|
|
| Marine officer who set up Guantanamo prison dismayed by what it has become |
| By latimes.com |
| Published: 09/25/2009 |
|
When Brig. Gen. Michael Lehnert established the facility, humane treatment of prisoners was a top priority. He discusses how that principle fell out of favor in the seven-plus years since he left. Reporting from Camp Pendleton - In late 2001, when the Pentagon decided to put detainees at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the task of setting up a camp and establishing its rules went to Marine Brig. Gen. Michael Lehnert. Lehnert planned to rely on what he learned while running a camp at Guantanamo in the mid-1990s for nearly 19,000 Cubans and Haitians trying to flee to the United States. And he was determined to follow the spirit, if not the letter, of the Geneva Convention, providing decent food, banning extreme interrogation and allowing religious services. He brought in a Muslim chaplain and permitted visits by the Red Cross. When detainees went on a hunger strike, he spoke to them, even allowing one to get a phone message from his wife in Afghanistan. But in the bureaucratic jostling that followed, Lehnert's approach was supplanted by that of a hard-nosed Army general. Initially assigned to the project for 60 days, Lehnert stayed for 90 and then returned to the U.S. In the intervening seven-plus years, he has held several key jobs, been promoted to major general and kept a public silence about the controversy that has enveloped Guantanamo. On Thursday, as the 58-year-old officer prepared to retire after 36 years in the Marine Corps, he expressed his deep disappointment about what happened at Guantanamo after he left. "I think we lost the moral high ground," Lehnert said. "For those who do not think much of the moral high ground, that is not that significant. "But for those who think our standing in the international community is important, we need to stand for American values. You have to walk the walk, talk the talk." Read More. |
MARKETPLACE search vendors | advanced search
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
|
Comments:
No comments have been posted for this article.
Login to let us know what you think