Thanks, AP! Secret Club Gitmo Facility No Longer a Secret

Those foot soldiers in the War on the War on Terror have a real coup today, releasing more secret details about our facilities at Guantanamo Bay.

How did the New York Times not manage to get this scoop?

I've got to say, though, why the hell are we giving interviews to an obviously hostile press and confirming what's supposed to be secret?

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - Somewhere amid the cactus-studded hills on this sprawling Navy base, separate from the cells where hundreds of men suspected of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban have been locked up for years, is a place even more closely guarded — a jailhouse so protected that its very location is top secret.

For the first time, the top commander of detention operations at Guantanamo has confirmed the existence of the mysterious Camp 7. In an interview with The Associated Press, Rear Adm. Mark Buzby also provided a few details about the maximum-security lockup.

Guantanamo commanders said Camp 7 is for key alleged al-Qaida members, who must be kept apart from other prisoners to prevent them from retaliating against long-term detainees who have talked to interrogators. They also want the location kept secret for fear of terrorist attack.

Well, so much for that.

Hey, why not just provide coordinates and allow for a Google Earth search?

Many operations have been classified since the detention center opened in January 2002 in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. More than four years passed before the military released even the names of detainees held on this 45-square-mile base in southeast Cuba — and it did so only after the AP filed a Freedom of Information Act request.

Detainees have been held in Camp Echo and Camps 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Journalists cleared by the military have been allowed to tour some of these lockups, where 260 men are held, but aren't allowed to speak to detainees. Some lawmakers and other VIPs have passed through, and the International Red Cross has access, but doesn't divulge details of visits with prisoners.

But the Associated Press will be more than happy to.

Camp 7, where 15 "high-value detainees" are held, is so secret that its very existence was not publicly known until it was mentioned in December by attorneys for Majid Khan, a former Baltimore resident who allegedly plotted to bomb gas stations in the United States. Previously, many observers believed the 15 were being held in Camps 5 or 6, which are maximum-security facilities.

"Under the gag order ... we are prohibited from saying anything more about their camp," lawyer Gitanjali Gutierrez, who met with Khan in October, said Tuesday. Most of the lawyers' notes and memos have been stamped "top secret" by the government.

Buzby told the AP he is sharply limiting to a "very few" the number of people who know Camp 7's whereabouts.

Read the rest.

Gutierrez, naturally, works for the CCR and the America-hating Columbia professor and generous Democrat donor Michael Ratner.

Would be nice some day if the media bothered to ask those who've received Ratner's money whether they have a problem taking funds some someone who works so hard on behalf of terrorists.

UPDATE: Ringo the Gringo notes the inmates at Think Progress are wetting themselves over this news.

Fox Derangement Syndrome at the New York Times

The folks in the bubble over at the New York Times are whining that the Fox News Channel won't show an absurd ad from far-left actor Danny Glover and the even further left Center for Constitutional Rights, run by Marxist Columbia professor and Hillary Clinton donor Michael Ratner.

Fox’s Fair and Balanced Ad Policy

Actor Danny Glover has filmed a TV ad asserting that the Bush Administration is destroying the Constitution through the use of torture, rendition, and other war-on-terror tactics. Mr. Glover urges viewers to “rescue the Constitution.”

It’s hard-hitting. But a lot of people and organizations — including our Editorial Page — have been saying much the same thing.

That's true, they have been saying the same thing because they hate George W. Bush. Not that any of their spurious arguments have merit to them. But why let the facts get in the way?

There is, of course, plenty of documentation for the damage that has been done to the Constitution in the last seven years.

There is? Where?

Certainly not in this smarmy item. How about backing up that claim?

But in any case, we have news for Fox: Alka-Seltzer tablets don’t bounce around singing “plop, plop, fizz, fizz,” and whole sidewalks full of people don’t smile and cheer just because a guy is running around with a bottle of Dr. Pepper.

Huh? What the hell does that mean?

It seems that Fox’s literalism about advertising is limited to ads that take a liberal political position.

Fox gave considerable play to the Swift Boat Veterans’ false ads against John Kerry during the 2004 election. But as the website Media Matters notes, in 2005 Fox News refused to run an ad critical of then-Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. The network said the ad was “factually incorrect.”

Media Matters? There's a reliable source. But, excuse me, when exactly were the SBVT ads shown to be false? Maybe these idiots need to do some reading. Read the comments over there as well. The tolerant readers basically want Fox shut down.

Here's the Glover ad.

French Toss Rumsfeld Suit

Another smackdown for the far left antiwar kook crowd.

French prosecutors throw out Rumsfeld torture case

PARIS (Reuters) - The Paris prosecutors' office has dismissed a suit against Donald Rumsfeld accusing the former U.S. defense secretary of torture, human rights groups who brought the case said on Friday.

The plaintiffs, who included the French-based International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH) and the U.S. Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), said Rumsfeld had authorized interrogation techniques that led to rights abuses.

The FIDH said it had received a letter from the prosecutors' office ruling that Rumsfeld benefited from a "customary" immunity from prosecution granted to heads of state and government and foreign ministers, even after they left office.

It said in a statement it was "astonished at such a mistaken argument" and said customary immunity from prosecution did not exist under international law.

The suit was filed in October during a visit to France by Rumsfeld.

The CCR is headed up by the odious Michael Ratner, who works hard on behalf of terrorists and is a generous contributor to certain Democrats.