In the movie
A Few Good Men , JAG lawyer Lt. Daniel Kaffee (played by Tom Cruise) courageously extracts a famous, on-the-stand confession from the arrogant and self-righteous Col. Nathan Jessup (played by Jack Nicholson). A Marine, one Private William Santiago, has died after receiving an informal, and forbidden, disciplinary procedure, called a "Code Red", from two fellow Marines at Gitmo. The Code Red was of course ordered by Jessup. Jessup, however, tries to let the two Marines take the fall for Santiago's death.
In a brilliant display of lawyering (or at least Hollywood script-writing), Kaffee traps Jessup in Jessup's own Titanic-sized logic gap.
Here's the exchange:
Col. Jessep: Ever put your life in a man's hands or asked him to put his life in yours?
Kaffee: No, sir.
Col. Jessep: We follow orders, son. We follow orders or people die. It's that simple. Are we clear?
Kaffee: Yes, sir.
Col. Jessep: ARE WE CLEAR?
Kaffee: Crystal. Colonel, I just have one final question before I put Airman O'Malley and Airman Rodriguez on the stand: If you gave an order that Private Santiago wasn't to be touched, and your orders are always followed, then why would Private Santiago be in danger? Why would it be necessary to transfer him off the base? (emphasis added)
In a memorandum dated January 19, 2003, the Pentagon issued a detailed set of rules regarding the proper handling of the Koran at Gitmo:
U.S. Long Had Memo on Handling of Koran
By Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 17, 2005; A03
More than two years ago, the Pentagon issued detailed rules for handling the Koran at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, requiring U.S. personnel to ensure that the holy book is not placed in "offensive areas such as the floor, near the toilet or sink, near the feet, or dirty/wet areas." (boldface added)
The three-page memorandum, dated Jan. 19, 2003, says that only Muslim chaplains and Muslim interpreters can handle the holy book, and only after putting on clean gloves in full view of detainees.
The detailed rules require U.S. Muslim personnel to use both hands when touching the Koran to signal "respect and reverence," and specify that the right hand be the primary one used to manipulate any part of the book "due to cultural associations with the left hand." The Koran should be treated like a "fragile piece of delicate art," it says.
The memo, written a year after the first detainees were brought to Guantanamo from Afghanistan, reflects what U.S. officials said was a specific policy on handling the Koran, one of the most sensitive issues to Muslims. The Pentagon does not have a similar policy regarding any other major religious book and takes "extra precautions" on the Muslim holy book, officials said.
Certainly this memorandum begs the question, why did the Pentagon feel the need to issue such a memorandum, at that time, in that amount of detail, and specific to Gitmo?
The memorandum was issued about a year after the first detainees were brought to Guantanamo.
The memorandum is three pages long, with the gist being "don't defile the Koran." But instead of a short admonition, the memo goes into detailed, specific procedures, even describing with which hand the Koran should be held and how it should not be turned over when being wrapped in a towel.
The WaPo article above states that the Pentagon "does not have a similar policy regarding any other major religious book".
Are we to believe that someone at the Pentagon spontaneously (and without precedent) decided, while wading through the blizzard of torture memos floating around, that the Pentagon should officially develop and distribute a three-page policy on the proper handling of the Koran so as not to offend the religious sensibilities of detainees at Gitmo?
Why did the Pentagon feel the need to issue such a memorandum, at such a time, and in such detail? Why would it be necessary?
Res ipsa loquitur.
Final thoughts:
Galloway: Are you planning on doing any investigating, or are you just gonna take the guided tour?
Kaffee: I'm pacing myself.
Downey: What did we do wrong? We did nothing wrong.
Dawson: Yeah, we did. We were supposed to fight for the people who couldn't fight for themselves. We were supposed to fight for Willie.