After Representative Hunter (CA) appeared on several news programs beginning on Sunday, June 12, 2005, talking about how much we are spending to feed Gitmo detainees halal meals, James linked to an article and called it Gourmet Fare at Guantanamo.

This led to a discussion that led to the creation of a "Gitmo Cookbook". Our goal is simply to support the troops - profits go to a charity that supports them - and try to make the point that the word "torture" is itself being grossly abused when describing prisoner treatment. It's unfortunate that we have any prisoners at Gitmo, but the conditions there do not rise to the level of gulag, torture, or concentration camp.

Laura has been working non stop in gathering the recipes from the Navy and we'll be spending the next few days preparing and tasting them in family-sized portions, so we'll have those recipes in addition to the institutional-sized ones.

Although we're still in the beginning stages of testing the scaled-down recipes (for example, tonight I'll be trying Tossed Green Rice & Fish Amandine), you can already pre-order the cookbooks at gitmocookbook.com. We expect them to be available in approximately 10 weeks. Pre-ordered books cost $6.95. All profits will go to charity. We have not selected the charity yet - we have contacted the Public Affairs office at Gitmo to find out if the troops stationed at Gitmo have a preferred charity.

You can link to gitmocookbook.com on your own sites using this graphic:

Look for more news on this exciting project soon. If you're lucky, we may even post a sneak peek recipe here for all you food aficionados!

Update: Welcome to all of you coming over from Michelle Malkin's site. Take a look around!