June 15, 2005

Tradecraft and Public Perception

It's surprising that neither Baltar nor Armand has jumped on this wagon yet, but in the brief moment that I am connected to a computer on what has become a longer than planned summer hiatus, I will shoot off a quickie post.

The comments of Alberto Gonzales about former prisoners at Guantanamo has my knickers all twisty:

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales defended the holding of prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay camp in Cuba on Wednesday, saying some of those who had been released had returned to fight against the United States.
Gonzales said he thought about a dozen people released from Guantanamo had later been killed or captured ''on the battlefield'' fighting against the United States.

Why are my knickers twisty over this? Cannot even I, the persistent critic of all things Bush-related, see that keepin' terrorists outta' circulation is good for 'Merica's security? Hmmm, well, read the second paragraph closely. See, if we know what happened to these guys after we released them, then that means we were following them, and if we were following them, then we probably expected them to get up to more terrorist hijinks, and if we expected them to get up to terrorist hijinks when we released them, then we probably had predicted it before we released them. With me yet? Follow the released small fry to see if they lead you back to a big fish. It is duplicitous to suggest that we have released these people in good will only to be betrayed by their return to terrorism. We knew this would happen, and no doubt the intelligence network wanted them to run home to reinvolve themselves in the struggle in the hopes they could deliver a path to important figures.

Posted by binky at June 15, 2005 04:03 PM | TrackBack | Posted to International Affairs


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