The Tampa Tribune gets it:

Amnesty International's leaders hurt its reputation by calling a U.S. prison for suspected terrorists "the gulag of our time." Gulags are Russian camps where millions of political prisoners were worked to death. At the U.S.-run prison at Guantanamo Bay, some 540 men are being detained without formal charges. Guantanamo is an increasing problem, but no gulag. Not even close. Of 28,000 interrogations there, only 10 prisoner complaints are verified.

Remember, these are not prisoners of conscience. They are suspected enemy combatants, and among them are terrorists whose conscience tells them to kill. How can they be released while they still consider themselves at war?

...The world needs the largest human rights group to remain aggressive, but it needs credible aggression. And when dealing with a free society under attack, Amnesty would be wise to show less animosity and a little more amity.

While I appreciate their willingess to call B.S. on Amnesty International's absurd "gulag" claims, I'm not sure the Tribune's editorial is correct that Guantanamo is really an "increasing problem." As Charles Krauhammer has noted, if we close it, allegations of prisoner mistreatment, mostly if not entirely phony, and lodged according to a well-worn Islamicist prisoners' script, will arise at any other holding facility, as well.

The victim rhetoric is calculated to appeal to jelly-kneed America-hating American Democrats, and undermine our nation's ongoing war on terrorists. Most unfortunately, these Islamic extremists want to kill us "Dirty Kuffar" or "non-believers," and our women and children, too, as their brethren have done across Europe, Indonesia, and in Israel. Make no mistake, I'm distinctly not for pissing on Korans. But these fellahs want to do a whole lot more than desecrate a Bible, or Torah, OK?

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at June 11, 2005 09:04 PM