Brees On Gitmo: "The Worst Thing We Can Do Is Shut That Baby Down"

Super Bowl winning quarterbacks go to Disney World, while an all-around good guy like Drew Brees scores an all-expenses-paid trip to Guantanamo Bay. Sounds dreamy, right? According to Brees, Gitmo ain't so bad.

That's what he said in a July 10 radio interview after visiting the detention facility in Cuba on a U.S.O. tour. Those comments gained traction yesterday, when Jeff Duncan of The Times-Picayune highlighted them in a blog post.

Let's go to the Brees tape:

I can say this after that experience — the worst thing we can do is shut that baby down, for a lot of reasons. But I think there's a big misconception as to how we are treating those prisoners — those detainees over there. They are being treated probably ten times better than any prisoner in a U.S. prison. They're on a 6,500 calorie-a-day diet whereas a normal U.S. prisoner is on a 2,000 calorie-a-day diet.... I think the international media — there's just been so much scrutiny over the way that we're treating these guys, it's almost like we're going overboard to treat them so well.

I mean, they're allowed to call and write letters home, and receive letters and calls. They get five opportunities a day to pray, and they have arrows in the prison pointing towards where Mecca is. And the prison goes dead silent so these guys can have their religious time. They have rooms where they can watch movies and play Nintendo Wii. So I think that just goes ahead and says it right there.

And you just talk to all the guards that are Army and Navy personnel, they'll tell you stories about how these prisoners, they'll be walking the cell blocks as they're keeping an eye on these guys and they'll be throwing their feces and urine in the faces of the guards as they walk by, and the guards are not allowed to do anything. They're not allowed to physically retaliate or do anything hardly to try to restrain these guys at all. These guys get away with whatever they want.

And it was interesting because at one point, we were walking from one detention center to another and some of the prisoners saw us. And they started yelling, 'Torture! Torture!' We teach them English, by the way. But they assume since we're in civilian clothes that we were members of the media so they started yelling, 'Torture! Torture!' So you know, anything that they can do to show a poor light on the U.S. military, they're going to do it. Because it seems like they're being treated very, very well over there.

Well then! Prison sounds awesome.

Brees raises eyebrows with comments about Guantanamo Bay [Times-Picayune] Drew Brees talks about recent trip to Guantanamo [Sports Radio Interviews] Drew Brees touts defensive improvements [Times-Picayune]