Can You Hear Me Now? *UPDATED* *UPDATED X2*

Detainees at Guantanamo Bay are to be allowed regular phone calls to family.  This is a welcome surprise and I hope it's implemented soon.  As many of you may know, I don't have a lot of sympathy for the detainees.  The stories you hear about staff and guards being assaulted are true... if anything, they're under-reported.

So why is this a good thing?  Three reasons right off the top of my head. 

First, since most of them have been there for 4-6 years, contact with family may help them realize what they're missing.  This will encourage cooperation and reduce some of the rationally-based stress of confinement.  It won't do anything for the irrationally-based ones, but not much will.

Second, I'm sure these calls will be monitored and either the detainee or their family may let some valuable intelligence slip into the conversation.  It may even be that family members will provide new intelligence willingly in order to facilitate a detainee's release back to their own country.  They might still be confined there, but would probably be allowed family visits.  This could be a very strong incentive for cooperation.

Third, maybe the military folks there won't have to spend so much damn money on phone cards to talk with their own families.  If jihadis get to talk with their family for free, wouldn't it make sense to provide the same consideration for the hard-working guards and staff?  They have "Morale Calls" available now (or they used to), but I don't know anybody who used them because it was such a pain.  IIRC, it was two 15-minute (or portion thereof) calls a week which had to be made from a military phone, going through an operator, using an access code, when it worked.  It just wasn't worth it for 15 minutes or less, especially if you called and found out nobody was home.

There are probably many more (and better) reasons for this, these were just the ones that first came to mind.  I think the drawbacks are obvious and have already been considered if it's taken this long to approve.

*UPDATE*  Looks like I may be on the opposite side of the argument from a few folks.  Oh well, not the first time.
*UPDATE X2* Thanks to Patterico for the link!

Posted by: Stashiu3 at 21:41:22 | No Comments | Add Comment
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