I don’t know whether there’s any merit to the claim a Gitmo commander just filed against the Miami Herald’s Carol Rosenberg or not.
In a letter to the paper’s editor, Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon accused Carol Rosenberg of "multiple incidents of abusive and degrading comments of an explicitly sexual nature." Gordon, who deals primarily with the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison, said in the letter that this was a "formal sexual harassment complaint" and asked the Herald for a "thorough investigation."
"Her behavior has been so atrocious over the years," Gordon said in an interview. "I’ve been abused worse than the detainees have been abused."
But I do know two things. Rosenberg’s reporting from Gitmo has consistently been the best reporting from the military commissions.
And this accusation from Gordon sounds suspiciously like treatment US soldiers inflicted on detainees in military custody.
While watching Sept. 11, 2001, co-defendant Mustafa al-Hawsawi seated on a pillow in court last year, Rosenberg told Gordon: "Have you ever had a red hot poker shoved up your [butt]? Have you ever had a broomstick shoved up your [butt]? . . . How would you know how it feels if it never happened to you? Admit it, you liked it."
That is, the comment could be as much a comment about American members of the military dismissing torture as it is about harassment.
I’m not advocating ignoring a claim of harassment (note, Gordon claims Rosernberg made insinuations about his sexual orientation). But I do find it suspicious that this claim is being leveled against the best journalist covering our Kangaroo Courts.