WTF Moment

[Arkaign]

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/53829.html

"Guantanamo guards must furnish confessed al Qaida kingpin Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his four alleged co-conspirators with enough battery power to use their prison camp laptops 12 hours a day -- but the 9/11 accused can't surf the Internet, a military judge ruled."

For those that would slam the judge for being some kind of 'liberal' pantywaste, he's a Marine Colonel.

This is just plain weird. I think there are loads of problems with the legality of our detainee system, I think we should in essence : shit or get off the pot. Charge them, give them speedy and fair trials, and don't just detain people indefinitely. Charge, try, or release, it's that simple.

I don't think we should be furnishing notebooks, or letting them use them though. That's just bizarre.

 

[blackangst1]

They will be streaming The Ring

 

[JS80]

A laptop without internet? Isn't that kind of useless?

 

[StageLeft]

No internet. What are they doing, lan games?

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: JS80
A laptop without internet? Isn't that kind of useless?

Given that some of the detainee's are acting as their own lawyers, I assume that they write up documents with them. That's the only conceivable purpose I could think of in terms of usefulness. No details on what OS/software/brand, maybe they just want to play minesweeper (lol).

Still, why not just give them what every other state and federal inmate gets? Pen and paper. I get the sinking feeling that those laptops came from US Taxpayer pockets, and that sucks.

 

[DrPizza]

OS: Windows Millenium

<prisoner>
Okay! I'll talk! I'll confess! Just please give me an OS that works!"

 

[JS80]

Originally posted by: Arkaign

Originally posted by: JS80
A laptop without internet? Isn't that kind of useless?

Given that some of the detainee's are acting as their own lawyers, I assume that they write up documents with them. That's the only conceivable purpose I could think of in terms of usefulness. No details on what OS/software/brand, maybe they just want to play minesweeper (lol).

Still, why not just give them what every other state and federal inmate gets? Pen and paper. I get the sinking feeling that those laptops came from US Taxpayer pockets, and that sucks.

Are they using wordpad or MS Office?

 

[Genx87]

Brilliant idea! They will launch powerpoint and create their devious plans. Then we will have the evidence required to convict them in a civilian court!

 

[Arkaign]

Ah, more info here :

http://www.miamiherald.com/new...namo/story/723593.html

Apparently they are Panasonic Toughbooks.

"A case prosecutor replied that he was providing the alleged terrorists with Toughbooks, laptops loaded with the government's evidence against them, which they could study up to eight hours a day in their cells."

Interesting. I still think they should just print the files to paper and that way they can study the material 24/7 if they want, all at a substantially lower cost than using notebooks.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: Arkaign
Still, why not just give them what every other state and federal inmate gets? Pen and paper. I get the sinking feeling that those laptops came from US Taxpayer pockets, and that sucks.

Some of them have been held without charges for 5+ years, many of them were grabbed based only on hearsay from paid informants who might have a grudge to settle.

After years of Freedom Tickling a borrowed laptop seems like a reasonable accomodation.

"A case prosecutor replied that he was providing the alleged terrorists with Toughbooks, laptops loaded with the government's evidence against them, which they could study up to eight hours a day in their cells."

Interesting. I still think they should just print the files to paper and that way they can study the material 24/7 if they want, all at a substantially lower cost than using notebooks.

There may be thousands or even tens of thousands of pages of documents given the way government employees spew paper. It's probably much easier and possibly cheaper to sync the documents to the laptop as needed.

 

[Blackjack200]

Well email is not, strictly speaking, surfing the internet. So maybe we're giving them email accounts and hoping that they unwittingly provide information (obviously we would be snooping the emails). Just a guess...

 

[Robor]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
OS: Windows Millenium

<prisoner>
Okay! I'll talk! I'll confess! Just please give me an OS that works!"

LOL! :laugh:

 

[Robor]

Originally posted by: Arkaign
Ah, more info here :

http://www.miamiherald.com/new...namo/story/723593.html

Apparently they are Panasonic Toughbooks.

"A case prosecutor replied that he was providing the alleged terrorists with Toughbooks, laptops loaded with the government's evidence against them, which they could study up to eight hours a day in their cells."

Interesting. I still think they should just print the files to paper and that way they can study the material 24/7 if they want, all at a substantially lower cost than using notebooks.

Toughbooks? Don't those things cost a small fortune?

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons

Originally posted by: Arkaign
Still, why not just give them what every other state and federal inmate gets? Pen and paper. I get the sinking feeling that those laptops came from US Taxpayer pockets, and that sucks.

Some of them have been held without charges for 5+ years, many of them were grabbed based only on hearsay from paid informants who might have a grudge to settle.

After years of Freedom Tickling a borrowed $500 laptop seems like a reasonable accomodation.

According to the details, these are new Panasonic Toughbooks that are ~$5,300/each.

I agree that being held without charges is ridiculous, but the solution is not giveaways, it's either charging/trying them in a fast and fair manner, or releasing them.

Beyond that, I suspect the total daily cost of incarcerating the folks down there is a shit-ton more than $5,300/day, even individually.

 

[techs]

Thanks, Bush.

 

[palehorse]

They also have and play Xbox360's... just an fyi.

 

[dphantom]

it's still torture. The laptops are running Vista...

 

[techs]

Originally posted by: dphantom
it's still torture. The laptops are running Vista...

On 512 mb of ram.

 

[dphantom]

Originally posted by: techs

Originally posted by: dphantom
it's still torture. The laptops are running Vista...

On 512 mb of ram.

cruel and unusual :Q

 

[Drakkon]

Govt could be considered cruel and usual punishment if they converted all their docs to PDF format and make then review using Acrobat 6.

 

[jonks]

shit doesn't anyone watch 24? Macguyver? Wargames? They're gonna remove bits from the computers and use it to build a device that will either open their doors or coordinate a rescue attack on the prison! oh noes! If harold and kumar could escape then a bunch of trained terrorist assassins sure as shit can!

 

[Harvey]

It's all a plot to get them to start downloading illegal copyrighted material and kiddie porn. Then, that'll give the Bushwhackos some charges they can make stick to justify keeping them in Gitmo. :roll:

 

[MadRat]

They had to break the screens because the prisoners do not have the necessary security clearances to view the evidence.

 

[Rainsford]

Originally posted by: palehorse
They also have and play Xbox360's... just an fyi.

Assuming they are given out as rewards for cooperation, that seems like a pretty good idea for some types of prisoners. Jack Bauer would make a really shitty interrogator in real life...

 

[fskimospy]

Is there something that shows these laptops were bought specifically for this purpose? Either way, if you're going to lock someone up 23 hours a day and then put them on trial, it is only reasonable that they are given the chance to provide a defense.