One of the techniques terrorists employ is to allege torture and mistreatment when they are captured, regardless of whether it is true. The U.S. military has confiscated training manuals that outline what a prisoner must do. One such manual seized in a Manchester, England, raid instructed al Qaeda operatives in these important lessons: "1. At the beginning of the trial, once more the brothers must insist on proving that torture was inflicted on them by State Security [investigators] before the judge. 2. Complain [to the court] of mistreatment while in prison." With U.S. military tribunals about to hear cases involving 15 Guantanamo detainees, we should be prepared for an onslaught of torture propaganda.
One of the reasons al Qaeda has proved so deadly an enemy is that it understands and exploits Western sensibilities so well. While there have been some abuses at Guantanamo, these have been dealt with quickly by the military. Of the approximately 28,000 interrogations that have been conducted at Guantanamo, only a handful apparently went wrong. The military -- which immediately investigates allegations -- found one case of assault and two cases of female guards making sexually suggestive gestures at the male prisoners in one recent comprehensive study of conditions at Guantanamo. In addition, a recent investigation found that the Koran had been mishandled five times by guards -- a fact most remarkable for what it doesn't say, namely that the U.S. military provided inmates with Korans in the first place. Amnesty International's outrageous comparisons notwithstanding, the Soviets weren't handing out Bibles in the gulags.
Since Sen. Biden wants those at Guantanamo moved or released, maybe he'd like a special, maximum-security wing built at the Delaware Correctional Center in his home state to house the approximately 540 enemy combatants now held off-shore in Cuba, but I doubt it. Nobody wants these dangerous men in their backyard, and only the foolhardy would suggest letting them go. Guantanamo is a necessary tool in an unconventional war that continues to threaten American and others' lives.