Not surprisingly, there are some terrorists at GITMO (Guantanamo Bay detention center) who would prefer to stay there. Not only are they provided with prayer mats and beds with “an arrow pointing towards Mecca”, they have access to thousands of magazines and books, and also receive

anything from weekly to almost unlimited access to DVDs and receive three newspapers (USA Today, plus one Egyptian and one Saudi Arabian title) twice a week.

They’re also provided with halal, Middle Eastern food-

Dates, olive oil and honey are provided daily and pita bread is baked on the premises. They drink the same bottled water as the prison’s staff

Even the 16 “high value detainees” including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (who confessed to being the mastermind behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City) at Camp 7, get to partake in the above.

They also get plenty of sunshine outdoors and at Camp 4; low security detainees have a football field.

Not bad for terrorists, and definitely not what they will get if they are incarcerated somewhere in the U.S. Jail time at the federal supermax prison in Florence, Colorado

prisoners would also spend 22 ½ hours a day in a 9ft by 9ft cell with the only natural light coming from a skylight outside.Exercise would be limited to an hour and a half indoors five days a week and they would have minimal contact with others, including the 33 other international terrorists held there.

Though not officially verified, the information has come from some officers, camp guards and an Arab American cultural adviser named Zak (real name withheld for security purposes). Zak said that some detainees

would rather stay put than go on trial in the US, where they would probably receive a life sentence or could wait years for a death sentence to be carried out.

“They know there will not be the same privileges as here,” he said. “Given the choice of being sentenced forever in Guantánamo or moved to supermax, it is ‘no, can I stay in Gitmo?’. Here they can be outside, they can smell the sea.”

Whether it’s true there are some who would rather stay put or not, they’re being far better treated than the criminals in our penal system. But prisons aren’t meant to be holiday spas, there’s a reason most criminals are in jail, including most if not all of the detainees in Guantanamo. If you don’t want to wind up in prison, conduct your life in the correct manner.

photo credit Miles Doran