LAT reporter becomes the story: her report on being kicked out of Gitmo

[DeepModem Mom]

Los Angeles Times: Kicked out of Gitmo
A Times reporter's struggle to get the truth about America's island prison just got tougher.
By Carol J. Williams, Carol J. Williams is the Caribbean bureau chief for The Times.
June 18, 2006

IN THE BEST of times, covering Guantanamo means wrangling with a Kafkaesque bureaucracy, with logistics so nonsensical that they turn two hours of reporting into an 18-hour day, with hostile escorts who seem to think you're in league with Al Qaeda, and with the dispiriting reality that you're sure to encounter more iguanas than war-on-terror suspects.

In the worst of times — this past week, for example — those quotidian discomforts can be compounded by an invasion of mating crabs skittering into your dormitory, a Pentagon power play that muzzles already reluctant sources and an unceremonious expulsion to Miami on a military plane, safety-belted onto whatever seat is available. In this case, that seat was the toilet.

I ended up on that plane, on that seat, because of a baffling move by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's office, in which the only three newspaper reporters who managed to surmount Pentagon obstacles to covering the first deaths at Guantanamo were ordered off the base Wednesday. Rumsfeld's office said the decision was made "to be fair and impartial" to the rest of the media, which the government had refused to let in.

Rumsfeld's gatekeepers have long made clear that they view outside scrutiny of the detention operations as a danger to the Bush administration's secretive and often criticized campaign to indefinitely detain "enemy combatants." But this time, their actions seemed counterproductive because booting out the Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald and Charlotte (N.C.) Observer only provoked fresh demands to learn what the government is hiding.

Those of us cleared to cover the prison and war-crimes tribunal learned long ago that there will be a hard-fought battle for every factlet. When unexpected news breaks, like the suicides, the Pentagon's knee-jerk reflex to thwart coverage reminds me of how Communist officials used to organize Cold War-era propaganda trips for Moscow correspondents but then pull the plug when embarrassing realities intruded....

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-op-williams18jun18,0,3393296.story?coll=la-home-commentary

[Rose Siding]

1. Geeze- ship the press out on a toilet, that's the ticket

Way to fight terror! :eyes:

[im10ashus]

2. I wondered if we'd hear any of these reporter's stories.

Thanks for posting!

K&R!

:kick:

[Fleshdancer]

3. but but but....they hate us for our FREEDOMS!!!!

Obviously getting rid of the free press is neccessary if we want to win the war on terrorism. :sarcasm:

This is a good article DMM, thanks for posting it.

[MADem]

4. Good grief...the MASS hanging incident!!!!!

What little we learn often comes to light by accident, through casual slips-of-the-lips by military doctors, lawyers and jailers innocently oblivious of their superiors' preference for spin. A battery of questions to the prison hospital commander — who for security reasons can't be identified — elicited that prisoners are force-fed through a nasal-gastric tube if they refuse to eat for three days and that 1,000 pills a day are dispensed to treat detainee ailments, anxiety and depression....I've been to Guantanamo six times. It was during my first visit in January 2005 that I learned how expressions of polite interest in minute details can elicit some of the most startling revelations. As Naval Hospital commander Capt. John Edmundson showed off the 48-bed prison annex, for instance, I asked, apropos of nothing, if the facility had ever been at or near capacity.

"Only during the mass-hanging incident," the Navy doctor replied, provoking audible gasps and horrified expressions among the public affairs minders and op-sec — operational security — watchdogs in the entourage, none of whom were particularly pleased with the disclosure that 23 prisoners had attempted simultaneously to hang themselves with torn bed sheets in late 2003....

[Rose Siding]

5. The 1,000 pills a day caught my eye.

-especially as prescribed for "anxiety and depression". I hope those are for willing patients.

[DeepModem Mom]

7. You're right -- incredible! nt

[tanyev]

6. Think she'll ever be allowed to come back?

the Pentagon's knee-jerk reflex to thwart coverage reminds me of how Communist officials used to organize Cold War-era propaganda trips for Moscow correspondents but then pull the plug when embarrassing realities intruded....

[Vidar]

8. Good article. Courageous repoter. Thanks for posting.

[AlamoDemoc]

9. K&R...great article..thanks

[DeepModem Mom]

10. A little weekday kick --

[chemenger]

11. And yet, they rolled out the red carpet

for Bill O'Rielley.