military took into custody six Algerians in Bosnia not directly related to the combat underway in Afghanistan. In previous renditions, usually the civilian law enforcement agencies — FBI and the like — have done these renditions. Under what authority did the U.S. military have to take those six individuals into custody and then transport them to Guantanamo after they were released by the Bosnian government for lack of evidence against them?”
Miklaszewski followed up: “If, in fact, as you say, these prisoners are being treated humanely, that’s certainly not the perception in some quarters. Is there a concern that the U.S. will somehow lose the high moral authority in this war on terrorism by the treatment of these detainees and any subsequent rendition, such as the one with the Algerians?”
Rumsfeld hoped: “Well, I guess I think the truth ultimately wins out, and the truth of the matter is, they’re being treated humanely. And people down there are fine young men and women and the commanders are talented and responsible people. And the work that’s being done to create facilities that are appropriate is moving forward with dispatch. And I think that the American people will see that, and indeed, I think the people of the world will.”
- Jamie McIntyre of CNN: “Mr. Secretary, you’ve mentioned a couple of times — matter of fact, it’s been the first criteria you’ve mentioned in making the distinction between lawful and unlawful combatants — wearing uniforms and insignia. Weren’t there times when U.S. troops, Special Forces and others, wore native garb in Afghanistan and did not display insignias and uniforms?”
- Thelma LeBrecht, of the AP Broadcast service, a voice you may have heard on the radio: “You mentioned earlier that Cuba has a beautiful climate. But as you know, in a few months it’s going to be very, very hot down there and there is going to be more complaints about them being held in open conditions like that. And also, again going back to some of the criticism, the criticism being the open-ended nature, that they are going to be there for an undetermined period, how would you, again, respond to that?”
Rumsfeld retorted: “I don’t know how many times I’ve been to Guantanamo Bay, but it’s a lot, and it frequently was in the summer when I was Navy pilot, and that was back in the days before air conditioning. And it’s just amazing, but people do fine. [scattered laughter.] I mean, there are a lot of people in Cuba with no air conditioning. [more light laughter.] I know that will come as a surprise. But I was in Washington before there was air conditioning, and the windows used to open! It’s amazing.”
Rumsfeld added: “The worry for me is not that. I’ve been, also been in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in a hurricane and that is not a nice thing. But that’s hard on anybody no matter where you’re living, what you’re in — a cinder-block house or whatever. So that is a bigger worry for me, quite honestly, than the temperature.”
Later, a reporter named Pam told Rumsfeld: “I grew up in South Florida, and my mom never turned on the air conditioning, and I’m here to tell you it was torture.”
Rumsfeld joked: “Would you please refrain from using that word? [laughter.] Look at you. You’ve survived admirably.”
Before playing, at the conclusion of Special Report with Brit Hume, the LeBrecht/Rumsfeld exchange about her worry that Guantanamo Bay will be too “hot” for the terrorists, Hume reminded his audience of the public suspicion of the media, ruminating: “Wonder why? Watch this.”
(This update courtesy of the Media Research Center.)