James Yee, who worked as a chaplain at Guantanamo, wrote a book about his experience at the camp. From a review of the book:

The book, "For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire," offers Mr. Yee’s first public comments on what occurred at the camp while he was there.

In the book, to be published this week by PublicAffairs, Mr. Yee writes that Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, the prison’s commanding officer - who would later become Mr. Yee’s chief antagonist in pressing suspicions of espionage against him - regularly incited anger toward the prisoners with emotional slogans delivered to the troops.

Mr. Yee writes that when General Miller visited the prison, he would tell the guards sternly, "The war is on." That remark and similar comments, Mr. Yee writes, were designed to let soldiers know they were operating in a combat environment where it was understood that rules protecting detainees were relaxed and instances of mistreatment would be overlooked.

I just finished co-writing For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire with Chaplain James Yee, which will be published in October by PublicAffairs. Chaplain Yee was the Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo who was arrested in September 2003 on suspicion of espionage. He spent 76 days in solitary confinement and was kept under very harsh conditions. In the end, he was never charged with espionage or related crimes, but with mishandling classified information, a far less serious offense. Even so, Chaplain Yee never mishandled classified documents and the government ultimately dropped all charges against him. His story is really fascinating and it's a frightening account of how the "war on terror" can get out of hand.

See also this article.

Members of CLIP, the Coalition for Low Income Power, would like to invite you to a city council candidates forum on Saturday, October 15th from 1 - 3 pm at the First Christian Church at 701 Franklin Street SE.
Grace Cox will moderate our discussion about downtown, poverty and other issues. The panel will consist of representatives from the Welfare Rights Organizing Coalition, the Thurston County Tenants Union and Bread and Roses. There will also be time for individual questions from the audience.
I have attached a document with the agenda and some background information. Please call with any questions.
Monica Peabody

Welfare Rights Organizing Coalition
701 Franklin Street SE
Olympia, WA 98501
360-352-9716

THE OLYMPIAN

The Department of Social and Health Services is working to integrate mental health care into the traditional care residents receive, including adding mental health coverage to a pilot study that aims to give people one point of contact with the department.

-This sounds like a great move to clear up a lot of the mess that people who need benefits get caught up in. I spoke this morning to a friend who was an intern at the legislature in the spring. She had nothing good to say about Molina, the private company contracted to handle clients. She reportedly fielded nearly one hundred calls at one point in which citizens' complained about Molina Healthcare's bungling and mismanagement of their cases.-

The Olympian does a profile on a very cool organization called the Gleaners. Here's their website.