January 18, 2002

Vacation in sunny Cuba
(with the Taliban and al-Qaida)

Through A Glass Darkly, by John Myers, Internet Photojournalist

True confession time again. I listen to National Public Radio. I'm a news junkie and here in North Carolina, just try finding a station that will give you news coverage in more than snippets.

NPR is the only choice for us news junkies. But since my political convictions have drifted to the right over the years, I quite often find myself wincing when I hear the "objective" reporting on what I have come to call National Pinko Radio.

And if the morning and afternoon news reports are dominated by the liberal agenda of NPR, the talk radio programs are even worse. Even the topics themselves leave me queasy.

In this handout photo from the Department of Defense made available Friday Jan. 18, 2002, Taliban and al-Qaida detainees in orange jumpsuits sit in a holding area under the watchful eyes of military police at Camp X-Ray at Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, during in-processing to the temporary detention facility on Jan. 11, 2002. The detainees will be given a basic physical exam by a doctor, to include a chest x-ray and blood samples drawn to assess their health, the military said. (AP Photo/Shane T.McCoy, U.S. Navy)

"Are the prisoners at Cuba being treated humanely?" is a popular talk radio topic in recent days. I have yet to hear a topic such as "Were the terrorist attack victims treated humanely?"

Now that we've rounded up a few of the members of the terrorist network responsible for the attacks and brought them to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, the liberals are practically frothing at the mouth over the prisoners' "inhumane treatment."

Red Cross workers began questioning al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners Friday about their treatment at the hands of the U.S. military, while rights groups insisted they should be classified as POWs for their own protection.

Should common criminals arrested for murder be classified as POWs? That's what these prisoners are, not prisoners of war, but criminals of the worst order, murderers of helpless civilians.

In any war ever fought, combatants who murdered helpless civilians have not been treated as POWs, but tried as war criminals and quickly hung, shot or otherwise dispatched.

Amnesty International said housing detainees in the open-air chain link cells being used for temporary housing at the Navy base ''falls below minimum standards for humane treatment,'' and that the temporary cells - 8-by-8 feet - are too small.

They're a lot bigger than the caskets several thousand attack victims are in.

I've been to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, and frankly right now the only danger those prisoners are in is a sunburn. Cuba is a tropical island, and those poor prisoners in those small cells are lying back working on their tans, with three hots and a cot.

Workers at the base also are building a permanent prison to hold up to 2,000, which I presume will be up to the lofty standards for war criminals set by Amnesty International.

U.S. troops seized Guantanamo Bay in 1898 and have remained ever since despite opposition from the Cuban government. President Teddy Roosevelt took it fair and square in the Spanish-American War, and we're not about to give it back.

I visited the base during my Navy years and it's a tropical paradise. I can't say I would like to spend time there in an 8-by-8 cell, but it sure beats the treatment the attack victims got.

And here's the greatest irony of all. The liberals may be all hot and bothered about holding the terrorist prisoners there, but Cuba has not opposed holding the prisoners on its soil.

I can't recall the last time we did anything Castro didn't object to, but even El Supremo himself isn't dumb enough to line himself up on the side of the worst gang of international murderers of our time.