|
<< Back
Gitmo, Get Real! Booting Reporters is the Best Way to Tarnish U.S. Image
Charlotte Observer (NC)
June 16, 2006
Observer staff writer Michael Gordon and photographer Todd Sumlin went to the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to do a story on Army Col. Mike Bumgarner, the KingsMountain native who's commander of the detention center there.
They arrived Saturday -- the day three detainees hanged themselves in their cells, making headlines around the world and increasing international pressure to disband the center where hundreds of captives are held in tight security as enemies in the war on terror.
Col. Bumgarner spoke frankly about the need to tighten security to prevent suicides. He made it clear that detainees were not to be trusted, and guards should act swiftly if there was any sign of a potential suicide attempt. He sounded like a tough commander who understood his responsibility and would live up to it.
Michael Gordon reported all that.
The military's press monitors were shocked. They'd expected what one spokesman called a "puff piece" -- you know, local guy has tough job, everyone's proud of him, that sort of thing.
Well, Col. Bumgarner does have a tough job, and he didn't mind if reporter Gordon saw him doing it on one of the toughest days imaginable. He sounded like a man we'd want in that job -- straightforward, capable, fiercely determined.
Many higher-ups, alas, don't consider straightforwardness a virtue, especially in a center of international controversy. When they read Michael Gordon's story, they got queasy and reacted as queasy higher-ups do all over the world: They booted the journalists off the base and began an investigation. A Pentagon spokesman said the Observer story wasn't the reason the journalists were forced to leave. The proper label for that statement is "100% Pure GI Baloney."
Observer Editor Rick Thames, reacting to the Observer staffers' ouster, said Michael Gordon's stories "helped the world understand the actual circumstances our soldiers faced in managing a very difficult situation. It's unfortunate that the military didn't see the value of that." He's right.
In the 1992 movie "A Few Good Men," Jack Nicholson portrayed a Marine colonel at Guantanamo who, answering a lawyer's question at a court-martial, spoke eloquently of the hard, hazardous duty of America's armed forces.
The lawyer had demanded the "the truth." The colonel responded, "You can't handle the truth."
He continued, "Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. ... And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don't want the truth because deep down, in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall."
Our nation is in a hard fight with brutal foes. When higher-ups withhold the truth about the fight because they think citizens can't handle it, they should expect to lose the public's trust.
<< Back
|
