Soldiers who guard terrorists at Gitmo pose with MAF folks. They soldiers won’t be home for Christmas
The entourage from Move America Forward returned home from Guantanamo Bay so we could spend our Christmas with our families. We weren’t 100 percent if we would make it back.
But this morning I wept in Mass as a “Silent Night.” I thought of our troops around the world who are away from home. They would not be there to hold their children and watch with wonderment as they opened gifts from Santa. They would not go to church together. They would not eat Christmas dinner together.
I spoke with many troops in Guantanamo Bay, those whom politicians and selfish Americans have slandered, and some talked about missing their children.
“This is the first Christmas ever that I won’t be with my daughter,” a sailor told me.
He ached for his daughter and wife. I ached for him.
I met a soldier from the county in which I live with my family. I told him to call me when he gets home and I’ll take him and his wife to dinner. I prayed for him and all of our troops this morning.
I know that, more than anything, they want to be home. I can’t give that to them. I pray on this Christmas that peace will overcome the souls of terrorists who want to end America as she is. Then our troops will be home. Safe at last.
Merry Christmas, my heroes. I love each of you. God Speed.
MAF's Executive Director Cat Moy already has a good write up. I will be posting my own soon but for now here are some great pictures from our big day in GITMO.
We are supposed to leave in about 20 minutes and I am very sad to go. We are all in fact, sad to go, wishing we could stay here just a few more days to make sure our troops really know that we love and support them AS WELL as the WORK the are doing -- keeping dangerous men who would do us harm right where they belong -- in maximum security captivity.
Hospital at NAVSTA GTMO
U.S. Marine Corps "The White House"
U.S. Navy Port Security detachment
MAF visits "The Galley" (how the navy says chow hall)
How to Dress to Visit Terrorists - and other odd Facts from Gitmo
I was raised a Catholic girl and always wore head cover when I went to church. But, of course, I was going to church where we were to respect the other parishioners, the priests and God.
Today I went with others from Move America Forward to the detainee camps at Guanatanamo Bay. Yes, please understand that we are supposed to call them detainees - not terrorists.
We women were told that we must wear full-length sleeves, long pants, and make sure our necklines were “respectable.” Men were free to go as they pleased. The reason? Americans don’t want to offend the guys who want to cut our throats.
Now mind you: It is downright hot and humid in Cuba. Smart folks wear dresses, shorts, or bathing suits.
But we were to wear cover. It’s a safety thing for the guards, who have to handle the beasts behind bars. If we upset the terrorists by showing too much skin, they take it out on the guards by throwing feces, urine or spitting. Yes, very respectful fellas.
Women’s skin throws them into a dither. A Palmolive commercial started a real dust-up when the detainees saw the woman’s wrist. They took it out on the TV, which they destroyed. We taxpayers replaced it with a flat-screen TV that is enclosed in plexi-glass with holes in it so the sound can get out.
I got myself bundled up in long sleevesm etc., so I could finally see with my own eyes the conditions for these terroritst, suspected terrorists, and generally bad people.
I was offended when I got all dressed up for the detainees, and one decided to give the universal sign for throat-cutting. He stared at me. I looked back at him. Then he drew his hand across his throat and smiled at me. I stared at him, and he did the throat-cutting gesture again.
(Important safety tip, President Elect Obama: These guys want to kill Americans. It’s best if you leave them at Gitmo with their nightly movie nights, popcorn, and art classes.
Here are some other quick facts about the guys in Gitmo:
* The priosners get prayer rugs, prayer caps, prayer beads and brand new Korans. But the guards may NEVER touch the Korans. Only a Muslim may deliver the books to the terrorists. If the terrorists are especially good, they get a fancier prayer rug.
* They get to choose from six meal plans, which include vegetarian, veg. with fish, and high fiber. They are allowed to ask for fresh fruit if their fruit is bruised, though some like the bruised fruit. They are touchy about their fruit.
* There are three medical personnel (doctors, nurses) for every ONE terrorist.
* They get to take art classes and learn how to speak English. This keeps their minds busy so they don’t think of other things to do - like throw feces.
* The most violent and “non-compliant” prisoners stay in state-of-the-art quarters. They have air conditioning.
* They get to play games such as soccer, chess, checkers, and exercise on exercise machines. They have a foosball table, but all of the faces of the little plastic guys are cut off because they offend the terrorists. They see the foosball guys as “false idols,” which is against their religion. So the military removes the faces so we don’t offend them.
Well, I’ll write more later. So much to tell.
But let me finish with this: Our men and women are professional, and bend over backwards to ensure these prisoners are trated with the utmost respect and care. It is despicable that anybody would play politics with our troops and accuse them of anything but the highest professionalism. They sacrifice to keep us safe. And they are sick and tired of the lies that have been printed and spread about Gitmo and their work there.
I am a proud American to have met every one of our troops.
After about a half day of touring different facilities around GITMO and not really knowing whether or not we would have the opportunity to visit the terrorist detainee camps, MAF has finally received the confirmation from Navy officials that we will be visiting a detainee camp today.
Actually we are just minutes away from leaving so I barely have enough time to post a couple pictures from earlier before we have to run.
Danny has done a kick-butt job blogging. I couldn’t figure out the technology (nothing new). We’re headed today to hand out all kinds of gifts and goodies to our troops to let them know the american people are behind them all the way.
We should also visit the detention center where the world’s worst terrorists are held.
Danny and I are taking loads of pictures and we’ll share them here.
We want to thank everybody who bought care packages for our troops and encourage you to go back. The winter is long in the Middle East, and our troops need to hear from hom.
Signing off for now. Will check in later.
Guantanamo Bay is an infamous household name now, made almost synonymous with torture and human’s rights abuses. We at Move America Forward understand the importance and legal difficulties of apprehending terrorists in Iraq who are operating in a war zone and often not originally from Iraq. Last year Move America Forward sent three of our own to Iraq as a delegation to bring Christmas joy to the troops in Baghdad and to show our appreciation for the great work they were doing there. This year we wanted to show our troops here in GITMO that we also appreciate THEIR roll in the War on Terror.
Guantanamo Bay is very important to the larger War on Terror and we are here to find out just who are these men and women who watch over these detainees, who we call the most dangerous terrorists ever captured? What exactly do they do here at GITMO and what motivates the people here to serve so vigilantly and how can we show them that we appreciate them?
MAF hooked up with Florida’s own Kylie Williams to arrange a trip to GITMO to answer these questions and to bring our troops some love and comfort here in Cuba where they are stationed just across the bay from a hostile and communist country. Kylie was Ms. Florida 2007 and went on to compete in the Miss America Pageant. She has her own non-profit organization called Realistic Support for the Troops and is also designated Official Ambassador for Veteran’s Advocacy for the State of Florida. Kylie helped to make our trip to GITMO happen by using her contacts in Florida and GITMO to help facilitate our visit. Kylie visited GITMO in 2007 while MAF was in Iraq.
Part Two: How You Get in Without Chains on Your Wrists
It was 10 AM this morning, we were all set to go in Ft. Lauderdale but there was a slight mix up when we didn’t know, and the pilots for the Navy didn’t know, whether we were supposed to go fly out of Miami or Ft. Lauderdale. We were waiting in Ft. Lauderdale at a private hangar waiting for the military to show up, but then we got a call saying they were waiting for US in Miami (with Kylie) so they said they would come pick us up in Ft. Lauderdale and about 40 minutes later a prop plane showed up in Ft. Lauderdale with Kylie Williams and 3 U.S. Navy pilots on board ready to pick up the MAF team.
In just a few minutes we were up in the air and on our way to Cuba. It’s a three hour flight out of Ft. Lauderdale because you usually take a route around the eastern edge of the country and then turn westward and loop around the island into Guantanamo Bay. This is because we usually do not have access to Cuban airspace but Joe from the Navy told me that even if you cut across the country it only saves you thirty minutes.
Part Three: Guantanamo Bay: First Impressions
We landed softly and taxied in quickly, loaded up into two trucks with all our gear and went down to a little harbor that is right next to the airstrip. We boarded a boat called the GITMO Queen and took a short ride across the bay where the Navy pilots were pointing out all the local landmarks. Guantanamo Bay has lots of manatees in the water and there are a whole mess of old and historical buildings. For example, in testament to the fact that GTMO has been in use as a military installation for decades, there are a couple old forts situated in the outskirts of the bay.
There is also an old hospital where the Cubans used to quarantine patients when they had an outbreak of some sickness they did not want to spread. We also saw lots and lots of old warehouses that used to house sea planes and other things but have since been converted. From the boat we were also able to see the base HQ, a power plant that supplies energy for the whole base, and “the skipper’s house” which is now under renovations so the skipper lives in the BEQ where we are staying.
The MWR (which stands for Morale, Welfare and Recreation) treated us to some of the excellent local dining, a fast food-type joint called The Jerk House which had some AWESOME food! I got me some jerked pork and rice and it was delicious. Tomorrow morning we have an early start and a full day’s schedule of stops and tours where we will explore everything that goes on down here in Guantanamo Bay.
Keep emailing the MAF account and keep up with us on our journey!
the us navy has brought their c-12 prop plane here with Kylie Williams direct from Miami international airport!
it was a tenuous situation here at the FBO office (a private part of ft. lauderdale airport) and were not sure if we were going to make it because of a mixup on where the plane was supposed to be and where we were supposed to be but it turned out the US Navy came through for us!
Kylie is here, Mel and Cat and Debbie are here and we’re all ready to go in about five minutes!!! we had JUST BARELY enough time to shoot this cute little video…
SPREAD THE WORD MAF IS GOING TO GITMO TO SUPPORT OUR TROOPS!
We are sitting in the office of an FBO which is a private company that operates and facilitates the military flight to GITMO
we just got the call that the military plane is going to be here in ...about 15 minutes!! i will try to get pictures and stuff as soon as we get to GITMO but we are expecting internet access to be sketchy!!! We will do the best we can, if we can’t get online then expect a full report when MAF gets back to the USA!!
Its 2 PM Saturday December 20th and Move America Forward’s Chairman Melanie Morgan is driving us to Ft. Lauderdale where we will meet up with Executive Director Catherine Moy who is flying in from Sacramento!
We’ve got Debbie Lee, Ryan Gill and myself here and we’re out on the open road with Mel somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Florida. We’re all super excited about going to Guantanamo Bay tomorrow so that we can think our troops there for locking up the most dangerous terrorists ever captured!
I know there are still a lot of blog postings I have to put up for our rallies in Florida but I haven’t had the time yet. Now that the tour itself is over there should be sufficient time for that, except it might take a little longer because of the Gitmo trip! Thats the most up-to-date we can get for now.
OK. The secret’s out. I am headed to one of the most dreaded, brutal, bloody spots in the world – if you’re a liberal.
Gitmo. The word sends lefties running to the bong for another hit of weed to ease their misery. I’m looking forward to seeing with my own eyes the base where we cage beasts that want to cut our throats because we aren’t radical Muslims.
I have to admit – I also want to warm myself. Despite what Al Gore-ites say, we in Northern California haven’t experienced global warming. In fact, I have to crank up the heat – bless me Algore, for I have sinned – to defrost my bones in the morning.
Anyway, my nonprofit, Move America Forward, thought it was high-tim e to travel to Guantanamo Bay to thank our troops for their steadfast work with some of the most vicious beings to walk this earth (aside from Code Pink freaks I’ve met on the streets of Berkeley).
Over the past couple of weeks, MAF has traveled the country to hold rallies for our troops. Patriots have come out to the rallies and g one to our Website at www.moveamericaforward.org and sponsored care packages for our troops.
Yes, we actually love our troops and respect them for their work keeping us safe. We are also aware that the left in this country wants to close Gitmo.
Important safety tip to you whiney liberals: If you want to close Guantanamo Bay like your leader, Barack Obama, you need to make your home their home. That’s right. But make sure that you don’t offend them. Call them to prayer five times a day. Feed them culturally appropriate food. Give them prayer caps, prayer rugs and prayer beads and a brand new Koran. They’re used to all of these items, thanks to the dreaded Americans who run Gitmo.
But make sure to put away the kitchen knives, or you may wake up in the morning without your head.
Tune in later when I give you the lowdown on club Gitmo. I plan to eat well, relax, and kick back in the 80-degree weather after some afternoon waterboarding!!
Mostly, though, I’m going to thank our troops for keeping us safe from the real live monsters that are foaming at the mouth to get at us.
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