Following an actual tour of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D) and others conceded that it did not live up to its billing by certain interest groups:
“The Guantanamo we saw today is not the Guantanamo we heard about a few years ago,” said Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif.
[snip]
After a classified briefing from base commanders, the House delegation ate lunch with troops — the same meal of chicken with orange sauce, rice and okra that detainees were served. They then toured several of the barbed-wire camps where detainees are housed, viewing small cells, dusty recreation yards and common areas.
[snip]
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, is one of many Democrats who have called for an independent commission to investigate abuse allegations and said the facility should close. She stopped short of changing her position after the visit but acknowledged, “What we’ve seen here is evidence that we’ve made progress.”
Evidence of progress, or evidence that “gulag” claims were wildly overblown in the first place?
Thankfully, Rep. Jackson Lee did not tell any wild tales about her activist escapades as a six-year-old. Or at least the AP writer had the good sense not to print them if she did (unlike the local newspaper).
