406178-a-hard-look-at-america-after-9-11

http://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/406178-a-hard-look-at-america-after-9-11
"The prison at Guantanamo Bay was set up to be outside the reach of U.S. law. The Geneva Convention rules were largely ignored for the treatment of prisoners." I beg to differ. Not only were the Geneva Convention rules not ignored, they were followed in spirit on the direct orders of DoD Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The unlawful combatant Islamists who wanted to kill us who were and are being housed there earned ZERO rights under Geneva. They didn't follow the rules and so therefore were not entitled to any privileges or benefits of the law. However, the benevolent United States decided to treat them within the spirit of Geneva. We don't know any other way. As it was in early 2002, when I was the ranking US Army Medical Department officer with the Joint Detainee Operations Group, Joint Task Force 160, detainees enjoy world class health care, FREE Qurans, prayer rugs/beads, halal and special Muslim holy holiday meals, the services of US military Muslim chaplains, directions to Mecca, books, recreation, TV, DVD's and other amenities. 731 detainees have been RELEASED from Gitmo since 2002, and none have been beheaded, executed, blown up, hacked to death, dragged naked and lifeless through the streets, drowned or burned alive; all things our enemies have done to us and/or our allies. While serving at Gitmo and then later in Iraq, International Committee of the Red Cross physicians I worked with told me "No one does [detention operations] better than the US." As for the detention facility (not a "prison") being set up "outside the law," nothing could be further from the truth. The initial idea was to establish detention operations in Afghanistan, authorized by the AUMF, but after an early prison uprising there in the fall of 2001, which cost the life of CIA operative Johnny Michael Spann, the decision was made to bring the detainees, who had valuable information, to the most secure location under US control without bringing them to the mainland. At that time, unlawful combatants would have had no legal standing on US soil, but lawfare-minded legalists would have attempted to obtain habeas corpus for them, which would have slowed down the military legal process and confused issues, most of them unknown to the average American. Unlawful combatants have no rights under Geneva or the Law of War, and could have been legally shot dead on the battlefield. The Supreme Court says the detainees may petition for habeas corpus, but over 400,000 mostly German POW's held in the US during WWII were not entitled to a trial and could be held, as per Geneva, until the end of hostilities, and they were LAWFUL combatants. Gitmo detainees are lucky to be alive, but were certainly never mistreated. Only a handful were ever waterboarded and provided valuable information that saved many lives, according to G.W. Bush in his autobiography, "Decision Points." Oh, and Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, including waterboarding, were legal and approved when performed on a handful of detainees. Gitmo is a small but essential piece to the big puzzle of how we win the Global War on Terror. Next time do a little more research before spreading fake news and propaganda about Gitmo, please. Sincerely, Montgomery J. Granger, Major, US Army, Retired. Author: "Saving Grace at Guantanamo Bay: A Memoir of a Citizen Warrior."