Joint Chiefs chairman: Close Gitmo.
By on Jan 13th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
Joint Chiefs chairman: Close Gitmo.
“I’d like to see it shut down,” Adm. Mike Mullen said of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. Asked why he thinks Guantanamo Bay should be closed, and the prisoners perhaps moved to U.S. soil, Mullen said, “More than anything else it’s been the image — how Gitmo has become around the world, in terms of representing the United States. … I believe that from the standpoint of how it reflects on us that it’s been pretty damaging.” Nevertheless, Mullen said he’s “not aware that there is any immediate consideration to closing Guantanamo Bay” inside the Bush administration.
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Close Guantanamo Bay completely.
January 13th, 2008 at 8:27 pmAnd leave the island of Cuba to the Cubans.
I thought that Georgie always listened to his Generals? We should ask all of the Democratic presidential candidates if they will close Gitmo and when.
January 13th, 2008 at 8:31 pmWith Castro’s health rapidly failing 90 miles away from Florida, it’s highly unlikely that they’ll be closing Gitmo anytime soon regardless of the image problem it represents.
http://www.FEARandSMEAR.com
January 13th, 2008 at 8:35 pmWhere would we be Without the opinion and (silent power?) of the Joint Chiefs overseeing the military? I am under the impression if Bush’s requests become too insane, they would be there as a safety net.
January 13th, 2008 at 8:38 pmAppellate Court Says Torture is to be Expected
WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court Friday threw out a suit by four British Muslims who allege that they were tortured and subjected to religious abuse in…Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a ruling that exonerated 11 present and former senior Pentagon officials.
…The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the detainees captured in Afghanistan aren’t recognized as “persons†under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act because they were aliens held outside the United States…
The court rejected other claims on the grounds that then-Attorney General John Ashcroft had certified that the military officials were acting within the scope of their jobs when they authorized the tactics, and that such tactics were “foreseeable.â€
“It was foreseeable that conduct that would ordinarily be indisputably `seriously criminal’ would be implemented by military officials responsible for detaining and interrogating suspected enemy combatants,†Circuit Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson wrote in the court’s main opinion.
** Some people aren’t persons and torture was “foreseeable”, therefore you can do whatever the hell to them you like because John Ashcroft said so. Seriously, how much more are Americans willing to take?
January 13th, 2008 at 8:51 pm.
It isn’t the physicality of Gitmo that’s become the anathema about the whole thing. It’s the treatment of the prisoners and it’s justification, it’s the denial of due process and it’s justification, it’s the lifting of Habeas Corpus Rights and it’s justification, it’s the lack of proof and charges and it’s justification.
Hell, Gitmo could be in America and the fact remains, the US justice system is failing, miserably! Until there is Habeas Corpus Rights, due process, legal council, trials and evidence, Gitmo, where ever it may be, is still a pock on America.
.
January 13th, 2008 at 8:56 pmUntil there is Habeas Corpus Rights, due process, legal council, trials and evidence, Gitmo, where ever it may be, is still a pock on America.
Comment by Max-1 — January 13, 2008 @ 8:56 pm
Funny how you almost never hear Hillary or Barack talk about restoring Habeas Corpus.
It is non-negotiable with me. My line in the sand. If a candidate doesn’t promise to restore Habeas I cannot vote for them.
Without a return of our liberties nothing else matters. The U.S. is just a good place to shop.
January 13th, 2008 at 9:15 pmI have to wonder how much of the joint chiefs is crocodile tears deflecting blame to Shrub as the fall guy.
As Gitmo is a military facility, if the joint chiefs were so all fired concerned about the image, the joint chiefs would have considerable power to make sure that certain standards of dignity were followed.
January 13th, 2008 at 9:20 pmWould anyone care to bet on how quickly we’ll hear from the loyal Bushies that the Admiral has decided to retire to spend more time with his family? I’m betting by Easter.
January 13th, 2008 at 9:23 pmAsked why he thinks Guantanamo Bay should be closed, and the prisoners perhaps moved to U.S. soil, Mullen said, “More than anything else it’s been the image —
So…nobody gives a shit about people getting tortured and denied a fair trial. It’s the image…
January 13th, 2008 at 9:31 pmI wonder how history will judge us.
Should Guantanamo prison be closed?
http://www.youpolls.com/details.asp?pid=1522
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January 13th, 2008 at 9:46 pmThe Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is someone who might have some credibility with Bush but if Bush is true to form he won’t listen to him. I don’t know what more we can do with a president who is a loose cannon. He’s yelling about Iran again. The little speedboat thing just cropped-up before his trip and if I didn’t know better I’d think Rove was scripting the whole thing. Including the silly little sound bite with the Iranian accent. God, how dumb does he think the American people are!? If I read correctly even the Pentagon had the cajones to up the fact that it had mixed-in the voice of one of the speed boat drivers. Huh? And our ships were getting ready to engage…yeah right. There’s more risk walking a downtown street in anywhere USA than there was with those boats. Why does Bush have to be out there embarassing all of us again?! Why can’t he just go to Crawford and do his time until his term ends?!
January 13th, 2008 at 10:15 pmClose Gitmo!!
January 13th, 2008 at 10:16 pmGitmo estimated closing date, 02/01/09.
January 13th, 2008 at 10:33 pm#8 - Bush being positioned as “fall guy” for the JCS? That’s a good one. The JCS having the power to dictate what happens? Bush is the Commander-in-Chief, the Decider-in-Chief. Give me a break. Bush is calling the shots (or Cheney is rather). Whatever has happened is a direct result of the direction and orders of Bush and Cheney. Bush and Cheney deserve no mercy and deserve the wrath of all the people of this country who care about compassion, decency and moral values.
January 13th, 2008 at 10:35 pmthis is all horseshit. They’re reducing prisoners at Gitmo (currently a little over 300) at the same time they’re increasing them in a similar prison in Afghanistaqn, now over 600 prisoners and climbing. The bush/cheney Gulag LIVES!!!!
January 13th, 2008 at 10:52 pm.
I wonder how soon he’ll be “retired”?
January 13th, 2008 at 11:36 pmChimpy is running around blabbing and dreaming that he’s going to be remembered as a democracy promoting Ghandi when he’s really going to go down as a torturing, lying Pinochet, Ceaucescu or Milosevic…perhaps after attacking Iran…well….
-GSD
January 13th, 2008 at 11:39 pm#15 Helen,
your parens “(or Cheney is rather)” open the possibility that we’re not that far apart.
I detest Shrub. I see him as an inherrently selfish and evil liar / spoiled brat (witness his current expedition of peace in the mid east while the newspapers picked up that he’s tellling Israel that he doesn’t believe the NIE and also the announcement that he is authorizing a sizeable sale of arms to Saudi Arabia).
But I still have to look at the relish that the military has taken in carrying out Gitmo. A reluctant general or general with sense of honor could at least slow things down a bit. Yet, despite how much Shrub seems to dislike being contradicted in public, the general makes the above statement in open press.
Even more tragic than if Shrub has done all this of his own doing, would be the even more tragic story of the total idiot being used for 6 years and now being cast aside to take the fall.
January 14th, 2008 at 1:16 amhttp://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread326509/pg1
Guantanamo Detainees Are Not Human Beings
presscue.com
On the sixth anniversary of the imprisonment of detainees at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base, a United States judge threw out lawsuit brought by four former British detainees against Donald Rumsfeld and senior military officers for ordering torture and religious abuse, ruling that the detainees are not “Persons” under U.S. Law, which according to another judge, means that they are less than “human beings”.
(visit the link for the full news article)Guantanamo Detainees Are Not Human Beings
So sad. It would seem that humanity has reached a new low. How does a man who thinks like this ever do well and become a judge in the first place?
This is one of the most sickening articles I have ever seen. Actually using the law to determine someone as ‘less than human’ is disgusting. I’m extremely worried that we’re going to be seeing more of this as an excuse to torture people and treat them…well…like animals.
This is just so sad and hopeless. These poor prisoners have been rotting in Guantanomo since 2001 and they have never had a trial, sentencing or investigation of any kind into their “alleged” crimes - in fact, they’ve never been charged with ANY crime and so their crimes aren’t even alleged.
This is totally against all things that the U.S. stands for.
Yes, this should scare the crap out of people. Knowing where things might be heading…torture and hold someone w/o any habeus corpus, and then justify this by saying that they don’t fit the description of a ‘person’ by U.S. law.
This might just be the beginning of something worse…Wow, that is the craziest kind of logic. I don’t know what this country is doing anymore. I am so tired of the way things seem to be progressing, it might be time for a change.The home of the corrupt, and the land of corporate greed.
What a sad sad world when you can look at someone and judge them to be less than human, or not feel they are deserved of any rights.
Especially if they were innocent.
Can you imagine that? One day your riding your donkey picking poppies, the next thing you know the most ferocious war machine on the planet comes rolling over the mountain. Now you get to spend the rest of your days in a chain-link cage in an alien natural climate, never seeing your family again, and probably not even realizing anything about the “bigger picture.” I wonder if half those guys even heard about 9/11.
January 14th, 2008 at 7:16 amWhy does Admiral Mullen hate America?
Give the wingnuttery until noon on Monday so they can coordinate on their spin. “No, here’s what he MEANT….”
January 14th, 2008 at 8:22 am#19 — Thanks for your clarification and edification of your position. The point I am trying to make, perhaps poorly, is that those military brass, such as Shensheki, Zinni, Batiste, Eaton, who have spoken out against the administration or rather its policies, have been swiftly put on the short list for retirement or non-promotion. In other words, the military, like so many other official entities, still rewards those who will “go along” rather than stand up for what is proper.
I’ve seen it before many times — you are put into a position of going along to get along. I’m not condoning it but believe it is necessary to consider the environment and the morality of the people who are pulling the strings.
January 14th, 2008 at 9:26 amWow, bring them to the US? Let’s see, if they didn’t hate us before, they ain’t lovin us now! Wouldn’t that be significantly increasing our risk of retaliation? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think there should be Guantanimo Bay (or other sites) as prisons without justice.
We’ve just basically got a paradox here, because sending them back home would probably increase violence there; but it may be the lesser of the two evils. What do you do?
I know, invade Iran! Keep piling up the love! /snark
January 14th, 2008 at 10:36 am