Rusted Sky

And from the inside. This won't be broadcast by the media - it doesn't fit the script.

The person writing this is a Major, in psychiatric services. He contacted Patterico, established his bonafides in the first of a 4 part series and said that the reason he wasn't contacting the major media (indeed, has refused to be interviewed) is because he has no faith in them presenting the story accurately. With much, much contact with the prisoners, he writes the following in part 2:

Stashiu is not able to share specific details of conversations he had with specific individuals, for reasons having to do principally with patient confidentiality, and in part with operational security. But he can give you, the reader, a good overview of what types of human beings are being detained at Guantánamo Bay.

I asked him that very question: what are the detainees like? Stashiu said:

For many of them, think Ted Bundy. Educated, charming, and without conscience for those they consider infidels. Some are truly ill and were taken advantage of because of it. For example, one routinely asked us for an explosive suicide vest so he could assassinate Osama Bin Laden or George Bush for us, whoever he could find first (he was completely serious).

But we’ve heard that many of the detainees at GTMO were innocent, I said. Does Stashiu believe that — and does he have a basis to know one way or the other?

I didn’t see any that I believe were totally innocent, although it wasn’t my call and it really didn’t matter to their care. We got how much I could know about their history changed because I contended that if I couldn’t validate their history as given to us, my staff couldn’t give adequate treatment. It would be too easy for detainees to lie about the presence or absence of a family history. If they told us the truth about some of the circumstances relating to their capture, we could have some confidence in other information they gave. And they almost always tried to tell that part of their story. The biggest rule we had to follow in guiding staff was to never share any specific intel so that intel and therapy were as separated as possible while still providing good care.

Although he couldn’t discuss specifics, he said:

[M]y opinion is that there are some truly evil people there. To be fair, some honestly believe that what they do is right.

Of course, that is true of many evil people.

Stashiu learned many interesting stories about the detainees during the course of these conversations. Some of these were occasionally amusing.

One guy was living proof of Murphy’s Law… no matter what he did, it ended up turning to shit on him and he is lucky just to still be alive.

Can the detainees be reasoned with? I asked. Or is their indoctrination so complete that there’s just no reaching them? Are there any of them who are reasonable enough that Stashiu would feel safe if we were to let them go free?

I don’t know that anyone is beyond reason, but I also don’t know more than a couple who I think might be ok to release. “Might” being the operative word there, I wouldn’t give the go-ahead on my own for any of them. There I are couple I could understand and would not go out of my way to protest their release. I can tell you that if I ever saw a detainee face-to-face here in the States, I would immediately assume that I was targeted and do my best to kill them without further warning. If I turned out to be wrong about their intent, I could live with that.

J.