Part-Time Pundit

First-Hand Testimony About the Conditions at Gitmo

Cal Skinner put this in a comment to my earlier post (I invoke Godwin’s Law). I thought this should be posted in its entirety…

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FROM: Reverend Kent L. Svendsen
Ordained Elder
United Methodist Church / Northern Illinois Conference

Dear Women’s Division
General Borad of Global Ministries
United Methodist Church

I understand that you about to start a campaign relating to among other things human rights protections and the detainees held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

I can speak with some authority on the subject since I served as the chaplain to the Joint Detention Operation Group in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from May 2004 until March 2005.

As a United Methodist I have a keen sense of world justice and while serving in Cuba sought to be faithful to our social principles and their concern for social holiness.

So I am not speaking to you as a military chaplain but as an Ordained United Methodist.

I have a great concern for our news media sources today. There was a day when the truth and protecting our nation from harm took precedence over being the first to break a story. Now it seems that accusations, no matter how harmful, no matter the source, no matter the possible consequences, are enough to use them as weapons upon the innocent as well as the guilty.

I am also grieved that there seems to be not only an automatic assumption of guilt when the accusations are aimed at our military and our government, but that any explanation aimed at proving them innocent is also automatically viewed as a “cover up”. And that when those who are guilty of violations are uncovered, prosecutated, and punished there is a tendency by some to want to use that as evidence that the violations were policy instead a violation of the standing orders and policy. What the new media and groups like the Woman’s Division needs to understand is that accusations cause harm and create damage that a retraction and an admission of error later cannot repair. (I don’t think we will ever really know exactly how many died after Newsweek made the false accusation of a Koran being flushed
down a toilet.)

There are those who would use accusations such as those recently made against our military as weapons to gain political power. They count on the fact that people will believe something if its said enough times and said by people and organizations they respect. It was the case in the past that our nation’s opponents tried to prevent our culture and news sources from reaching their people. After all, the ideas of freedom, democracy, and equality for all doesn’t play well in some parts of the world. So since modern technology cannot be stopped and “world news” is now also news to the world there is now a new strategy. They use it to their advantage as a weapon against our nation.

The accusations are flying fast and furious. If your organzation would be interested in knowing about my experience. (I cannot talk about the day to day activities in the camp but I can either verify or deny many of the accusations that are being made.)

Here’s a list that might help you if your willing to listen to an Ordained Elder who knows the facts rather than accusations made based on speculation. I’ll respond here specifically to some of the one’s I’ve heard.

1. The detainees have direct access to the International Red Cross represenatativies contrary to the accusations that they have no outside contact. Also, all the detainees are allowed to write and receive mail from family.

2. The detainees have their food prepared according to Islamic guidelines. The call to prayer is broadcast for them to go to prayer. Each detainee has the direction to Meccah painted in their cell. They are allowed to practice their religion wihtout interference and are given the religious items they need to do so. They are allowed to observe Ramadan.

3. There are strict guidelines and training concerning human rights protections. If a service member sees a violation they are to report it and if asked to violate someone’s human rights they are to consider it as an unlawful order. Those who violate are subject to prosecution.

If you are interested in more information please contact me. There is also an article about my work in Cuba which was published in the July issue of Esquire magazine.

Kent Svendsen
Chaplain (Major) USAR

June 17th, 2005 Posted by John Bambenek | Military / War | one comment

A Compromise on Illinois Attacking Pensions

So Illinois decided to divert 2.2 Billion from the pension system that they underfund to plug gaps in the budget which cost ultimately around 22 Billion. The beneficiaries of the pensions complain because their contracts establish those pensions as well as the Constitution of the state says “the benefits of which shall not be diminished or impaired.” (Article X Section 5). When presented with this, lawmakers threaten an amendment to the Constitution instead.

Here is a compromise I think will work. Lawmakers, the governor and other executive officers get pensions too. I propse that before a single dollar in benefits gets taken out of a public employee’s pension, that all legislators and executive officers have to have completely drained THEIR pension benefits first. i.e. until their benefits get reduced to zero, they can’t touch anyone else’s. Seems fair to me, they’re breaking it to begin with, they should suffer first.

June 17th, 2005 Posted by John Bambenek | Illinois | no comments

I Invoke Godwin’s Law

Much has already been said about Durbin unable to vocalize any intelligent contribution on what prisoner treatment should be and instead calls the US military a bunch of Nazis. Michelle Malkin beat me to doing some comparisons on what exactly was the prison conditions in those regimes.

I don’t want to give the man much more space except to say this:

1) Thanks for telling us what the Democratic party is. The party that hates the military, that hates the country, and that has no contribution except flaming.
2) Thanks for showing us the Democrats have no grip on reality and no desire to contribute to the process of governing.

That being said, it’s time to ignore them and leave them behind. If they don’t want to run with the big dogs they can remain on the porch and piss with the puppies. They’ve been given enough attention, let the temper tantruming kids kick and scream in their room… alone.

June 17th, 2005 Posted by John Bambenek | National | 2 comments

Let’s Play a Game: Gitmo or Cook County

Captain’s Quarters has this about some torture much worse than Gitmo happening in Durbin’s OWN STATE that he’s oddly silent on…

June 17th, 2005 Posted by John Bambenek | Military / War | no comments

Friday Fax - Calls For Major Reforms at the UN

At first I thought it was talking about the US federal bureaucracy, but then I realized there is even something worst than a federal agency when it comes to staff sitting around doing nothing collecting paychecks and never being held to account on actually producing anything…

The bigger the bureaucracy, the more waste there is.

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US Panel Calls for Major United Nations Reform in Scathing Report

A bipartisan task force of the Untied States Congress released a report on Wednesday stating that that the UN is in “urgent” need of “sweeping reforms.” The report finds “tragic failures” in peacekeeping, a Human Rights Commission that is “a blot on the [UN's] reputation,” “systematic hostility” towards Israel, and poor management with “bloated staffing” and a lack of accountability and transparency. The report endorses the UN Secretary-General’s proposed reforms in his recent “In Larger Freedom” while also suggesting additional reforms.

The Task Force on the United Nations is one of seven ongoing US investigations of the UN, and is chaired by Newt Gingrich, Republican former speaker of the House of Representatives, and George J. Mitchell, Democratic former majority Senate leader. The US, as the “largest donor to the United Nations system, contributing 22 percent of the regular budget and nearly 27 percent of the peacekeeping budget,” has a significant interest in UN effectiveness. The U.S. “paid an estimated $3.845 billion in contributions to the UN system in 2004.”

The report notes that the Oil-for-Food program, “flawed by a combination of incompetence, gross mismanagement, and alleged corruption and criminality,” created a “rare opportunity” for major UN reform, and the U.S. should “bring its considerable diplomatic leverage to bear to take advantage of this opportunity.”

According to the report, the UN is weighed down by a “deadwood of useless programs” because once programs are mandated, they “face little scrutiny and can live on forever without having to justify their existence.” The report recommends the creation of an independent audit committee, as currently “there does not appear to be an effective system to monitor results nor to link those results back to budgetary decisions.”

The UN also has a “heavy load of staff who lack the skills or the motivation to perform their duties, or whose duties are no longer necessary,” and there is a “high level of discontent, distrust and pessimism among staff concerning the integrity of the organization.” “Morale is dismal,” according to the report.

The report recommends that the Human Rights Commission “be abolished” because it has become “so distorted” that “countries with appalling, even monstrous, human rights records . . . could be seated there.” To replace the Commission, the report endorses Kofi Annan’s proposal for a Human Rights Council as “a body ideally consisting of democracies committed to upholding and promoting the highest standards in human rights.”

The report also says that the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) be “reoriented towards a useful function.” ECOSOC has been “greatly weakened” by the addition of more “autocratic governments,” and currently has “scant impact on its mandated issues” of “fundamental human rights,” “social progress” and “larger freedom.” Its deliberations are often “redundant,” as ECOSOC “hashes and rehashes pronouncements and resolutions, including those espousing ideas antithetical to US interests.” Moreover, the General Assembly’s committees “largely replicate” the purposes of ECOSOC.

Copyright 2005 - C-FAM (Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute).

Permission granted for unlimited use. Credit required.

Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute
866 United Nations Plaza, Suite 427
New York, New York 10017
Phone: (212) 754-5948 Fax: (212) 754-9291
E-mail: c-fam@c-fam.org Website: www.c-fam.org

June 17th, 2005 Posted by John Bambenek | United Nations | no comments