“Thank you so much for publishing the truths about Guantánamo in Counterpunch, and praising the bravery of those who have acted as witnesses.” (Mary Barton)

“I read and learn from your Counterpunch pieces. Thanks for them. I just finished the Magna Carta Manifesto (a book), and you belong in it!” (Peter Linebaugh)

And, more chillingly, “For decades, there have been training manuals in the US which say to attack innocent persons and put them on display as a method of intimidating everyone in the most effective way. Therefore, when an unruly crowd developed on the college campus where I was, the police arrested innocent passers-by. A cop who had been in the military explained the procedure as arresting the innocent being more effective than going directly after the guilty. This is the obvious purpose of Guantanamo. It is a public display of injustice for the purpose of creating maximum intimidation. It says, ‘don’t even think of crossing us, because we go after the innocent as well as the guilty.’” (Gary Novak)

My reply to Gary: “You make a very good point, and I suspect that the bully boy front may well be Guantánamo’s primary aim. What confuses matters, however, and makes the scenario even more chilling, is the fact that the prison seems to work on many other levels: as an experimental psychological prison for the practice of torture, for example, and – because at least some of those involved believed their own hype about the detainees being the “worst of the worst” – as an illegal interrogation camp.”