First hand report from Gitmo

Here's a military man, returned from Gitmo, speaking out about what he saw there:

Josh Weaver has been back in the United States for just over a month, catching up with family and friends and trying to decide what he will do with his life. First, he wants to clear up some misconceptions. The 20-year-old Novato High graduate and specialist in the Army National Guard returned last month from nine months of guard duty at the controversial detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He says that his experience at the detention camp bears little resemblance to the perception people have from media reports. "They keep raising what happened before," Weaver said, referring to allegations by human rights groups and the FBI of inhumane interrogations at the detention center. "But it is different now. We really turned that place around."

Weaver describes minimalist, but humanely furnished cells, and access to "great medical care, good food, [and] a library." More to the point, he correctly identifies who these prisoners really are:

"Some of these guys are really bad. They want to die and take some of us with them," he said. Others were calm, inquisitive and told him they supported the removal of Saddam Hussein. *** The detainees varied widely in their attitude, Weaver said. "There was one guy who would call women cats and men dogs," he said. "He would bark at me when I would walk by, and I would bark back." Another detainee attacked Weaver while they were in the camp hospital for a check-up. "He got really mad at me because I kept asking him to stop talking. He was cursing another guy in Arabic. He went for my throat, and I had to take him down," he said. But "the standard is to use the least force possible."