The Miami Herald’s Carol Rosenberg on How to Report From Guantanamo Bay
February 26, 2013 7:38 AM Subscribe
The Miami Herald’s Carol Rosenberg has reported from the detention center at Guantanamo Bay since the first detainee arrived in 2002. Last month, President Obama scuttled the office responsible for closing the center, which means Gitmo’s “media tent city” will be a permanent press encampment for the foreseeable future. Petra Bartosiewicz spoke with the veteran correspondent by phone from Gitmo’s Camp Justice, where Rosenberg has been covering pretrial hearings this month of the alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
"there’s a red sticker on my phone that says, ‘This telephone is subject to monitoring at all times, use of this phone constitutes consent to monitoring.’ I think being on this island basically constitutes consent to being monitored."
Just for frame of reference, this sticker is present on a lot of phones in the Army, so it isn't just a Gitmo thing. The U.S. Army loves stickers.
posted by A Bad Catholic at 8:17 AM on February 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
Just for frame of reference, this sticker is present on a lot of phones in the Army, so it isn't just a Gitmo thing. The U.S. Army loves stickers.
posted by A Bad Catholic at 8:17 AM on February 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
It really is absurd, Kafkaesque that it has taken ten years, and at last we can say for certain that the bureaucratic perpetual motion machine has been created. Gitmo spins away, aimless, infinite, a motor. Nobody knows where it is going, but I have an inkling of a far future, when after years of aging, one 90 year old prisoner is left talking to some strangely curious soldier: "The moment I pass on, I think it will sigh deeply and at last relax: Gitmo will feel release, it will feel free, it will finally be allowed to spin down. What a life of strain, going nowhere but circles. I feel sorry for the base itself, I do."
posted by niccolo at 8:31 AM on February 26, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by niccolo at 8:31 AM on February 26, 2013 [3 favorites]
It feels to me like a modern day Spandau, open until the last prisoner dies, much like Rudolph Hess in 1987 Berlin.
posted by pjern at 9:06 AM on February 26, 2013
posted by pjern at 9:06 AM on February 26, 2013
Sadly Air Sunshine doesn't seem to offer its charter flights to GTMO anymore. Now that would have been an awesome boarding pass...flying on Sunshine to beautiful Guantanamo-Bay Naval Station.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 9:21 AM on February 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by inflatablekiwi at 9:21 AM on February 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
Gitmo's Camp Justice was named by TSgt Neil Felver of the 122 Civil Engineering Squadron in a name the camp contest, though I can't find any online source to back that up. I'd like to see what the runners-up were.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:07 AM on February 26, 2013
posted by filthy light thief at 10:07 AM on February 26, 2013
It's a weird place. Really dark stuff side by side with the banal. I have a commemorative JTF GTMO t-shirt from the detention center gift shop, from an acquaintance involved in the trials. Needless to say I don't wear it around.
posted by bepe at 10:41 AM on February 26, 2013
posted by bepe at 10:41 AM on February 26, 2013
But I will say also that I appreciated have Ms. Rosenberg's writing since she was first was posted there and am really glad she has stuck around. Someone needs to have that continuous institutional knowledge. Someone other than the detainees, anyway.
posted by bepe at 10:42 AM on February 26, 2013
posted by bepe at 10:42 AM on February 26, 2013
Nope, it's a golf course...
posted by ennui.bz at 12:00 PM on February 26, 2013
Reflecting a military presence; the classic sense of style and gracious hospitality, The Courses at Andrews Air Force Base carries an air of true timeless elegance. High-end amenities, exceptional facilities and an unforgettable golf experience are the standard at this military resort.I'm at the golf course, I'm at the air force base, I'm at the golf course at the airforce base...
posted by ennui.bz at 12:00 PM on February 26, 2013
I don't know if it's of any import that I got through 8 comments before I realized that I was in fact not in the Rihanna thread.
posted by herbplarfegan at 12:08 PM on February 26, 2013
posted by herbplarfegan at 12:08 PM on February 26, 2013
The Latin American Exception: How a Washington Global Torture Gulag Was Turned Into the Only Gulag-Free Zone on Earth
posted by homunculus at 9:40 PM on February 26, 2013
posted by homunculus at 9:40 PM on February 26, 2013
The Colbert Report: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's Trial at Gitmo: Guantanamo Bay hosts a one-of-a-kind military tribunal, which is being spied on and controlled by unidentified forces.
Neal Katyal: The former Acting Solicitor General talks about the U.S. justice system, courtroom bugging and the future of Guantanamo Bay.
posted by homunculus at 12:50 PM on February 28, 2013 [1 favorite]
Neal Katyal: The former Acting Solicitor General talks about the U.S. justice system, courtroom bugging and the future of Guantanamo Bay.
posted by homunculus at 12:50 PM on February 28, 2013 [1 favorite]
Club Gitmo
Number of Hunger Strikers Surges at Guantánamo
posted by homunculus at 2:58 PM on March 20, 2013
Number of Hunger Strikers Surges at Guantánamo
posted by homunculus at 2:58 PM on March 20, 2013
« Older Butch Heroes | Did the piggy have a mens rea? Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
Bowling for Guantanamo
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:45 AM on February 26, 2013