Gitmo: "Torturing" [pun intended!] language

Karen Greenberg is executive director of the Centre on Law and Security, New York University School of Law, and editor of The Torture Debate in America.

She writes in this piece in today's The Age:

"Several weeks ago, I took the media tour at Guantanamo. From the moment I arrived on a frayed Air Sunshine prop-jet to the time I boarded the same plane to head home, I had no doubt that I was on an alien planet.

Along with two European colleagues, I was treated to two-plus days packed with site visits and interviews (none with prisoners) designed to "make transparent" Guantanamo and its manifold contributions to US national security.

Thanks to our military handlers, I learned a great deal about Gitmo decorum, as the military would like us to practise it. My escorts told me how best to describe the goings-on at Guantanamo, regardless of what my own eyes and previous knowledge told me."

Read Greenberg's 10 "lessons" in language here.

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Mahler's Prodigal Son

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