committee to go and check firsthand on something? would you agree to a third party, say, someone from the red cross going to see how private manning is doing? well, you know, as a member of the oversight committee we re sew equal branch of government and congress. i have a responsibility to be able to conduct effective oversight and sometimes it involves going and seeing for yourself. and in this case, i d be happy to have other members of congress join me. i look forward to hearing from secretary gates. i think this is a matter of the protection of the constitutional rights of the accused, and we have to remember, there is a presumption of innocence, even in a military tribunal proceeding. are you concerned, also, about the amount of time he s being held? or, i know there have been a number of rights groups who really want to know what s the time line here. well, you know, human rights groups, amnesty international, have all been concerned about this issue. think about this. so
when officials obtained the nickname of a courier that would lead directly to osama bin laden, and that was from an interrogation at guantanamo bay and how the military tracked down one of the most wanted terrorist, and here we have our military analyst barry mckak mccaffery, and sir, with all of the questions over the practices of gitmo, and this is a lead from the courier and how significant is that and how does it validate the work done at guantanamo bay, sir? well, thomas, i have been to guantanamo bay and wrote a report at mccaffery.com, and it is one of the best-run correction facilities anywhere on the face of the earth and part of it is a counterintelligence service, that while respecting the rights of the accused, they don t go into their lawyer s writings, et cetera, and still a lot of intelligence comes out of it.