The Gitmo Cookbook

It's what you've been waiting for! Now, you too can eat as well as the detainees at Gitmo!

Soon, a cookbook with recipes for the delectable goodies served to the suspected terrorists being held in the prison at Guantanamo Bay will be available to everyone.

From the LONDON DAILY TELEGRAPH:

NEW YORK -- The prison is known more for the accusation that it's a gulag than for goulash, but a new cookbook aims to counter the reputation of the detention center at U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Several hundred recipes prepared for the inmates at the camp are to be published next month in "The Gitmo Cookbook," including dishes such as mustard-and-dill baked fish and honey-and-ginger chicken breast.

The recipes -- most of which use fewer than eight ingredients and originally were created to feed up to 100 persons -- were developed by the U.S. Navy cooks in charge of the camp's kitchens.

They must serve food that meets the Islamic halal requirements of the 540 detainees, who mostly are from Afghanistan, Iraq and other Arab nations. A halal meal adheres to dietary practices mandated by Islamic law.

...Laura Curtis, one of the book's editors, says the recipes would "make a point about how well we are treating these people." Freed prisoners are said to have put on an average of nearly 14 pounds during captivity.

"We feel that the word 'torture' is a serious abuse of the language when you apply it to what's going on at Gitmo," she says. "We're pretty tired of the military-bashing that we see in the news."

On testing the recipes, one member of the book team disliked the glazed carrots but says the carrots "did not sink to the level of torture."

...The Pentagon budgets $2.5 million per year for feeding the prisoners, which works out to $12.68 per person per day. Meals in federal prisons cost $2.78 per convict daily.

...Prisoners considered to be well-behaved or low security risks are allowed to serve themselves around open-air dining tables in the detention blocks. Military police serve food to the other inmates.

"The Gitmo Cookbook" will sell for $8.95, and profits will be donated to a military charity.

This is a great idea!

We all will have the opportunity to share in the mouth-watering creations of U.S. Navy cooks and the sales profits will go to a military charity. It's a win/win situation.

I would love to invite Little Dick Durbin over for dinner as soon as I get my copy!