Saturday, May 20, 2006

Post Prison Riots: Detention Leader Cites Dangerous People Held in Captivity

President Bush,

The prison riots confirm dangerous people are being held in captivity, safely away from those they would certainly harm. The head of the unit said of the attackers “This illustrates the dangerous nature of the men we have detained here”. My question to you is the leader the current military chief of the U.S. Prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba or the head guard of the Stanford Prison Experiment from 1971? In both cases people restrained involuntarily attacked their captors. The system produces the results.

It only took the students a matter of hours to revolt, while most Guantanamo prisoners have been held for 4 years without charges. In less than 36 hours one student prisoner began to break down emotionally. Even the experimenters thought the student in crisis was trying to “con them” before they realized he truly was in crisis. The Stanford researchers even manipulated the loved ones who came to visit their children “in prison”. The prisoner had simply brought his problems on himself, thus blaming the victim.

How might people detained with no end in sight act? When one’s spirit is broken what are the predictable responses? Might they attack their oppressors or attack themselves by attempting to commit suicide. The Guantanamo record of prisoner suicide attempts by starvation (hunger strike), hanging, drug overdosing is long.

The behavior of the prison guards revealed 1/3 of the college students to be inventive, hostile and arbitrary in their abuse of prisoners. This could not be predicted by psychological tests. Might you and Vice President Cheney have been part of this sadistic guard group? Your persistently creepy admonitions that torture should be used lead me to even pose this question.

The amazing parallels between Guantanamo Bay and the Stanford Prison Experiment raise many questions. Does this mean we need to round up all college attending students as they may be a danger to society? Think about it ….

P.S. Should any of those pesky college students try a hunger strike today, you have the answer. Tube feedings! Don’t worry by then they have already lost their humanity.

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