Conservatives tout Gitmo cuisine
By Alexa Moutevelis
June 20, 2005
(CNSNews.com) -- Conservatives angered by the frequent calls of congressional Democrats and anti-war activists to close down the military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, are conducting an unusual counter-attack.
Inspired by California Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter, bloggers from Dummocrats.com have created "The Gitmo Cookbook" to emphasize the high quality of life for prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay facility.
Speaking on Fox News Sunday June 11, Hunter said the criticism of how the U.S. is handling terrorist suspects prompted him to send "for the menu from Guantanamo, so that the average American could understand how we're brutalizing people" at the prison.
"For Sunday, they're going to be having -- let me see -- orange glazed chicken, fresh fruit grupe, steamed peas and mushrooms, rice pilaf -- another form of torture for the hijackers," Hunter said.
"We treat them very well," he added in response to suggestions that the detention center should be shut down.
The Dummocrats.com website picked up on Hunter's theme.
"If you're tired of all the torture allegations, of hearing the media imply that handling a Quran without gloves on is the moral equivalent of beheading someone, and of all the hysteria about enemy combatants, you'll enjoy the Gitmo Cookbook," the website states.
The book "contains the actual recipes and menus for the food served to the Gitmo detainees, along with interesting facts about how American soldiers are working every day to treat prisoners humanely while still getting the information we need to protect ourselves."
Conservatives were infuriated by the recent remarks of U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), who went on the floor of the Senate to compare the alleged abuses at Guantanamo Bay to the atrocities committed by the Nazis during World War II, the Stalin regime's network of "gulags" in the former Soviet Union and the Cambodian regime of Pol Pot during the Vietnam era.
During his appearance on Fox News Sunday, Hunter pointed to what he said were exaggerations on the part of Guantanamo Bay prison critics. Giving the prisoners MREs (Meals Ready to Eat), the same food that soldiers are eating, "is considered actually to be a form of abuse," Hunter said.
Laura Curtis, contributing author for Dummocrats and the cookbook, told Cybercast News Service that "this is the exact food that our troops get. The only difference is that, for the detainees, it's halal. The Muslim-approved meat has to be prepared a certain way and the animals have to be slaughtered a certain way."
She also noted that the proceeds of the Gitmo Cookbook will go to a charity of the Guantanamo troops' choice.
Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh has been having fun with the idea of a "Club G'itmo," implying that prisoners are staying in conditions comparable to a Caribbean resort. Limbaugh calls Club G'itmo, "Your tropical retreat from the stress of jihad."
But Democratic political operative Donna Brazile was not amused, telling CNN's Inside Politics on Wednesday "that to try to describe Gitmo Bay as some kind of spa, some kind of resort is foolish.
"It is a place that was set up and designed to hold people for an indefinite period of time, to torture them, to try to get information out of them and to keep them behind bars until the United States figures out what to do with them," Brazile said.
Curtis countered that "this is not a terrible thing that is going on. They are being treated humanely. And they are the enemy. I think we are treating them a lot better than they would treat us. The way the media is treating Gitmo is ridiculous."
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