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After Representative Hunter (CA) appeared on several news programs beginning on Sunday, June 12, 2005, talking about how much we are spending to feed Gitmo detainees halal meals, James at Dummocrats linked to an article and called it Gourmet Fare at Guantanamo. Hunter said:

“For Sunday they’re going to be having Orange Glazed Chicken, Fresh Fruit Roupee, Steamed Peas and Mushrooms, Rice Pilaf – we treat them very well,” he told Fox.

Last night, Hunter said, the U.S. “torture victims” enjoyed the same kind of gourmet fare, including an entree of “Lemon-baked Fish.” On the other hand, feeding the detainees MREs, the standard fare given to our troops on the front lines, is strictly verboten – considered an “abuse” under restrictions imposed by Congress, Hunter said. The top House Republican also noted that the religious practices of the terrorist suspects held at the U.S. “gulag” are scrupulously accommodated, explaining:

“We give them honey and dates when they break fast at Ramadan. We give them prayer beads and prayer oil – all paid for [by the U.S. taxpayer.] In fact,” he said, “if you did that for American GIs – if you had a call to prayer five times a day – the ACLU would sue on the basis that we violated the separation between church and state.”

This led to a discussion that led to the creation of the Gitmo Cookbook. All the Dummocrats pitched in, and pretty soon we had a cookbook. It took a month longer to create than expected, Hurricane Katrina slowed us down in recieving and sending out the cookbooks, there was a problem with the ordering system that caused a bunch of orders to be cancelled, and everybody was uncomfortable with the media attention. We made the front page of the London Sunday Telegraph with a big full color picture of the cookbook, CNS did a story, I was a very nervous guest on the Laura Ingraham show, and Fox & Friends invited us but no one was able to do it. The whole thing was a bit surreal, but we wanted to make a point, and raise a few bucks for a good cause.

Given the current attention being paid to Gitmo, I thought a mention of it is appropriate, because aside from giving you the ability to eat like a detainee, it is chock-full of facts and quotes. For example:

Amnesty International called Gitmo the gulag of our times. Encyclopaedia Britannica states that an estimated 15 million to 30 million prisoners died in the Soviet gulag. The highest number of people held at Gitmo was 750, and as of this writing, no detainee of the approximately 500 currently being held has died due to treatment at Gitmo.

And this pair of quotes is a favorite of mine:

Saddam’s torture chambers reopened under new management: U.S. management. – Senator Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.

Those who are shouting for ‘heads to roll’ over [Abu Ghraib] seem to have overlooked the fact that someone’s head has rolled-that of another innocent American brutally murdered by terrorists. Why is it that there’s more indignation over a photo of a prisoner with underwear on his head than over the video of a young American with no head at all? — Sen. Zell Miller, D-GA

The cookbook contains the actual recipes used to cook for the detainees, and there are two versions of each recipe. The standard military recipe is 100 servings, and the scaled down family sized recipe serves 4-6. The Dummocrats tested them, and they’re actually quite good. The bulk recipes are especially handy for clubs and church groups; they’re made with easy to find and inexpensive ingredients. Profits from the cookbook are donated to the USO; we assembled it to make a statement, not a few bucks. Here’s the final quote from the cookbook:

War will disappear only when men shall take no part whatever in violence and shall be ready to suffer every persecution that their abstention will bring them. It is the only way to abolish war.
– Anatole France

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