Closing Gitmo will be among Obama’s first official actions.
By on Jan 12th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Closing Gitmo will be among Obama’s first official actions.
The Associated Press reports that advisers to President-elect Obama “say one of his first duties in office will be to order the closing of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay. That executive order is expected during Obama’s first week on the job — and possibly on his first day, according to two transition team advisers.” The order would fulfill one of Obama’s key campaign promises in an effort to, as Obama recently explained, “regain America’s moral stature in the world.” Obama raised doubts about his intentions yesterday when he suggested that the closure might not happen in his first 100 days.
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Reich-wingers won't understand this because its humane, lawful, and American.
January 12th, 2009 at 5:20 pmThat's one bacon strip on the backside of America down, who knows how many to go.
Thanks, Dubya, as Tom Tomorrow said, "Don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out!"
January 12th, 2009 at 5:21 pmGee, all that wringing of hands on how difficult it would be and tadah! I think the villagers are in for quite a ride...
January 12th, 2009 at 5:21 pmNow it's time to also shut down all the CIA black sites distributed around the world. Let's also end the practice of "rendition."
January 12th, 2009 at 5:23 pmBravo!
January 12th, 2009 at 5:24 pmGET YOUR TICKET TO THE TRIAL OF THE CENTURY
Yes closing Gitmo will show all the crimes the Bush Administration has done. Already documents have shown the US tortured Khalid Sheikh Mohammend and his 6 & 8 year old children. The sad part is the CIA had the 20th 9/11 bomber but accidently released him, the dude confused without being tortured but the CIA thought he was lying. They found out about 6 weeks later his facts were right. Now the World will see the condition of the Gitmo prisoner. 7 have been tortured insane other are about ready to die. No supportive information has been gotten while some innocent people have been held for 7 years while the US knew these people were innocent. We have allowed Bush to torture children as one is remaining now the others were sent out and their families were paid. That will be all that's needed for an International Trial of War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity against the entire Bush Administration. Let the Bush supporter piss in their pants now as Magic Bullet Senator Specter has worse problems then stopping Eric Holders confirmation.
January 12th, 2009 at 5:33 pmI wonder if this 'leak' might be in response to all the blog pressure. Either the PE is losing control (which I sort of doubt) or he is tossing out an early scrap to quiet the hounds.
A week will tell.
January 12th, 2009 at 5:34 pm7 people made positive comments about Obama and so a troll had to hurry over and bash him. Perfect.
January 12th, 2009 at 6:01 pmDynamo Humm...
January 12th, 2009 at 6:02 pmSorry, but we've all been punked so many times before - I'll believe it when I see it.
January 12th, 2009 at 6:03 pmIt's a start but not enough. Remember, Obama began to back away from that, whining that closing Gitmo was trickier than he'd thought.
Bill Clinton set both the example and the gold standard for Democratic capitulation in which settling for something less extreme than pure neoconservatism is considered a shining triumph of bipartisanship.
We're seeing the same thing now with Obama and these Willie Wetlegs in Congress. And to deny that is make ourselves as willfully blind as Bush's supporters have been these past 8 years.
January 12th, 2009 at 6:07 pmjurassicpork, for many of us Bill's capitulation was reason enough for us not to trust Hillary. I don't know how that predicts what Obama will do though.
January 12th, 2009 at 6:09 pmPer Arthur Silber, but which should be painfully obvious to anyone with the intellectual acumen of a sponge:
WhatsoEVER he does do, he will do nothing that would interrupt or jeopardize or cast doubt upon the existing structures.
January 12th, 2009 at 6:49 pmGuantanamo represents only 1% of the secreet TORTURE prisons around the globe where the USA DOES practice TOETURE. Diego Garcia, Bagdad, and many others are not mentioned in the main stream media and it does not make part of Obama's PR...
January 12th, 2009 at 6:50 pm4# BRAVO Alejandro!!!!! You said it all!!!!
January 12th, 2009 at 6:51 pmClub Gitmo isn't going to "close" that fast. Our new President may issue the "order" soon after taking office, but look for this to take a while.
January 12th, 2009 at 6:56 pmSee, the problem all you "progressives" have is that you are incapable of categorizing intelligence gathering techniques with anything approaching the thoughtful consideration it requires.
There's no middle ground with you folks. It's either in the Army field manual or it's TORTURE, nothing in between.
This is where a mistake like putting Leon Panetta in charge of the CIA could get us killed. What happens when, God forbid, we capture a terrorist with time-sensitive information we need to prevent death and destruction of our homeland. By the time Obama's kinder, gentler CIA gets what we need, we'd be DEAD!
January 12th, 2009 at 7:02 pmdbadass,
You're a Zappa fan? Coooooollll.
January 12th, 2009 at 7:03 pmTim Vaculik says: What happens when, God forbid, we capture a terrorist with time-sensitive information we need to prevent death and destruction of our homeland.
Sorry Tim, 24 is already dealing with it and is back on the air so you can live out your fantasy with Bauer. Hopefully you were not thinking that show was reality, were you? I know it is tough for you to understand but you can do it. The glowing tube in front of you has a lot of fantasy on it. Take a deep breath and push the off button. You can do it. It will be your first step towards being normal. A long path but you can do it. Just keep repeating, TV fantasy is not reality.
January 12th, 2009 at 7:14 pmHow would we know who has time sensitive information and who is just a regular brown person? It doesn't really matter to you thugs does it?
January 12th, 2009 at 7:20 pmCould the second order be to have Bush/Cheney investigated for their War Crimes?
This would certainly put a smile on most of the earths inhabitants.
January 12th, 2009 at 7:34 pmFirst of all how will weknow if the person we capture with the time sensitive info is a terrorist or a freedom fighter. Maybe we could torture them to find out. The thing is we will look sort of like jerks if it turns out that they were a freedom fighter afterall...
January 12th, 2009 at 7:35 pmCool, now can Obama just hand the facility/land off to Cuba, seeing as how it's a little corner of their island that we stole?
January 12th, 2009 at 8:07 pmSadly, the number one priority among many number one priorities facing President Barack Obama should be investigating and arresting the criminals in the Bush administration.
By saying he is looking forward and not at the past gives a green light to all future presidencies who wish to trample the constitution, lie us into wars, torture, scoff at the rule of law, turn their backs on the Geneva Conventions.
This just goes to show that our politicians are in a elite club, an exclusive institution and that in most instances,regardless of party or crimes committed will always protect the institution.
January 12th, 2009 at 9:02 pmTo Tim Vaculik, first of all it's been proven that most of the information given by a prisoner via torture is false.
Secondly there is nothing we as a nation can do about terrorist threats when our own leader ignores advice and reports given by experts on possible future terrorist threats.
Today our government tortures our so called enemies, tomorrow they may torture us.
January 12th, 2009 at 9:11 pmUncle Fester Lurks Says:
Today our government tortures our so called enemies, tomorrow they may torture us.
______________
Though the point will be lost on Timmeh, I was under the impression that that is EXACTLY why the US military has avoided torture all along... fear of reprisals on US troops.
What you say, Timmeh? Gonna tell me I need to do more reading?
January 12th, 2009 at 9:38 pmLushInterior Says:
____________
Lushy! Wheeew... I was worried about ya... afraid mebbe you had passed out in a snow drift, p*ssed all over yourself, and frozen to death... or... simply slipped into a coma from liver failure. Or something... heh...
January 12th, 2009 at 9:41 pmTim Vaculik Says:
What happens when, God forbid, we capture a terrorist with time-sensitive information we need to prevent death and destruction of our homeland.
___________
Ya mean, like a NIE paper titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike Inside US"???
You've been watching too much Fox television Timmeh...
January 12th, 2009 at 9:43 pmTim Vaculik Says:
What happens when, God forbid, we capture a terrorist with time-sensitive information we need to prevent death and destruction of our homeland.
Mr. Vaculik,
The problem that we have with this remark is that the way Still President Bush (and I call him that with all disrespect) has set things up, he alone (or his designee) can make the determination that the person they have captured has the vital, time-sensitive information of which you speak. And it doesn't have to be the truth!
Let me ask you about something. People who have participated in the interrogations that used torture (or read the reports of them) have concluded that we received no actionable intelligence from them. And this is what you're forgetting: Nothing happened! You know what that means? Nothing was going to happen! Yet we waterboarded people to get the kind of information that you claim we needed to torture them to get. If there was obviously no "ticking time bomb", no "imminent strike about to happen", then what justification was there to use torture?
And please don't come back with "We may never know what plots they stopped," because they bragged their asses off about "plots" they claimed to have stopped that either weren't plots or weren't stopped by them. You think if they actually stopped a real attack, they wouldn't still be bragging about it?
January 12th, 2009 at 10:34 pmTim, can I mail you one of those leg lamps?
January 12th, 2009 at 10:40 pmRemember that: Nothing happened!
There was no "24"-scenario that the torture-supporters always use to justify the use of torture. And we know this because there weren't any more bombings on our soil (I refuse to call it "the homeland") after the 9/11 attacks.
Now, this was because of one of two things: The security measures we put in place prevented any other planned attacks from getting carried out, or there were no other plans to blow something up. Either way, torture was not justified because it would have played no role in the fact that nothing happened. So, again, there was never any justification to use torture.
January 12th, 2009 at 10:41 pmMcWars Says:
Tim, can I mail you one of those leg lamps?
"It's a major award!"
January 12th, 2009 at 10:42 pmOh no it's Timmy again.
January 12th, 2009 at 10:54 pmGreat now everything will be about Football again.
Check it Out Tim! Folks are calling for you. Where are you Tim? Come on Man!
January 12th, 2009 at 11:15 pmTim Vaculik Says:
Spare us the ticking bomb scenario. It is mythical. Either you know enough to KNOW he has that information and then you know enough to investigate by other avenues or you DONT and you are guessing. What do you think. A terrorist is going to walk into the CIA headquarters and say I know where there is a bomb and I am not going to tell you. You people have no decency and no empathy. Torture is evil. We wont torture people we have given trials and PROVEN are terrorists so we WOULD be torturing innocent people. We already sent an innocent man to Syria for 10 months of torture. Maher Arar.
Conservatives like you would trade away all our honor and values so you can FEEL safe. You are cowards. Not BE safe you cannot show this is necessary to KEEP you safe only to make you FEEL safe. You bedwetters really need to man up.
January 13th, 2009 at 4:11 amLushInterior Says:
Why do you get such a kick out of humiliating yourself. You are an object of pity. How could someone even as stupid as you think you are clever when you are just pathetic?
January 13th, 2009 at 4:11 amWayne A. Schneider Says:
Now, this was because of one of two things: The security measures we put in place prevented any other planned attacks from getting carried out, or there were no other plans to blow something up. Either way, torture was not justified because it would have played no role in the fact that nothing happened. So, again, there was never any justification to use torture.
January 13th, 2009 at 6:05 amJanuary 12th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
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Wayne, one more possibility to look at with regards to the US not suffering anymore attacks after 9/11 is the report that Bin Laden had warned the US government that there would be more attacks in the US if the we kept our military presence in Saudi Arabia. Bush appeased Bin Laden and quietly had our military removed from Saudi Arabia.
Tim Vaculik Says:
There’s no middle ground with you folks. It’s either in the Army field manual or it’s TORTURE, nothing in between.
Correct. The vast number of fascinating torture techniques developed throughout history attest to the creativity of the human spirit. At each point in history, certain techniques were defined as torture and then outlawed; the torturers just devised new methods as bad as, or worse than the ones previously known. As just one instance, in early New England, "torture" was defined by broad methods - strangling, drowning, striking, or breaking the skin. So they developed a method where they placed a board on someone and gradually placed more and more small rocks on the board. Eventually the chest muscles could no longer expand the lungs and they'd suffocate. Didn't hit the guy at all, y'r honor. That's why it's necessary to give a list of what interrogators can do, rather than what they can't.
.
Tim Vaculik Says:
What happens when, God forbid, we capture a terrorist with time-sensitive information we need to prevent death and destruction of our homeland.
Wow, maybe you're right... Let's use "what happens" logic for everything! Hey, what happens when (as some have hinted) the wingnuts grab their gun collections and try to overthrow the U.S. Government? I guess we'd better throw all the wingnuts in jail and torture them to find out. And don't go whining to me about guaranteed constitutional rights; traitors don't get rights. Wow, that sure is fun and easy!
There has never been a "24" scenario, there will never be one, and even if there was one, torture wouldn't help.
You just want to hurt people because you are a coward.
January 13th, 2009 at 1:21 pmas i stopped by..ican really see the true face of liberalism at its finest..obama is not my prez he will never be. for 8 freakin years all u lefties was to bash bush. no wonder u guys won because thats all you did was try to get elected and gain power, well you got all the power now. so when u cant hide your hatered no more what will you do? ban talk radio? nice! oh i thought u was for all the free speech, but i guess only to what you have to say? right? bush screwed up ill agree w/ ya on that one. the right has many flaws but your (left) main flaw is to think you dont have any. i hope obama does good only because america is more important than anyone of us. we needed you guys when the chips were down but your lust for power was to great to be of any use. its ok if anybody to man up and let you guys do your thing! cause now your runnin things now and you cant blame evil bush.
January 14th, 2009 at 9:59 am