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June 17, 2005

Support the torture of your troops

Yesterday I noted the odd embrace of torture by LaShawn Barber: It's perfectly okay to beat the shit out of people as long as they're getting three squares a day.

Powerline blog has also got themselves into the act, schleping apparel at CafePress with "I heart Gitmo" across the chest and the ever popular slogan Support your U.S. military by sporting the latest 'I Heart Gitmo' fashions as the sales pitch.

Support your US military? I wonder how supported this soldier feels:

Mr Baker, 37, was a member of a military police unit based in Kentucky when it deployed to Guantanamo Bay in 2003.

In January of that year he volunteered to act as an unco-operative detainee for training purposes and put on an orange prison jumpsuit.

He argues that other participants were not made aware that he was a soldier.

Discharged

During the exercise, Mr Baker says, military police choked him and slammed his head against the floor. Mr Baker says he told them he was a US soldier but the beatings continued until the jumpsuit was yanked down, revealing his uniform.

Mr Baker - who has complained of traumatic brain injury - was subsequently honourably discharged.

The army initially said the discharge was unrelated to the exercise, but later acknowledged the injuries sustained at the time had been a factor.

But as long as he got his ration of Tandoori Chicken he should just take his beating cuz we heart Gitmo to support the troops.

Posted by Carla at June 17, 2005 03:04 PM