FLASHBACK: Guantanamo Base Commander Canned for being 'Too Nice' in 2002

Remember this, DU?

'Too nice' Guantanamo chief sacked

BBC Oct 16, 2002

The head of military police at the US detention centre for Taleban prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has been removed from his command.

Brigadier-General Rick Baccus has also lost his job at the Rhode Island National Guard, amid reports he was too hard on troops while being soft on the prisoners suspected of fighting for the Taleban in Afghanistan.

He left the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba on 9 October, it has emerged, five days after a report in the Washington Times newspaper quoted Pentagon sources as saying he was "too nice" to prisoners.

SNIP...

Interrogations 'undermined'

Sources quoted in a number of US newspapers said General Baccus, 50, often clashed with other senior officers at the camp, including Major-General Michael Dunlavey who is in charge of interrogating the prisoners.

CONTINUED...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2332719.stm

Here's the AP version:

Guantanamo Bay Leader Removed

By Associated Press
Published: Tuesday, October 15, 2002

PROVIDENCE, R.I.—The commander of the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, camp where suspected terrorists are being detained has been removed from his post, officials said.

Brig. Gen. Rick Baccus left the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay on Oct. 9, amid unconfirmed reports he had philosophical differences with those interrogating detainees. Navy officials say Baccus was removed only because his duties at the base were consolidated with those of a commander who outranked him.

Baccus has also been relieved of his duties with the Rhode Island National Guard. Its commander, Maj. Gen. Reginald Centracchio, told The Associated Press he relieved Baccus for various reasons that "culminated in my losing trust and confidence in him."

SOURCE:

http://www.dailyutahchronicle.com/news/2002/10/15/WorldReport/Guantanamo.Bay.Leader.Removed-297088.shtml

EDIT: Headline

Army General Shamelessly Caters to Guantanamo Terrorists
Posted: October 4, 2002 (from THE WASHINGTON TIMES)
By Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough

The Defense Intelligence Agency, which is in charge of interrogating the prisoners held at the prison at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is having trouble getting information. Defense sources tell us interrogators are being undermined by the general in charge of the prison, Army Brig Gen. Rick Baccus, who is being too nice to the 598 captured terrorists.

Pentagon officials tell us Gen. Baccus has catered to the prisoners who are there, after all, because of actions that sprang from their extremist version of Islam.

Gen. Baccus in April addressed the detainees and began speaking with the words "peace be with you" and finished with "may God be with you." He promised that as long as he is in charge the prisoners will be "treated humanly."

Gen. Baccus also authorized putting up posters supplied by the International Committee of the Red Cross around the camp. The posters remind prisoners they need only cooperate as required by the Geneva Convention on the rules of war — name, rank and serial number.

http://www.insightmag.com/news/2002/10/15/DailyInsight/Army-General.Shamelessly.Caters.To.Guantanamo.Terrorists-289634.shtml

DOUBLE TROUBLE
GENERAL DUMPED AS PRISON CAMP
COMMANDER AT GITMO – ALSO LOSES
JOB AT RHODE ISLAND NATIONAL
GUARD – CRITICISM HE WAS “SOFT” ON
AL-QAIDA DETAINEES AT CAMP DELTA

It was a “double whammy” for Brig. Gen. Rick Baccus. Not only was he relieved from his post as commander of Camp Delta, the facility at the U.S. Naval Base, Guantanamo, Cuba, where hard-core al-Qaida terrorists are detained, but the general also was canned from his post in the Rhode Island National Guard.

The “official story,” at least for the removal from Camp Delta, was the general left because his “duties” were being “consolidated” with a general of higher rank. A spokesman at the U.S. Southern Command in Miami claimed the shift was related to the “merging of operations.” Sure! And if you believe THAT one, we have a bridge to sell you real cheap in Brooklyn.

MilitaryCorruption.com has learned that a policy “dust-up” with Maj. Gen. Michael Dunlavey, who had been overseeing interrogations at the prison camp facility, resulted in Baccus being handed his hat and told to “hit the road.”

Dunlavey wasn’t amused at some recent press reports that the captured terrorists housed on “Gitmo” were being especially well-treated. No more primitive quarters behind barbed-wire entanglements like something from a World War II prison camp newsreel. These Taliban and al-Qaida “bad boys” get a Koran and another book to read while lounging in their comfy cells, complete with an arrow painted on the floor to signify the direction they can “pray to Mecca.”

CONTINUED...

http://www.militarycorruption.com/doubletrouble.htm

In BushMerika, everyone has to be "Superhumanly Inhuman"

Got to love the moonies

Although the site still has some interesting photos, many have been taken off, including those of Camp X-Ray, Fleet Hospital 20, Muslim Chaplain prayer services, and visits from Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, then Army Secretary White, and a congressional delegation . Unfortunately, we weren't able to recover any of these images, although a few captions were still available :

Jan. 24, 2002: (U.S. Naval Base, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba)--Less than 14 hours after his arrival, Navy Chaplain Lt. Abuhena Mohammad Saiful-Islam conducted morning prayer with detainees at camp X-ray. Official photo by Sgt. Joshua S. Higgins, USMC.

Jan. 29, 2002: (U.S. Naval Base, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba) Beds are set up at the Fleet Hospital Casualty Receiving (CASREC). Official Army photo by Pfc. Daniel P. Kelly

Jan. 30, 2002: (Guantanamo Bay, Cuba) Secretary of the Army Thomas E. White stops during a walking tour of Camp X-Ray's detention facility to give thanks to servicemembers working there. "I think that the soldiers are doing a magnificent job. Not only are the soldiers from the Army, but Marines, Navy and Air Force people that are here are doing a magnificent job of a critically important task, obviously under difficult conditions," White said in regards to camp operations. Official Army photo by Pfc. Daniel P. Kelly

Jan. 30, 2002: (Guantanamo Bay, Cuba) White observes detainees from outside the detention facility during his tour. Official Army photo by Pfc. Daniel P. Kelly

Jan. 30, 2002: (Guantanamo Bay, Cuba) White talks with Camp X-Ray Commander Col. Terry Carrico during his walking tour. Official Army photo by Pfc. Daniel P. Kelly
http://www.thememoryhole.org/gitmo/gitmo-site.htm

Letter from Guantanamo Bay Naval Base

By PAUL KNOX
Toronto Globe and Mail Update
Friday, August 23, 2002
From the Field

Pinch yourself hard here and eventually you'll remember you're in Cuba - despite the American flags, the golden arches of McDonald's and the beefy, drawling English spoken on the main street.

Cuba was forced to cede the rights to this dusty 116-square-kilometre patch on its southern coast in 1903, and ever since the U.S. navy has used it to keep an eye on the Caribbean Sea. It's helped protect the Panama Canal, played a part in fighting the drug trade and warehoused desperate boat people from Havana and Haiti.

SNIP...

Under the absolute control of the U.S. military, but not part of the United States, Guantanamo Bay is a jurisdictional conundrum. That makes it the perfect slammer for a roundup of alleged terrorists that's part war, part police action and 100 per cent fuzzy around the legal edges.

SNIP...

On July 31, a Washington, D.C., judge ruled that U.S. courts have no jurisdiction over the prisoners here because they aren't on U.S. soil. That means the administration of President George W. Bush can continue to treat them as neither criminal suspects nor prisoners of war.

CONTINUED...

http://www.globeandmail.com/series/field/stories/knox.html

FWIW: These bedwetting bastid masterraceminds of the BFEE had to go offshore to make sure they're above the law.

Could this be the start of something even bigger? Could our military be directing and advocating abuse through its policies? Methinks a deeper investigation is very necessary...

From an April 2002 CNN interview Transcript:

FRANKEN (voice over): The infamous cages at Camp X-Ray are empty now. The inmates moved over the weekend under stringent security and strict secrecy to their new indoor penitentiary, three miles down the road, right up next to the Caribbean coastline.

BRIGADIER GENERAL RICK BACCUS, JOINT TASK FORCE I&O COMMANDER: As of right now, in the area behind us, we have 300 detainees as we speak.

FRANKEN: Camp Delta, this is called, has 408 cells, 204 more are under construction. Each will have separate indoor plumbing, which means prisoners will no longer have to be escorted to an outdoor toilet.

Officials say security will be easier to enforce, that the interrogators from the CIA, FBI and defense agencies will have a more controlled environment.

Spokesmen say it will all in all be more humane, although independent media have been denied any access to confirm that. As for the move, officials report it took 17 hours with no mistreatment, no problems.

BACCUS: There were no accidents, no injuries on anyone's part and it was done in a very professional and efficient manner.

CONTINUED...

http://cnnstudentnews.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0204/29/asb.00.html

BTW: SirJW -- Really like the ribbon which symbolizes how we got in this mess -- cowardism.

Gee. The buck must stop somewhere. From Sunday's Providence Journal, Gen. Baccus' hometown newspaper:

'Tensions' at Guantanamo are detailed

A former leader of Rhode Island National Guard troops in Cuba discusses the treatment of prisoners.

01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, May 9, 2004
BY MICHAEL CORKERY
Journal Staff Writer

EXCERPT...

'Tensions' at Guantanamo are detailed

A former leader of Rhode Island National Guard troops in Cuba discusses the treatment of prisoners.

01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, May 9, 2004
BY MICHAEL CORKERY
Journal Staff Writer

CRANSTON -- The former Rhode Island National Guard commander at Guantanamo Bay said there were "tensions" between his approach to treating the detainees and that of the military interrogators.

Rick Baccus, who headed the military police operation at Guantanamo for seven months in 2002, said that the two sides were sometimes at odds.

Baccus had ordered religious books for the detainees and arranged a special meal schedule for Ramadan, the Muslim holiday. He also proposed more recreation time and showers.

But the interrogators, Baccus said, complained that these were special accommodations that undermined their information gathering.

CONTINUED (REQUIRES REGISTRATION) ...

http://www.projo.com/extra/2003/iraq/content/projo_20040509_baccus9.19caf1.html

... to use one of our best and brightest for whatever nefarious purpose they engineer.

http://mirrorimageorigin.collegepublisher.com:80/media/paper344/stills/d0w15di7.jpg

Hostile conditions at prison camp in Cuba

EXCERPT...

The limbo has taken its toll on the prisoners and those guarding them.

Some detainees have acted out by breaking the rules, and more than 50 are in solitary confinement. Some have tried to commit suicide but the military refuses to give details. About 26 are taking antidepressants or anti-psychotic drugs.

"As time goes on, anxiety levels go up, restlessness goes up," said Col. John Perrone, in charge of Camp Delta.

Officials have no explanation for the disappearance of one of the more than 1,000 guards who watch the detainees in nine-hour shifts.

Ryan Foraker of Logan, Ohio, disappeared last month on his day off. His shorts, T-shirt and wallet were found near the ocean, but officials say the weather was calm the day he vanished.

CONTINUED...

Thanks

Here are some things I wish I'd written...

Behind the Bushes

THE NEW GENERATION

JULY 2003

FORGET STRAUSS, IT WAS DON QUIXOTE WHO INSPIRED THE NEO-CONS

JAMES P. PINKERTON, NEWSDAY - One day, this Iraq War will be thought of as the Intellectuals' War. That is, it was a war conceived of by people who possessed more books than common sense, let alone actual military experience. Disregarding prudence, precedent and honesty, they went off - or, more precisely, sent others off - tilting at windmills in Iraq, chasing after illusions of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and false hope about Iraqi enthusiasm for Americanism, and hoping that reality would somehow catch up with their theory. The problem, of course, is that wars are more about bloodletting than book learning.

Tilting at windmills is what Don Quixote did. When I left for Iraq in June, I took along a copy of "The History and Adventures of the Renowned Don Quixote," the comic/epic/tragic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. I had never read the book, but I knew of critic Lionel Trilling's recommendation: "All prose fiction is a variation on the theme of Don Quixote." And since much of what was said about Iraq was so obviously fiction, I figured that the work would be an enlightening travel companion.

When I got to Cervantes' description of his title character, I knew I was on to something: "He so immersed himself in those romances that he spent whole days and nights over his books; and thus with little sleeping and much reading, his brains dried up to such a degree that he lost the use of his reason.". . .

Yet the neo-cons, armored in academic degrees - well-versed, particularly, in the literature of such past master-propagandists as Leon Trotsky and Leo Strauss - moved easily from their ivory towers to the hearing rooms of Washington. Fired by a sense of mission, driven to spew out as many words as they had taken in, they proved their skills at pamphlet-publishing, sound-biting and bureaucracy-building.

. . . Cervantes would have seen it coming. The tales of chivalric righteousness that Quixote read "took full possession" of his brain, filling the knight-errant with the belief that "the world needed his immediate presence." And so the Man from La Mancha went off to his adventures, plunging into gratuitous battles with the innocent and the harmless - innkeepers, friars, puppeteers, shepherds and their sheep, and, most famously, windmills.

CONTINUED...

http://prorev.com/presbush2.htm

More airlifts are expected because Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has ordered the prison project to build another 204 cells.

http://www.timesleader.com/mld/miami/news/4063545.htm







But Marine Brig. Gen. Michael Lehnert omitted any mention of the ultimate penalty proposed by the Pentagon -- death -- in his weekly loudspeaker address to the suspected al Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

''Those of you who are suspected of crimes will be brought before military commissions,'' Lehnert said.

The captives could be seen standing in their cells, quiet and listening attentively, a stark contrast to some rowdy behavior that had been evidence in recent days.

Lehnert, who will be replaced next week as commander of the facility, gave the men the update a day after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for the first time revealed proposed guidelines that could theoretically be used to try Camp X-Ray captives or others held by U.S. forces in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
http://www.centredaily.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/states/florida/counties/broward_county/2918044.htm



Posted on Fri, Feb. 07, 2003
Guantánamo has 5th suicide attempt in 3 weeks


WASHINGTON - (AP) -- The Pentagon said Thursday there has been another suicide attempt among inmates at its Guantánamo Bay prison for terror suspects, bringing the number to five in three weeks. An official of the rights group Amnesty International called for an investigation.

''Medical and psychiatric teams are working to try to prevent further injury or attempts,'' said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Barbara Burfeind, a Pentagon spokeswoman, declining further comment.

Five cases of prisoners trying to kill themselves have been confirmed since Jan. 16. Officials declined to say whether it was five separate men or cases of multiple attempts by any one man.

http://www.macon.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/states/florida/counties/broward_county/5125476.htm

Subject: Brig. General sacked - Guantanamo Bay


> From: "northerntowns <norgeson@hotmail.com>" <norgeson@hotmail.com>
> Subject: Brig. General sacked - Guantanamo Bay
>
>
> Anyone know the real reasons that Brig. General Rick Baccus was
> relieved of his command? He pissed 'em off royally whatever he did.
>
> According to Alex Jones who this afternoon mentioned US Marine
> General Baccus, who retired soon after the infamous
> "Camp X-Ray" at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba received so-called
> Taliban prisoners. First, General Baccus blew the whistle
> and tried to make public the fact that NONE of the "Taliban"
> prisoners were in fact involved in the Taliban government.
>
> They were goatherders and shoemakers.
>
> Also, according to Alex Jones (infowars.com),
> General Baccus resigned because he refused to be part
> of the torture he was ordered to perform.
>
> Alex got his story from the "wholesale" news, i.e. the wire
> services, and states that this news never made it to the
> "retail" news. This was mid-October of 2002.
>
> .................
>
> 'Soft' Guantanamo chief ousted
>
> Julian Borger in Washington
> Wednesday October 16, 2002
> The Guardian
>
> The commander of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp - who was
> criticised in the US press for being too soft on the inmates - has
> been dismissed, it emerged yesterday.
>
> Brigadier-General Rick Baccus was relieved of his duties as camp
> commander and as an officer in the Rhode Island national guard on
> October 9, five days after a newspaper report quoted defence sources
> as saying he was "too nice" to the 598 inmates, and was consequently
> making it hard for the military interrogators to extract information
> from them.
>
-snip-
>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,812647,00.html

EDITED BY ADMIN FOR COPYRIGHT REASONS

War is SO good for the neo-conomy.

Published on Saturday, July 27, 2002 by Reuters

Halliburton to Build New Cells at Guantanamo Base

by Charles Aldinger

 
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Halliburton Co. has been awarded a $9.7 million contract to build an additional 204-cell detention camp at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to hold additional suspected al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners, the Pentagon said on Friday.

The move will expand the high-security prison on the base, where hundreds of such "detainees" from Afghanistan are already being held in 612 small cells.

The prison at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station has played a major part in the U.S. war on terrorism declared after September's attacks on America in which more than 3,000 people died. No prisoners have been charged, but some could eventually face military trials.

Brown and Root Services, an engineering division of Halliburton, will build the additional 6-by-8-foot cells on the windward side of the remote U.S. base at the southeastern tip of Cuba, the Pentagon said.

CONTINUED...

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0727-02.htm

WW3 REPORT proposes that the word has been coined by 9-11 defendant Zacarias Moussaoui, who in his colorful invective against his court-appointed attorneys (who he believes are collaborating with the government against him) calls one, Frank Dunham, a "megalopig." (See WW3 REPORT #43)

We admit that Moussaoui's strange pejorative may be a malapropism deriving from his fuzzy grasp of English. We also acknowledge that Moussaoui is clearly an extreme religious fanatic. (Does he grasp the irony when he accuses attorney Gerald Zerkin of being a "Jewish zealot"?) But his neologism is startlingly evocative--implying not only pigishness, but a pathological self-obsessed ruthlessness that borders on the maniacal.

In his lead story, "Looting the Treasury Under Cover of the Flag," Hightower cited everything from defense contractors like Boeing, which won a 10-year $20 billion-per-year deal to lease the Pentagon commercial 767 jets to refuel war planes, to biotech corporations like Monsanto, which is lobbying for a provision limiting industry liability for bio-engineered products in the new bio-terrorism bill, to drug companies like Eli Lilly, which is using high-level meetings with White House staff on terrorism preparedness to push for legislation barring generic knock-offs of their products, to brewers like Anheuser-Bush, who are lobbying for repeal of the excise tax on beer as part of the post-9-11 recovery package. WW3 REPORT would go beyond the private sector to add Pentagon nuclear hawks, FBI/CIA Big Brother wanabees, Justice Department and "Homelands Defense" freedom-haters, Capitol Hill interventionist cowboy careerists, and foreign despots and ethnic cleansers--who all use the War on Terrorism to cynically further their anti-social ambitions.

http://www.worldwar3report.com/46.html#shadows9

Signing off on the 9-11 Black Op and setting up a policy of torturing false confessions out of set up boogeymen...

The War On Terrorism is a manufactured deception as surely as described by George Orwell.

Is it too late for people to wake up and take to the streets?
Do you fear for your democracy?
If another 9-11 style attack occurs, martial law and Patriot Act II are waiting in the wings. Ashcroft is salivating...

You're spot-on, RBHam! The times we live in are something out of Orwell of H.P. Lovecraft.

While we can't determine the present environment, we can do something about what's coming. If we get our way, these turds of the BFEE will be in jail before they can stop the election, nuke a major metropolitan area, or whatever trick they have up their sleaves.

We're not alone in this, DU Friend. Like the Little Turd from Crawford said, "You're either with us or against us." The good people in government -- careerists from the Pentagon to the Department of Justice to the State Department -- all know that Bush is a crook.

:kick:

Seems the blame for the prisoner abuse goes higher up than flag rank. From The Providence Journal, Gen. Baccus' hometown newspaper:

Prisoner-abuse photos disgust Rhode Island Guardsmen

Servicepeople who helped guard detainees at Guantanamo Bay say mistreatment would not have been allowed there.

01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, May 5, 2004
BY MICHAEL CORKERY
Journal Staff Writer

EXCERPT...

At Guantanamo, the MPs were under the command of Brig. Gen. Rick Baccus of the Rhode Island National Guard, who was relieved of his position upon returning from Cuba in October 2002.

SNIP...

"He was the most ethical officer I have ever met in my 37 years in the military. He would never allow it," Funaro said.
Robistow said Baccus instructed the MPs to be "firm, but fair," and to treat them humanely.

Col. Charles Brule, who was Baccus' chief of staff at Guantanamo, dismissed reports about any conflict with the military interrogators.

"He had a very focused command climate," Brule said of Baccus. "He let everyone know we would conduct ourselves professionally and the detainees would be treated fairly. There would be no misconduct."

CONTINUED (REQUIRES REGISTRATION)....

http://www.projo.com/extra/2003/iraq/content/projo_20040505_mps5.21ec1d.html

You look Middle-Eastern, you're male, and you live in Iraq. Well, there's a chance you could still be in an Iraqi prison being tortured, if you happen to have the bad luck of being on the streets when the Americans rolled into town last year.

-60% of those held at Abu Gharib said to probably be innocent
- None were either Taliban or Al Quaeda

These facts are from the military.