No sooner had Christopher Hitchens completed his (very amusing) toast to Bob Conquest yesterday evening than a cab arrived to hurry him to San Francisco International. Hitch was to take the redeye to Dulles, present himself at the Pentagon, get into a military car for the drive to Andrews Air Force Base, then clamber board a military transport to fly to Guantanamo Bay.

Why visit Gitmo? “To look the place over for oneself. Come to that, to smell the place for oneself.”

He may have trouble with God, but Hitch most certainly believes in the war on terror. Watch closely. Whatever he writes when he gets back from Gitmo will prove altogether worth reading.