As I read the newsreports on the escape from the Bagram prison, I wanted to be outraged, or at least bewildered, but instead I was bemused.  All I could think of was Ronald Reagan's famous “there you go again!”

 

To ask the question, “is there no end to the incompetence?”, is to answer it.  A Wildebeeste stampede is more organised than Mr. Rumsfeld's Pentagon.

 

The prisoners had studied the “guards' routine” over many months?  Shouldn't a high security prison have a randomised secrutiy detail?  The prisoners had fashioned “implements” to “pick” the locks?  Is it not basic to strip-search prisoners upon cell transfer, especially if they had caused “disturbances”?  And they picked a prison lock?  They fled under “cover of darkness”?  Has the US army not heard of security floodlights, trip-wires, infra-red motion detectors, electronic bracelets …? 

 

An early report compared this breakout to “The Great Escape”; this is more like “Hogan's Heroes”. 

 

A memo to Dick Cheney: it's pointless to have the right to torture prisoners, if you can't bloody well keep them there.  Forget about thumbscrews and water-boards, and concentrate on putting your own house in order.