Bigfork's military anayst

Moving to Bigfork hasn't kept retired Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely from keeping on top of the war on terrorism.

"It's worked out great," Vallely said as he finished up breakfast at the local Korner Kitchen.

Vallely gained national prominence as Fox News' senior military analyst during the invasion of Iraq. His face and voice continue as a familiar presence on Fox as well as on nationally syndicated radio shows.

His book "Endgame - The Blueprint for Victory in the War on Terror," co-authored with retired Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney, heightened his respect as an international opinion-maker.

Vallely is now working on an update of the blueprint with some of the best minds in America, including James Woolsey, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

"A draft will go to the White House," he said.

While Vallely regularly makes ripples along the Beltway, his celebrity turns only a few heads in the Flathead Valley.

"I get recognized more often in New York City," he said.

Vallely likes it that way. After maintaining a part-time residence in Bigfork for a few years, he and his wife, Muffin, moved here permanently in 2003 from Washington, D.C.

The retired general had never set foot in Montana before 2000. But friends had moved to Whitefish and their rave reviews lured Vallely and a buddy here for a fly-fishing trip.

"I couldn't believe when I arrived at the airport how beautiful it was," he said.

He went home with a pile of brochures and a strategy for making Muffin a convert to Montana. As it turned out, she was an easy sell.

She came to visit their friends, spent one day looking at houses with a Realtor and was in escrow on a house the next day.

"That's a true story,"

Vallely said with a laugh.

It all happened so fast that Muffin couldn't find the house when she returned at Christmas time with her mother in tow. The two eventually found their way to the hillside home off Montana 83.

"I never saw the house until Christmas," he said. "But she got a good deal."

Vallely sees a lot more of the house now as he writes and researches his books between jetting off to meet sources from Beirut to Israel to the Pentagon. Last week, he was fresh off a whirlwind tour of the detainee camp at Guantanamo Bay.

He left the Glacier Park International Airport Sept. 28 in time to arrive in D.C. for dinner. Vallely rolled out of bed at 3:30 a.m. on the 29th to make it to the Pentagon at 5:30 a.m.

Around 7:15 a.m., he boarded the Secretary of the Navy's plane with other media and congressional representatives. They headed for the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo about 400 air miles from Miami on the southeast corner of Cuba.

By midmorning, Vallely had his first view of the controversial camp. He said he was impressed by the men and women running the facility, which holds 558 detainees classified as enemy combatants.

"They are so highly trained and disciplined," he said. "They go above and beyond the Geneva Convention in taking care of these people."

According to Vallely, the law of war allows the detention of enemy combatants for the duration of conflict. The idea is to keep them from rejoining the fight.

Experience has validated the concept.

Vallely said 10 detainees were released earlier only to show back up on the battlefield. One was wearing a prosthetic leg he received compliments of the U.S. government.

Although it's not required, the Department of Defense has instituted a combatant review process. Vallely's group was briefed on the process that allows a detainee to fight his combatant status and seek release.

Vallely said 460 of the 558 detainees qualified for review of their status.

So far 293 cases have been reviewed. Of the 155 detainees with final decisions, six were released and 47 were recommended for transfer back to their home countries.

Even those deemed safe to transfer have presented dilemmas when their home countries don't want them or planned to execute them if sent home. This applies to the Uighurs, Muslims recruited by al Qaeda in China.

The remaining 102 reviewed were found correctly classified as enemy combatants.

"Those are the ones who will go back out and murder Americans," Vallely said.

The retired general bristled as he spoke about a recent article that compared Guantanamo to Hitler's death camps.

"Nothing could be farther from the truth," he said. "These guys get three meals a day, the Koran, a prayer rug and they're shown which way to pray."

Vallely and the others toured the newest detainee holding facility. He said it was air-conditioned and comparable to the most modern detention center anywhere in the United States.

Detainees get assigned to camps with various levels of freedom based on their compliance with camp rules.

"Most do comply," Vallely said. "Those live in a communal situation. Some of the Afghans have taken up basketball."

Because of cultural clashes, Vallely said camp officials have to segregate Afghan detainees from Saudis within the camps.

"Afghans don't consider themselves Arabs," he said.

The worst of the worst detainees end up in Camp 3. At the time of the tour, two prisoners were headed back to that camp after they threw paper cups filled with urine on the chest and face of a woman security guard.

"These are some of the nastiest people in the world," he said. "These are bad, bad people."

Vallely said detainees average in age from mid-30s to 40s. The oldest was in his 70s.

"They are mainly trainers and cell leaders," he said.

Some are expert bomb makers while others have worked at financing terrorism.

Vallely said most of the interrogators are women. It has to do with the Muslim culture.

"They [women] are very effective at getting information from them," he said.

Some very hard-core cases remain uncracked. Like prisoner no. 23, Osama bin Laden's former driver.

Vallely said torture isn't and never has been an interrogation method at Guantanamo. The West Point graduate backs up that assertion with 32 years of distinguished service in the Army.

His trip to Guantanamo reinforced his view that the camp remains a secure yet humane holding facility. Such tours have changed some others' points of view.

"They even turned Teddy Kennedy around," he said.

Vallely retired in 1991 after a career that included two combat tours in Vietnam. Vallely also commanded all the special forces, psychological warfare and civil military units in the western United States and Hawaii.

Vallely made his first appearance on FOX News the day after 9/11. He then built the FOX military team lauded for accurately predicting the outcome of the initial invasion of Iraq.

Since the attack on the United States, Vallely has devoted his years of experience to helping unravel the web threatening to choke democracies worldwide.

His prominence has led some to suggest he consider a political career. But Vallely has no interest.

"I have no other agenda than to win the war on terror," he said.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com