Gitmo, Hearsay, and Congressional Oversight

Amazing that while Gitmo has been operating as a detention facility for enemy combatants since October 2001, Congressional opponents to the detention facility have been basing their comments on hearsay. They have never actually toured the facilities, taken the time to actually examine the situation, or looked further than the media reports which are largely based on criticisms from detainees or former detainees.

Because, once some Congress members toured the facilities, they sang a different tune:

"The Guantanamo we saw today is not the Guantanamo we heard about a few years ago."

, which was uttered by Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif. The Gitmo of a few years ago wasn't even the Gitmo of a few years ago.

It never was, except in the eyes of those completely opposed to the US prosecution of the war on terror. Now, those opposed to the detention facility have to come up with something better than hearsay or reliance on detainees who have been trained to lie and exaggerate about their conditions and harsh treatment in order to gain concessions - enabling them to fight against the US from their detention cells.