DOUBLE TROUBLE
GENERAL DUMPED AS PRISON CAMP
COMMANDER AT GITMO – ALSO LOSES
JOB AT RHODE ISLAND NATIONAL
GUARD – CRITICISM HE WAS “SOFT” ON
AL-QAIDA DETAINEES AT CAMP DELTA

It was a “double whammy” for Brig. Gen. Rick Baccus. Not only was he relieved from his post as commander of Camp Delta, the facility at the U.S. Naval Base, Guantanamo, Cuba, where hard-core al-Qaida terrorists are detained, but the general also was canned from his post in the Rhode Island National Guard.

The “official story,” at least for the removal from Camp Delta, was the general left because his “duties” were being “consolidated” with a general of higher rank. A spokesman at the U.S. Southern Command in Miami claimed the shift was related to the “merging of operations.” Sure! And if you believe THAT one, we have a bridge to sell you real cheap in Brooklyn.

MilitaryCorruption.com has learned that a policy “dust-up” with Maj. Gen. Michael Dunlavey, who had been overseeing interrogations at the prison camp facility, resulted in Baccus being handed his hat and told to “hit the road.”

Dunlavey wasn’t amused at some recent press reports that the captured terrorists housed on “Gitmo” were being especially well-treated. No more primitive quarters behind barbed-wire entanglements like something from a World War II prison camp newsreel. These Taliban and al-Qaida “bad boys” get a Koran and another book to read while lounging in their comfy cells, complete with an arrow painted on the floor to signify the direction they can “pray to Mecca.”

Hot and dusty Camp X-Ray has given way to Camp Delta where the detainees have flush toilets and running water. Their diet is carefully regulated and great pains are taken to make sure they don’t get the “wrong kind of meat” that would offend their religious scruples.

In other words, these terrorists are a hell of a lot better off than Americans would be if they had fallen into enemy hands in Afghanistan. Or anywhere else, for that matter!

But there’s a second blow to the 50 year-old general from Bristol, Rhode Island.

He’s been canned by Rhode Island National Guard commander, Maj. Gen. Reginald Centracchio, who told The Associated Press he relieved Baccus for various reasons that “culminated in my losing trust and confidence in him.”

Lt. Col. Michael McNamara, a Guard spokesperson, told the AP that Baccus “wasn’t keeping Rhode Island Guard officials informed of the well-being of his troops, even when asked for updates.” McNamara cited an alleged incident where Baccus didn’t notify Centracchio about the medical evacuation of a Guardsman.

Also there were several less-than-complimentary stories in two major newspapers that might have caused the command to “sack” Baccus. Whatever the real story is, the highly unusual step of humiliating a general officer in public has been taken.

Rick Baccus, an ROTC graduate and longtime officer, made it all the way to “flag rank.” But now, his career is essentially over.