On Thursday, President Obama directed the closing of the terrorist detention center
in Guantanamo Bay, but not for a year.
Senator McCain thinks Obama was too hasty and failed to consider where the terrorists detained at Guantanamo will go:
“So, the easy part, in all due respect, is to say we’re going to close Guantanamo,” McCain said. “Then I think I would have said where they were going to be taken. Because you’re going to run into a NIMBY [not in my backyard] problem here in the United States of America.”
Politico’s Josh Gerstein reports that Obama’s order to close the terrorist prison sounds dramatic and unequivocal, but “experts predict that American policy towards detainees could remain for months or even years pretty close to what it was as President Bush left office.”
President Bush also wanted to close the terrorist detention facility. He directed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to try to repatriate detainees to their home countries, make sure they are held safely and treated humanely and that they are not allowed to perpetrate acts of terrorism.
In 2007, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the administration continued to struggle with how to address security concerns that could result from closing Guantanamo:
“The president has said he would like nothing better than at some point to shut down Guantanamo Bay, but there are a number of steps that need to be taken between here and that stated objective and they are tough issues,” McCormack said. “There are people down at Guantanamo Bay who are very, very dangerous and you can’t just let them walk free.”
What do you do with these terrorists? Do you imprison them here? Do you release them back into the battlefield?
Since 2002, nearly 520 detainees have been released from detention facility. According to CNN, 61 of those former prisoners have or are suspected of rejoining the war Islamic extremists continue to wage against the U.S. One has even become the deputy leader of Al Qaeda’s Yemeni branch.
Pennsylvania Democrat, John Murtha, told Fox News he’d be willing to house Guantanamo prisoners in his Congressional district. Most Americans don’t want those terrorists in their neighborhood.
Time reports there are six prisons that could house the terrorists held at Guantanamo:
1. U.S. Disciplinary Barracks, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas – a 515-bed military prison, the only maximum-security prison in the Department of Defense:
2. U.S. Naval Consolidated Brig, Charleston, South Carolina – a medium-security prison, the brig can hold up to 288 inmates:
3. Camp Pendleton, San Diego, California – the Marines’ largest training facility on the West Coast:
Hunter introduced legislation on Thursday to prohibit the transfer of Gitmo inmates to Pendleton or to the nearby Miramar Marine Corps Air Station. “Redirecting these detainees to Camp Pendleton would present a serious threat to surrounding military installations and resources, as well as the community’s civilian population,” Hunter wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates earlier this month.
4. Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, San Diego, California – the 23-acre Miramar facility can hold up to 400 prisoners:
5. U.S. Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility, Florence, Colorado – the 37-acre” Supermax” prison has 490 beds and at present holds 430 prisoners:
6. Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York City – located in lower Manhattan across the street from the federal courthouse, the high-rise Metropolitan Correctional Center primarily detains pretrial and holdover inmates.
Are any of those facilities near your neighborhood?
Obama’s Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, claims that closing the terrorist detention center somehow “made America safer.” I don’t see how. I agree with House Republican Leader John Boehner, as long as it is necessary to protect our national security interests, the terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay should remain open.
Moe Lane
Steve Maley
Dan McLaughlin
Neil Stevens
Daniel Horowitz
Alcatraz
Bill S (Diary) Saturday, January 24th at 11:12AM EST (link)or so says my Senator:
Go, Kit!
“It’s such a fine line between stupid, and clever.” – David St. Hubbins
With the exception...
rbdwiggins (Diary) Saturday, January 24th at 1:05PM EST (link)of his stated opposition to certain enhanced interrogation techniques, Sen. Bond gets it entirely right.
I particularly like Alcatraz as the alternative location to house enemy combatants captured on the battlefield should Gitmo actually be closed.
It could certainly be justified as a high-priority government infrastructure project under Obama’s economic stimulus plan and his aimless national security strategy.
“Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn’t so.” – Ronald Reagan
Oh, rb, that's excellent! Right across the water
janis (Diary) Saturday, January 24th at 3:56PM EST (link)from San Fran Nan and her band of crazies. They’d probably welcome the poor mistreated terrorists. Perfect analogy for the Obama administration: We welcome terrorists and repudiate the Marines.
Sen. Bond deserves the credit for the choice of location...
rbdwiggins (Diary) Saturday, January 24th at 5:28PM EST (link)It would be such poetic justice for those suffering from acute cases of BushDerangementSyndrome™ to be wholly consumed, constantly wondering if they’re really safe under an Obama Administration.
They could preemptively re-name their city. Sanfranistan sounds about right.
“Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn’t so.” – Ronald Reagan
Here's where I am thinking Obama will put them
Jack_Savage (Diary) Saturday, January 24th at 11:18AM EST (link)Holed up with Bernie Madoff. I mean, what is more humiliating than house arrest in an upper east side penthouse?
Obama might adopt the tactic of being loud
icbm (Diary) Saturday, January 24th at 11:43AM EST (link)in announcing changes in policy that appear dramatic, in order to satisfy leftists, but then quietly continue a substantial number of Bush policies. His extreme leftist background suggests that he will act like McGovern and Carter, but he may recognize that far leftist policies are not popular in America and that if he doesn’t keep us safe he will be judged.
(If he actually engages in this tactic of saying leftist things but taking centrist actions, it will be better for the country – but it will also make him harder to defeat.)
exactly
Beaglescout (Diary) Saturday, January 24th at 12:55PM EST (link)the Reasonable Exception to His Excellency’s Own Rules and Laws policy. All hail king Barack Hussein of Obama!
“A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one.”
His supporters will just stay home on election day. Which is fine by me.
Xasteius (Diary) Saturday, January 24th at 1:23PM EST (link)Obama isn’t going to be making any friends over the next four years; he’ll be losing supporters.
Don’t leave the party, hijack it back!
The only poll that counts is the one at the ballot box.
I don’t want to be Reagan. I want to be a Chance/Soros hybrid.
Losing support
izoneguy (Diary) Saturday, January 24th at 1:26PM EST (link)It is real hard to vote if you get killed by a terrorist.
The point cannot be made often enough: Modern liberalism, as embodied in the Obama presidency, is the defender of the status quo. And the status quo is a road to economic ruin. Political forces cannot redistribute the wealth that the economic system does not produce.
true
icbm (Diary) Saturday, January 24th at 2:48PM EST (link)on the other hand, are the terrorists smart enough to attack red cities instead of blue ones?
There aren't that many
JoeG Sunday, January 25th at 4:16AM EST (link)All the prime targets for terrorists are blue cities. They want to maximize the damage.
They’d rather pick NY, San Fran or Seattle over Oklahoma City.
I say put them Up in the WH living Quarters
PaRep (Diary) Saturday, January 24th at 11:46AM EST (link)President Obama thinks they aren’t a threat & is a Good Bleeding Heart Liberal, He ought to relish the chance to show compassion to them & let them live with him
The locus of incarceration is a red herring
1SGinTN (Diary) Saturday, January 24th at 11:55AM EST (link)What the opponents of the terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo really want is either: (1) treat their actions as a criminal offense and the results of all that process will entail, or (2) release them from detention altogether.
The Chris Matthews non sequitur argument regarding our ability to house criminals in the US is irrelevent. The inmates at Guantanamo are not criminals, they are illegal combatants, Perhaps Bush (or some other authorized official) should have declared them legal combatants and renamed the detention center a POW camp. In the past we have held POWs for the war’s duration (except in the case of parole during the War Bewteen the States – but that was short-lived).
It’s all a moot point until the year is up (or anther EO regarding the issue is signed). I see the EO as “just words” to pander with. EOs are easily extended or rescinded as reality of the moment may dictate.
Tu Ne Cede Malis
-Virgil
Given Zerobama's Reasonable Exception policy
Beaglescout (Diary) Saturday, January 24th at 12:52PM EST (link)It’s likely that he already agrees with you. I think what he will do at the end of a year is classify all the Gitmo detainees as POWs while pursuing war crimes charges against them, and change the name of Gitmo to Bush/Cheney Prisoner of War camp. Deed done. No more Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility, and Bush and Cheney forever tarred with the left’s lies about it.
“A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one.”
Why the fear?
Mike Gray Saturday, January 24th at 12:01PM EST (link)Why the fear about where the detainees will go? We have supermax prisons all over the country that house some of the worst, most dangerous dirtbags this country has ever seen. You mean to tell me that a bunch of terrorist thugs are too tough for those places? Please.
Besides, maybe the American thugs have a little patriotism in them and will take care of the problem for us.
Hunting down the RINOs at rinosafari.com
Visitors
SteveLA (Diary) Saturday, January 24th at 12:06PM EST (link)Because any US prison that takes the Gitmo detainees will become a terrorist target for those that want to break them out. That’s called NIMBY
In Gitmo, the US has geographically isolated the detainment facility on a small sliver of land surrounded by Cuba. While the communist running Cuba may be nuts, they are not nuts enough to allow terrorists to use their police state to stage attacks on what is a US military base.
I am all in favor of moving the detainees to San Francisco, or perhaps Berkley or even Malibu next to Babs.
______________________________________
Competency over ideological purity and litmus tests
I'm sorry
BlueLandRed (Diary) Saturday, January 24th at 2:17PM EST (link)but a Terrorists Army materializing in the middle of American to attack a SuperMax Prison to break out their comrades? Come on… that just crazy talk. You keep this up and you’re going to get everyone looking at us like where part of the “Black Helicoper” crowd.
And face it, we aren’t even holding anyone they want to rescue. I mean, think about it, the guys in Gitmo have been there 5 years. Most of them are low level thugs. Even if any of them are high ranking officers, anyone they knew from 5 years ago is probably dead or moved on. Maybe, just maybe, we’ve got one of bin Laden’s favorite number 2′s. Even if, do you really think bin Laden is going waste the resources on a zillion to one long shot rescue or just find another number 2?
you're right, because a terrorist
jdub19 Saturday, January 24th at 2:19PM EST (link)could never bomb and take down a Federal building in the US.
” Got to love the Lord for making things like that.”
Morally Compromised
You're ignorant on this issue Mike Gray.
mbecker908 (Diary) Saturday, January 24th at 12:37PM EST (link)In point of fact, the state of CA houses gang leaders at their supermax facilities and they not only continue to run prison gang operations but street operations from there.
The issue isn’t that they are “too tough”, it’s that US prisons are not secure enough.
Exactly.
Bill S (Diary) Saturday, January 24th at 12:46PM EST (link)It is very difficult for terrorists to run their ops out of Gitmo as it is today. Putting them in a Supermax or any other US-based prison would potentially provide them the kind of communication channels they’d need to resume their terror activities. Once they’re here, the ACLU and the rest of the bleeding-heart organizations will try to get “rights” for the terrorists – because, after all, they should be treated like criminals, in the criminal justice system, right? :rolls eyes:
Now if they’d put the Gitmo transfers into a Supermax that is truly locked off from the outside world, no phone privileges, no mail, no nothing, then it might work. But even communications with their “lawyers” would be an issue.
I still think Alcatraz is a good idea.
“It’s such a fine line between stupid, and clever.” – David St. Hubbins
Great minds BS....
Attack Mode (Diary) Saturday, January 24th at 12:53PM EST (link)look at my comment below….even in a supermax that is cut off from commo…there is still the risk of non terrorist inmates relaying information for the terrorist.
“Land of the Free and Home of da Whopper” Peter Griffin…Family Guy
conform and celebrate diversity….or else!!!
Steel-Belted Radial Right Winger
“I’ll create 5 million jobs from out of unicorn farts and pixie dust” Justatron paraphrasing Obamessiah…yes I love it that much.
You are right Mbecker...but I would like to expand that a bit...
Attack Mode (Diary) Saturday, January 24th at 12:51PM EST (link)The security that you are talking about is not just “physical” security. Gitmo provides a few additional levels of security that can’t be given to these individuals if they are put in U.S. prisons.
First is what I call, for a lack of a better term, “Operational” Security. The terrorist at gitmo don’t get to make phone calls to home or write letters to their concubines. They are isolated from communications outside of gitmo and most intercommunication between prisoners is monitored.
Once these terrorist are in a U.S. prison system , we will no longer be able to keep that sort of tight security in place.
Imagine that one of these guys threatens another prisoners life is he doesn’t pass along a message to the outside for them….how would we even be able to mitigate that risk?
This isn’t just about keeping them locked up….it’s about denying them the ability to facilitate more terrorist acts from within their confinement.
“Land of the Free and Home of da Whopper” Peter Griffin…Family Guy
conform and celebrate diversity….or else!!!
Steel-Belted Radial Right Winger
“I’ll create 5 million jobs from out of unicorn farts and pixie dust” Justatron paraphrasing Obamessiah…yes I love it that much.
To Kowalski...
mbecker908 (Diary) Saturday, January 24th at 1:28PM EST (link)bs & Aaron, you’re both correct. There’s a whole lot more to “security” than just 23×7 lockdown in an individual cell and requirements that all movement be performed by 2 to 5 COs wearing body armor and ballistic face shields with the inmate in shackles and a “belly belt”.
The problem is access, not physical location. On US soil they will have virtually unlimited access to attorneys (see the Blind Sheik for how well that works) who will likely be given a judicial pass if they violate gag orders. In addition, and of more concern, is their “right” to religious services. In US prisons that would be an Imam who is either an employee of the particular prison system or a volunteer who is vetted by the system. In the case of both attorneys and religious workers the inmates will assert, and be granted, an expectation of privacy. I don’t think I need to elaborate on the obvious.
In addition to the above, there’s the problem of mail and to a lesser degree phone calls and visits. Coded messages go in and out with great regularity from existing supermax facilities. The US prison system is pretty will not able – for whatever reason(s) that don’t matter – to shut down communications from inmates anywhere to anybody. Hell, they can’t even keep the facilities free from hard drugs and weapons how would we expect them to stop the flow of information?
Here's the difference.
spainishirish (Diary) Saturday, January 24th at 1:28PM EST (link)The average rapist, murderer, whatever doesn’t have supporters on the outside who might set off a dirty bomb if Criminal X isn’t released. The average rapist, murderer, whatever doesn’t have compatriots engaged in war against the United States.
Frankly, we often don’t even execute terrorists now in our prison system out of craven realization set out above.
I like the Alcatraz suggestion because it is in Pelosi’s district. I like(d) Gitmo better.
As for McCain,, maybe he and his Boy Wonder Lindsey should have thought of this stuff before they ran around trying to grab headlines by demanding Gitmo’s closure.
There are practical reasons for keeping them out of the US which have nothing to do with security
1SGinTN (Diary) Saturday, January 24th at 3:39PM EST (link)I found this link to be informative:
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dorf/20020123.html
Tu Ne Cede Malis
-Virgil
and Dorf's a Columbia law professor no less
icbm (Diary) Saturday, January 24th at 4:04PM EST (link)shocking
what next – a yale law professor praises clarence thomas?
Wonder if he has tenure?
1SGinTN (Diary) Saturday, January 24th at 4:24PM EST (link)nt
Tu Ne Cede Malis
-Virgil
he better!
icbm (Diary) Saturday, January 24th at 4:32PM EST (link)because columbia’s idea of diversity doesn’t include guys like him
Murtha speaks up about Gitmo
izoneguy (Diary) Saturday, January 24th at 12:07PM EST (link)The point cannot be made often enough: Modern liberalism, as embodied in the Obama presidency, is the defender of the status quo. And the status quo is a road to economic ruin. Political forces cannot redistribute the wealth that the economic system does not produce.
Pennsylvania Democrat, John Murtha, told Fox News he’d be willing to house Guantanamo prisoners in his Congressional district.
gekster (Diary) Saturday, January 24th at 9:24PM EST (link)Isn’t that all we realy need to know about Mr. Murtha?
Isn’t he stating that the rights and views of people who want to destroy America are far more important than those of the Americans who voted for him?
I may be presuming here, but the main reason that these people are at Gitmo is that they want to destroy America, anything Christian, anything western, and any one that will not convert to Islam,
and if they die trying, that is extra brownie points?
And this man puts them above Americans why??
They say Republicans are for the rich, Democrats are for the poor.
If they need more voters,
then they have to make more of who they are for.
We are there in the various Tea Party groups, leaderless, but not rudderless.
We steer always toward the Constitutional principles this nation was founded upon.
Erick Brockway
Ok folks, 2012 is here. Get involved
That way, Murtha could train w/ the Gitmo prisoners nt
6eorge Jetson (Diary) Saturday, January 24th at 9:28PM EST (link)I'll take 'em at my place..........
Kenny Solomon (Diary) Saturday, January 24th at 12:17PM EST (link)Here’s the parameters……..
One at a time, alone, about 30 seconds apart for “check-in”.
I can easily get a permit for a few dumpsters at the back deck door for removing the “bulk trash”….. so that will necessitate logistics of the transfer happening on the first or third Tuesday of a month.
The Other Night on OhReally...
Snake45 Saturday, January 24th at 12:35PM EST (link)…Dennis Miller suggested that we send the scumbags to live at William Ayers’ house. Far and away the best idea I’ve heard yet.
Placing the terrorists
drawlings Saturday, January 24th at 1:58PM EST (link)I think that Obama will distribute the terrorists throughout the ” 57 ” states.
Um...the grave?
Alberta (Diary) Saturday, January 24th at 2:07PM EST (link)-Marat
Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.
Abraham Lincoln
From McCain's comments
Rapunzel46 Saturday, January 24th at 4:08PM EST (link)It appears I wasn’t the only one who sent him an email that his supporting Obama in this wasn’t a good thing for his own political future. Any Republican who supports Obama in making us less safe are putting their own future in danger along with Bambi.
Uhh Rapunzel
Scope (Diary) Saturday, January 24th at 4:41PM EST (link)Your efforts are admirable in sending McCain an email reminding him of his political future. I must ask, do you really think he gives a dam@? He is not in the habit of listening to what the majority of Americans agree with such as Amnesty, but, well Amnesty is important to his legacy so all the Latinos will kiss his feet, not.
In humor and with due respect, you need to let down your hair!
Oh Please
Mike Gray Saturday, January 24th at 4:27PM EST (link)What I’m ignorant to, is how people have worked themselves up to imagine bold A-Team terror rescue missions. Let’s see – a terror cell plans a suicide mission and they’re going to bust out a couple of buddies instead of blowing up a mall? I’m not seeing it.
Second, prisons are insecure because of some degree of complicity on the part of a small number of those in charge. It’s a far cry for someone to take some cash on the side to look the other way when some contraband comes along than to assume those same people would aid a terror cell, though I suppose anything is possible.
Finally, I’m distressed that people think it’s perfectly OK to just grab up someone and hold him indefinitely. Convict the terrorists of war crimes (we’re calling it a “war”, right?) and put them in front of firing squads. What about the guy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time? That’s the whole reason we have due process. GWB paved the way for Obama or any future president to declare anyone an enemy combatant at his sole discretion. That means we’re putting a lot of faith in government to alway do the right thing. Do I need to start citing examples of times this has not happened?
Besides, Gitmo obviously isn’t even serving a useful purpose when we’re now seeing examples of detainees who were released and went on to lead terror cells. Someone is asleep at the switch.
Hunting down the RINOs at rinosafari.com
How about the Nevada Test Site?
JoeG Sunday, January 25th at 4:23AM EST (link)Put them in Dingy Harry’s state.
Maybe right next to Yuka mountain. Lots of security, lots of distance.
Intent is to release
Dencal26 Sunday, January 25th at 10:13AM EST (link)I think the long term intent of Obama is to see all detainees released. He knows very well that the level of evidence needed in civilian court cannot be met . 7 Men named Mohammed fire one RPG from a Pickup truck. Who did it? I believe thats been the plan all along. Quick dismissal of all cases by left wing courts.