In the Ap piece on the confirmation of a double-secret probation camp called Camp 7, there were some rather odd remarks from a Col. Vargo quoted:

"Not everybody, even within the Joint Task Force, has access or even knowledge of where Camp 7 is," said Army Col. Bruce Vargo. As commander of the military's Joint Detention Group at Guantanamo, Vargo is responsible for the camps holding 260 detainees. But not for Camp 7.

For his part, Vargo said he is preoccupied by the possibility of an al-Qaida attack on Guantanamo.

"Although we are trying to be open, security is paramount," he said. "I mean, if you can fly a plane into the towers, you can attack Guantanamo if that's what you choose to do. It's something I think about on a day-to-day basis."

What the F*** was that?  Do you mean to tell me that several thousand sailors and Marines on an isolated corner of an island have to worry about Al Quada?  As opposed to the Cubans??????

Further down in the article, an even more troubling quote from an up and comer.....

"While some military personnel have reportedly grumbled about being kept out of the loop, others don't mind.

"Army Col. Larry James, whose team of psychologists assists interrogators, said he does not want to know where Camp 7 is.

"I learned a long, long time ago, if I'm going to be successful in the intel community, I'm meticulously _ in a very, very dedicated way _ going to stay in my lane," he said. "So if I don't have a specific need to know about something, I don't want to know about it. I don't ask about it."

Wow.  That's the Nuremburg defense on THX 1138-quality mood altering drugs.  I'm just going to keep my nose clean- if they want to cut the nuts off these guys, who f****** cares what  happens to them.  As long as "it" (torture, that is) can't be traced to the rest of my prison population reports, I can look forward to a rapid series of promotions and maybe some "contract" work when I get out.  Certainly easier than working on treatments for PTSD or TBI and sadly, more lucrative.

So tell me, Dem candidates, where do you stand on torture?  On this kind of double-secret probation prison torture, most specifically.  I know John McCain doesn't think highly of double-secret probation prisons, but I'm not going to vote for him.  I would have preferred him as a Republican candidate in 2000, but I could not tolerate another "Bush Legacy" presidency.

You see, the Bush administration has pretty much come out and said it.  Yeah, we waterboarded some of 'em.  So what?  Piss off, it saved lives.

Prove it.

I feel pretty good about calling them out on this.  Take a look at all the "terror" plots foiled that have actually ended up with a court verdict.

But again, it's not about Republicans.  I want to know what "hope" I can have that not just this double-secret nut-cutting operation will be halted, but that the candidate can purge the thought programming that has infected these true believers like Col. James.

I don't doubt there were many with that same rationale in every one of 20th century man's ugliest affronts to the sensibilities.  It's way easy to rationalize when there is an everlasting enemy that is determined to attack an island.  I put the chances of such an attack at odds that, well, favor the lease running out on Gitmo first.

Notrol