A closer look at Gitmo

Lt. Col. John Lonergan, commander of 1st Squadron, 18th Cavalry, Joint Task Force, Guantanamo, Cuba, issued an invitation (letters, Feb. 19) to “catch the next flight to Gitmo and see how things are done for yourself.” Several people, including myself, are eager to accept his offer to tour that part of Cuba as freely as we could the rest of the country but for arbitrary prohibitions imposed by our own government, but the flights do not appear on Internet travel sites. Is he willing to provide assistance?

GEORGE TUCKER

Redondo Beach

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The entire premise of Lonergan’s letter castigating the U.N. Human Rights Commission report on torture and cruel and inhumane treatment at Guantanamo Bay is false and misleading.

He complains that the report was not based on “firsthand knowledge” and that the only claims of torture are from the detainees themselves. In fact, the officials who wrote the report sought access to the detainees but the U.S. government replied that the visit would not include private interviews with detainees. Contrary to Lonergan’s letter, the report was based on information gathered from the FBI, declassified official U.S. documents and reports from the International Red Cross, Human Rights Watch and other nongovernmental organizations.

Until Lonergan and those in charge of Guantanamo give unfettered access to independent investigators, I for one am not prepared to accept their bald-faced denials. We’ve done that far too much in the last five years.

STEPHEN F. ROHDE

Los Angeles