Bush keeps the score on Al Qaida
Oliver Burkeman in New York
Monday February 4, 2002
The Guardian
In a move that will not necessarily reassure critics of the US war
on terrorism or its treatment of detained al-Qaida and Taliban
fighters President George Bush has revealed the principle
behind his offensive: baseball.
He keeps track of the most wanted members of al-Qaida on a
scorecard, so that he can cross off their faces as they are killed.
"One time early on, I said, 'I'm a baseball fan, I want a
scorecard'," Mr Bush told the Washington Post. "When you're
fighting an enemy like al-Qaida, people - including me - don't
have a sense of who we're fighting. And I actually have got a
chart," Mr Bush said.
His remarks came as officials at the US military base in
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, denied that prisoners were mistreated,
as new photographs showed an injured detainee being wheeled
to an interrogation session.
"There is no torture. We are a nation of laws," Brigadier General
Michael Lehnert said.
Mr Bush showed the Post's reporters three sheets of paper
bearing small colour photographs of the terrorist leaders.
"There's an X right there," he said, indicating the crossed-out
face of Mohammed Atef, Osama bin Laden's chief military
planner, killed by US bombing in Afghanistan.
guardian.co.uk |
