We are not acting like Soviets, we are not acting like Soviets, we are not acting like Soviets....
Defense lawyers for the inmates contend that lawmakers are still getting a "Disneyfied" and incomplete view of a grim institution that has significant shortcomings, even if many of the most overt forms of abuse have been eliminated. George Brent Mickum IV, a Washington lawyer who represents several Guantanamo inmates, said Congress has been sold a bill of goods about the typical menu in the camps.
"Lemon chicken and rice pilaf?" Mickum said. "That's baloney."
The tours appear to be having the intended effect. Some lawmakers who have made the trip one or more times have praised the conditions there in interviews with their hometown television stations and newspapers. Rep. Jon Porter (R-Nev.), part of Monday's tour, said of the inmates he had seen from a distance: "Many of them are happy to be there."
Thomas B. Wilner, a lawyer who has visited Guantanamo six times since the beginning of the year, said: "They're doing the tours for the same reason that Potemkin had his villages. The amazing thing to me is that these congressmen buy it."
