The reports now coming out of foreign press sources are eerily similar to John McCain’s accounts of his P.O.W. treatment at the Hanoi Hilton. The Telegraph, a British media outlet, last week released photos  of Guantanamo abuses that President Obama had just announced would be kept confidential. And the government of Spain revealed that despite the president’s order to begin shutting down the facility, organized goon squads (known as “Immediate Reaction Forces”) have stepped up the frequency and intensity of utterly gratuitous prisoner abuse in anticipation of the base closing.

Obama has ordered the end of harsh interrogation methods. But that has done nothing to stop the brutal treatment of  the “detainees” for non-interrogation purposes. The only purpose seems to be for the sadistic entertainment of the guards.

The Spanish government released some of the sickening details of this abuse. Call it torture, call it atrocity, call it brutality, call it “robust recreation” - call it whatever you like. But the behaviors, directed against presumed terrorists who are uncharged, untried, unconvicted people from all over the globe, are explicit, unconscionable violations of both the spirit and letter of the Geneva Convention. Once you read what they are, you will find no room to quibble about the definition of torture.

Here are the allegations. Teams of five men, the Immediate Response Forces (IRF’s), were created originally to quell any onset of rebellion or trouble from the prisoners. So far, so good. But IRF’s are allowed to roam around the prison like the wild dogs they tote with them, virtually without restraint, and torment the detainees for any reason or for no reason at all. (Remember, none of this has anything to do with interrogation to extract information to protect our troops.)

They cuff the prisoners’ hands behind their backs, then hoist them into the air by their wrists, which of course causes extreme pain to the shoulders and can lead to dislocation of the joints. It is precisely this technique that explains why Senator McCain is still unable to raise his arms above chest level.

And there’s plenty more. These IRF’s use mace, sometimes emptying one or two full canisters at a time directly into the face and eyes of their prisoners and rubbing it in with a towel. One man claims this caused him to permanently lose all sight in one eye. The IRF’s use electrical shocks, blows to the testicles, and eye-gouging. They inject detainees with inoculations containing a disease for dog cysts.  They lift bound prisoners into the air and drop them face-down onto the concrete floors. They terrorize them with dogs and large snakes. They keep them naked, extremely cold, or extremely hot.      

And still more. Sodomy attacks. Detention in completely darkened underground cells for three weeks, deprived of food and water. Breaking bones. Gang beatings. Hog-tying for hours. Banging their heads on concrete floors. Urinating on their heads. Injection of chemicals and motor oil into the anuses of prisoners. Forceful, excruciating insertions of oversized nasal feeding tubes. And in one of the most childishly degrading and disgusting acts of all, they smear excrement all over the prisoners’ naked bodies.        

Some conservatives are saying, “So what? These are terrorists. They bombed us first. They kill civilians, women and children with no remorse. If torture saves one American soldier, then I’m all for it.” This sentiment, according to a recent Pew Forum Survey, is echoed in the finding that over 60% of white evangelical protestants believe torture may be justified during questioning of suspected terrorists.

On the surface, this might seem reasonable and just. I personally don’t give a damn about the wellbeing of that despicable, girly-faced cretin stalking the caves of Afghanistan. So help me God, if I thought it would stop the other violence bin Laden has unleashed, I’d shoot him myself with the same dispassionate concentration I use when killing rattlesnakes or brown recluse spiders. But just for five minutes, stop and think. Clear your head of the bombastic voices of the circus barker “talk radio” hosts.

Let’s look at this from a perspective that conservatives will understand and identify with. And let’s just ignore the fact that none of the detainees have been convicted, and some are entirely innocent. The issue of brutality is not just about justifiable revenge or patriotic pride. “American credibility” isn’t just some soft-headed diplomatic cliché. Consider how that credibility serves to protect our troops and our homeland.

If we allow American personnel to behave like the barbarians we are fighting, then lie about it, then cover it up, who is going to believe us when we say we need access to their foreign military bases during an international crisis?

Who among our allies is going to believe us when we attempt to build coalitions with them to fight future military wars, cyberwars, or create a unified diplomatic front to pressure our enemies?

What is this unaddressed outrage doing to the pride and morale of the hundreds of thousands of honorable men and women who do not commit atrocities, torture, abuse, humiliation - all those devoted citizens of today and yesterday who have sacrificed life and limb, their families, and their mental health to protect us?

Who among our young people are going to believe the patriotic themes of our military recruitment ads and sign up to wear a uniform unfairly tarnished by the actions of a few out-of-control psychopaths? Who is going to fight our wars for us? Old men like me and Dick Cheney? Or will we go back to a draft?

These a just a few of the hard repercussions of weak credibility and discarded integrity. Any one of them could dangerously complicate current and future military operations and could cost the lives of more than just “one American soldier.”

Then there is the full disclosure issue, which brings us full circle back to the photos published by The Telegraph. If they are able to obtain confidential photographs, then it is only a matter of time before the videos start making news. As a matter of policy, all of the brutalization incidents were supposed to be videotaped. Some were, and some were not. The tapes have reportedly been destroyed.

But surely not all of them. Some of those tapes must still be out there, smuggled away by an outraged nurse or physician, a prison janitor, a soldier, an innocent prisoner from Australia, a conscience-stricken U.S. soldier…

If past is prelude, it would be an entirely safe bet to assume that we have not yet seen or heard the worst. The word is already leaking out, one toxic dribble at a time. There are people from all over the world, both guilty and innocent, who know exactly what happened and is still happening at Guantanamo. They will not all remain silent. This will not continue to be our dirty little secret.

Yes, this issue is a distraction from other pressing issues, chiefly the economy. And Obama wants to put it behind us and move forward. But the world is not going to allow us just to relegate it to the past and look ahead. The problem exists now. And it is not going to go away. Obama can rightfully say that he inherited these messes from Bush. But this continuing Guantanamo fiasco is fast becoming Obama’s problem.

The corrupt IRF personnel must be rooted out now. The procedures they are using could easily become a passively condoned precedent that, like a staph infection, shows up carelessly, entrenches itself, spreads quickly, and can only be killed off by rapid and ruthless vigilance.

President Obama can, with one phone call to one general, yank every member of the alleged goon squads out of Guantanamo today and replace them with decent American soldiers while the behavior of the others is investigated.

To “put the past behind us” and maintain our credibility and integrity, our own new government must command the initiative, spill the entire waste dump on the table for the whole world to see. Otherwise, the rest of the world is going to spill it piecemeal on the table for us, in serial fashion, one bombshell news story after another.

We must investigate everything ourselves, impartially, to exonerate the innocent, put to rest the exaggerations, incinerate the festering systems of secret abuse, take responsibility, and make restitution.

This controversy cannot be contained, hidden, spun, or ignored. The word is already out. If the U.S. doesn’t open its own investigation, the Europeans will. 

In the meantime, many of us would like Mr. Cheney to answer one simple question: Exactly how does smearing feces on the face of an already incarcerated individual protect the life of even one American soldier or increase our national security?

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