What Keith Ellison really said about Gitmo

I'm just guessing that many of you read the Minneapolis Star Tribune's or MPR online's articles about Rep. Keith Ellison's (DFL-MN) visit to Guantanamo Bay and wondered to yourself "Self, is this the same Keith Ellison I know?" You were right to wonder. The Strib got it wrong (surprise, surprise), but MPR, too, although theirs isn't quite as poorly done as the Stribs. I saw Keith speak at Rep. Frank Hornstein's (DFL-60B) fundraiser on Sunday night.

"Let me tell you all what I really said," said Keith as he began his remarks. Keith went down to Gitmo understanding that he was going on a dog-n-pony show. He was never allowed to talk to any prisoners. "They didn't have anybody strung up by their thumbs or anything, they'd cleaned up their act for the visit and were on their best behavior. Nobody is in dog kennels anymore."

He went on to emphasize that what is still so wrong is that these prisoners have virtually no rights. They have no habeas corpus, the right to question why they are being held. Access to lawyers is non-existent or severaly limited by the Bush Administration. He still believes that Gitmo is a blight. These articles seem to miss that point in their rush to imply he's changed his mind on Gitmo.

He hasn't.

So have a look at the two offending articles yourself. Go to the links above and check them out for yourselves. Sure sounds like Keith isn't so sure that Gitmo is all that bad anymore? Funny how you might get that impression ...