Product Description

The U.S. military detention center at Guantánamo Bay—known to the public as Gitmo—has been called the American Gulag, a scene of medieval horrors where innocent farmers and goat herders swept up in Afghanistan and Iraq have been sequestered, tortured, and abused for years on end without access to legal counsel or basic medical services.

Gordon Cucullu, a retired army colonel, was so appalled by these reports that he decided to see for himself. In a series of visits he inspected every corner of the camp and interviewed dozens of personnel, from guards and interrogators to cooks and nurses. The result—coming just as the Obama administration wants to close the facility—is a riveting description of daily life for both prisoners and guards. Cucullu describes the six camps reserved for different levels of compliance, details the treatment of prisoners, and examines their experiences in detail, including the techniques used to interrogate them, the food they eat, their medical care, how they communicate with one another, and the many ingenious ways they contrive to assault and injure their guards.

While some prisoners were indeed treated harshly in the early days, when the hastily built camp was flooded with battlefield captures and fears ran high of another 9/11-style attack, Cucullu finds that these excesses were quickly corrected. Current treatment and oversight routines exceed the standards of any maximum-security prison in the world.

Despite what the public has heard, these are not innocent goatherds but dedicated jihadists whose overriding goal—as they themselves candidly say—is to kill Americans. Should they now be released to return to the fight, perhaps on American soil? Read this book and decide for yourself.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #290459 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-01
• Released on: 2009-01-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780061762307
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author

Gordon Cucullu is a retired army colonel and the author of Separated at Birth: How North Korea Became the Evil Twin. He lives in St. Augustine, Florida.

Customer Reviews

Shocking Revelations from Guantanamo Bay
While this is one of the most thoroughly researched books I've ever seen (more than 500+ endnotes with source documents that I found at the author's website at [...]it reads like a fast-paced, page turning novel. From the opening scene of attempted suicides and riots through the litany of unspeakable attacks that detainees commit on our American service members, author Cucullu kept me on the edge of my chair -- staying up all night to finish reading it.

I learned so much that I had never read before or seen on television, on a subject I've been following (so I thought). I'd thought there wasn't any legitimate legal procedures for detainees, yet Cucullu outlines proven processes that have seen more than 500 of the original 750 detainees released or transferred to other countries. What happens to them then? I learned that many, many of these people have gone back to al Qaeda and the Taliban and are still fighting against Americans, then right when I was reading Chapter 10 I heard on the evening news about one of those who were released a couple of years ago becoming a top al Qaeda leader in Yemen on the evening news.

Inside Gitmo pointed out that more than 500 USA civilian lawyers are representing these guys. That's more than two lawyers to every detainee. Most of them have been released while claiming to be goat herders and other innocents, only to return to killing and blowing things up again. It was hard to put the book down when CNN was finally reporting the same kind of news at the same time I was reading about it in the book.

We have also heard how terrible life is for detainees, but Cucullu explains in great detail what the soldiers serving there experience daily now. After a particularly sad episode of a mishandled and in fact abused detainee there, soldiers have been forbidden from even defending themselves. Instead, they take extreme abuse and physical attacks as part of their jobs. One poor young woman had her face smashed against the bars of the cell and has had to have multiple surgeries as a result. A nurse was punched in the face, breaking her nose. Women are called terrible names and threatened with rape and murder.

Cucullu finishes this excellent book by outlining the pros and cons of options that are in front of all of us right now. If I had it in my power I would make sure than President Obama read this book from cover to cover. And all our elected officials, too.

I strongly recommend this book to every American citizen who wants to know about what really is happening at Guantanamo, what has been covered up *not* by the government but by media reporters who are more interested in glamorizing the "plight" of terrorists while ignoring our own military medics, guards, and other Gitmo personnel.

president obama must read this
I have never, and probably will never, read a book that reveals the contrast of good and evil as this book does. This is also a book that sheds a tremendous amount of the light of how cowardly and hypocritical the western media is.
good: I have even more respect for our military personnel. There are at least 30 examples of how our guards and commanders make sure that the detainees needs are accomodated and that they are treated in a respectful manner. History tells us that there are not many countries that make such an effort when enemy combatants are captured off the battlefield. (just ask Senator John McCain about this) I salute all the men and women who are and have helped in containing evil.
evil: This book has reinforced what I already know about the Jihadist and their goals. These men are very clever, ruthless, willful, dangerous, tribal minded, inhumane, violent, and our proud that they are doing their part in trying to kill infidels and make the world succumb to Sharia Law. Their willness to sacrifice themselves to kill or to make the west look bad through the media is part of what makes them so dangerous.
It is a shame westerners will ignore books like this. The ideological bubble that too many live in shields people from the truth about the world and GITMO. Please Mr. President read this book. Multiculturalism is wonderful! But what if one of those cultures' wants to destroy you?...think about it

A tribute to balance and objectivity
After finishing the Colonel's book, I'm more convinced than ever that
the political polarizations we are experiencing are extremely
dangerous to the security and wellbeing of this country. And I also
believe that the Colonel's integrity and objectivity in style and
content demonstrate the high standard that I believe all of us need
to practice in our own communications.

I hope everyone considers communicating with others in this way.
Thanks, Colonel, for your excellent report on GITMO and for setting the bar high!
--Susan Quinn
The Islamist Report