Sen. Ben Nelson Opposes Transferring Gitmo Detainees To U.S., Supports Bush Torture Techniques
Sen. Ben Nelson Opposes Transferring Gitmo Detainees To U.S., Supports Bush Torture Techniques
This morning, Fox News Sunday hosted a debate on national security between Sen. John Kyl (R-AZ) and Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE), but it turned out that the two senators agreed on most issues. Nelson declared that trials of Guantanamo detainees should not take place in the United States and detainees should not be imprisoned here. He distinguished between terrorists like the Blind Sheikh — who “committed violations of American law” — and those at Guantanamo to say the latter should be kept out of the U.S.:
NELSON: I think the tribunals can occur anywhere, and I prefer not to see them occur in America, within the continental United States. Once they’re convicted, I’m assuming they will be, then I think we need to work out with their countries an arrangement where they’re incarcerated there. [...]
But for those detainees who have violated the rules of war, we don’t have to worry about bringing them here. I think they need to be kept elsewhere, wherever that is. I don’t want to see them come on American soil.
Nelson also seemed to suggest that torture — or “enhanced techniques,” as he called it — could be used in the future:
NELSON: What we need to do is make sure that the intelligence information that’s gathered is accurate, that we do everything within our power to get good intelligence, and it may or may not consist of coming from enhanced techniques.
Watch it:
As ThinkProgress and others have pointed out, the United States is fully capable of housing terrorist suspects in American prisons. Indeed, this morning on ABC, Adm. Mike Mullen mentioned the dozens of terrorists in U.S. prisons and declared, “They don’t pose a threat.”
And if Nelson is truly concerned with getting “accurate” information and “good intelligence,” he should support President Obama’s unequivocal ban on so-called enhanced interrogation techniques. As military and intelligence experts have stated, over and over, Bush’s enhanced program derived unreliable and inaccurate information. It was the use of “enhanced techniques” that provided the “intelligence” of a link between Iraq and al Qaeda — intelligence that proved to be entirely false.
Read ThinkProgress’ report on why Bush’s enhanced interrogation program failed here.
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…Looks like Dickie’s “Torture Tour” will be coming to a screeching halt….
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/23/AR2009052301795.html?hpid=topnews
May 24th, 2009 at 11:20 amBen Nelson “supports something illegal” like torture? Time for Benny Boy to get the boot.
May 24th, 2009 at 11:23 amI find the smokescreen about whether torture worked to be a game of mental masturbation, frankly.
It matters nothing whether doing something illegal worked or not. The fact is: It was entirely and universally “illegal”.
We put Japanese to death for doing this following WW2. Let’s either put up or shut up on whether we have morals or not.
Do not be hijacked into thinking what the reichwing wants you to waste time doing. This conversation has NOTHING to do with whether or not torture works (and experts all agree that it does not, BTW) but whether or not Cheney & Co. committed crimes (which they did).
May 24th, 2009 at 11:24 amThis discussion should be analogized to the criminal who robs the corner minimart……spends the cash and injures or kills someone.
Sure his “ruse” worked but was it “legal” – absolutely NOT.
Yet, the Dems are continuously jerked around by an auxiliary fact of whether torture works or does not and what intel was garned by the use of waterboarding.
Wake up, Dems! The ONLY discussion which is relevant is whether we have the courage, balls, and morals to do what needs to be done right now – and that is to bring the Bush Cabal to justice.
Unless/until this is done, this country will not move forward.
May 24th, 2009 at 11:28 amAdd one, BEN NELSON, to your ongoing list of idiots and morons who are easily smokescreened by the reich.
Ben Nelson is the quintessential ‘congressional sheeple’ and easily manipulated ‘war pimp’.
May 24th, 2009 at 11:30 amThis is a DINO on FAUX. The main stream media needs to quit this straw man argument. Waterboarding is torture. The US stopped using those tactics in 2005, for a reason, I suppose. To allow the wingnuts to continue debating whether or not it is effective is dishonest and takes away from the real question: When will members of the Bush Crime Family be going to trial for war crimes?
May 24th, 2009 at 11:32 amI’m wondering just what Democratic policies and values Ben Nelson does support that reflect that (D) after his name.
May 24th, 2009 at 11:34 ammethinks senator nelson should step right up for the mancow muller dayspa treatment. then lets see where his position on “enhanced interrogations” lay
May 24th, 2009 at 11:35 am.
Looks like more Congress members complaining about upholding their Oath of Office and the Rule of Law.
.
May 24th, 2009 at 11:38 amI wouldnt expect foxnoise to have a dem on that disagrees with their rightwing bullsht.
May 24th, 2009 at 11:38 amUnderstandable since terrorists on 9/11 killed 10% of the people in the US. No wait – they killed less than .0001% of the people in the US on 9/11. I would not be surprise if the repub fear mongering rhetoric was directly responsible for killing more elderly people through fatal apoplexies. We need representation that doesn’t piss their pants in fear at the mention of the word “terrorist”. Time to send Nelson down the road.
May 24th, 2009 at 11:44 amCelebrate Memorial Day:
HANG THE WAR CRIMINALS.
May 24th, 2009 at 11:48 amteabagger repugs just love some stupid. It’s like milk and honey from their gods, their manna.
Trying to make a distinction between terrorist is ludicrous at best. Are these men for real?
I really don’t want people as stupid as those two in the US let alone as elected officials.
May 24th, 2009 at 11:54 amBen Nelson is an enemy of our own soldiers. His position puts soldier’s lives at greater risk and increases the hatred they face on the battlefield.
He is just one big ass jerkwad!!!
May 24th, 2009 at 11:54 amGuido, I’m with you. There must be something missing from their brains. Actually, there must be quite a lot missing from their brains.
May 24th, 2009 at 11:56 amjust up at C&L:
The Public Record: The CIA’s history of lying to congress
http://pubrecord.org/commentary/916-the-cias-history-of-bamboozling-the-congress.html
May 24th, 2009 at 12:03 pmBring back Bob Kerrey!
May 24th, 2009 at 12:04 pmI do not understand why Think Progress wants to post about the “backwash” that defends torture and overlooks those that have enabled it and are refusing to hold the criminals that participated in in accountable.
Those that do not prosecute treason, war crimes, and crimes against humanity are also guilty of said crimes.
Shame of “progressives” that want to make this a dem/repug issue.
FACT: Plenty of culpability to go around. Please quit distracting.
May 24th, 2009 at 12:22 pmIf the prisoners at Gitmo are allowed in this country, we’ll get cooties!
May 24th, 2009 at 12:23 pmI’m not sure what it is about Ben Nelson that makes him think he’s any kind of Democrat, but I suppose he’s the best we could get coming out of Nebraska.
May 24th, 2009 at 12:24 pmI have to admit that I have changed my opinion about Gitmo. Little Newtie just said that 14 percent of the detainees released from there have “returned to the battlefield”.
What’s the recidivism rate in U.S. prisons? Forty or 50 percent?
Seems to me that we’d all be better off keeping Gitmo, expanding it and moving every frickin’ prisoner in U.S. prisons down there. Gee, if we can cut the recidivism rate by two-thirds, it’d be worth it!
[sarcasm off]
May 24th, 2009 at 12:31 pmEnhanced Interrogation Techniques seems to mean enhanced tortured; worse than torture, we haven’t seen or heard then worse of it yet.
I refuse to believe teabaggers used only one type of enhanced torture technique. And the teabaggers’ first line of defense for their crimes is to say they were up caught up in the moment.
It’s still a lie even if they do mean it. Their excuse makes them seem desperate and simpletons.
There will be no forward movement until until justice is done.
May 24th, 2009 at 12:37 pmBen Nelson: 2009’s successor to Zell Miller. Get the hell out of the Democratic Party, Nelson……..you are bought and paid for by the insurance companies and should never have been a Dem in the first place………looks as if you are a reverse Arlen Specter. Beat it.
May 24th, 2009 at 12:37 pmNELSON: I think the tribunals can occur anywhere, and I prefer not to see them occur in America, within the continental United States. Once they’re convicted, I’m assuming they will be, then I think we need to work out with their countries an arrangement where they’re incarcerated there. [...]
But for those detainees who have violated the rules of war, we don’t have to worry about bringing them here. I think they need to be kept elsewhere, wherever that is. I don’t want to see them come on American soil.
Senator Nelson,
Please help me understand you, because what you are saying is nonsensical. Why did you distinguish that you would not like to see them occur “within the continental United States”? Is that some clever way of saying that you would prefer to see them tried in some US possession, like the U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay? Why would it make any difference?
Once they’re convicted, I’m assuming they will be, then I think we need to work out with their countries an arrangement where they’re incarcerated there.
I disagree completely. I say that if we convict them, they should be imprisoned where we can watch them and make sure they don’t escape! If we were to return them to their home countries, and those countries wanted top release them (for whatever reason, such as anti-American sentiment), wouldn’t that put Americans ion danger again?
But for those detainees who have violated the rules of war, we don’t have to worry about bringing them here.
With all due respect, Senator, you are completely wrong about this. Because the people who committed the attacks of 9/11 were not acting on behalf of a nation state, it is inappropriate to frame this in the context of a war, where the “rules of war” require certain behaviors. People who support the “war” have pointed out that the people we are after do not follow the “rules of war”. Which is it then?
This should be framed in the context of a criminal act (the attacks of 9/11), and not as “an act of war.” Instead of mobilizing our military and sending them out to capture or kill criminals, we should be cooperating with international law enforcement agencies to bring the criminals to justice. Just because the criminals call themselves “soldiers” and claim that they are at war does not mean that we have to do the same. We don’t send our military to go after the Mafia or other organized crime people, and this should be no different. Once you reframe this as a crime and not an act of war, you’ll also agree that we need to bring our troops home as soon as possible. Otherwise, your entire mindset is going to be on ‘winning the war”, which can’t be “won” because it is a war against an idea. Those never succeed.
As for not wanting “to see them come on American soil,” I think that just shows your fear and insecurity. Are you sure you’re up to the job of being a US Senator?
Newt Gingrich was on MTP this morning claiming that “Fear is the appropriate response [to terrorism].” Are you just another scared little boy like Newt Gingrich? If so, then let the brave men and women of law enforcement do the job of protecting this nation against criminals, which is all your “terrorists” really are.
May 24th, 2009 at 12:37 pmMaybe there is a legitimate concern – the sheeple and ditto heads on the right might be influenced into becoming religious fanatics that strap bombs to their chests or fly airplanes into buildings.
May 24th, 2009 at 12:37 pmPlease add Ben Nelsons name to the list of “expendable” in the upcoming elections.
These are difficult times and America has no more time for cowards, moral or otherwise.
In WWII, America housed enemy combatants from several nations, including our arch nemesis, Nazi Germany. The prisoners were housed in barrack like facilities and guarded by the US Military.
If our parents were brave enough to allow enemy combatants and members of the evil Nazi regime here on US soil, then I see no excuse for tolerating or indulging cowards who are afraid of doing the same with enemy combatants today.
May 24th, 2009 at 12:42 pmWaynebro, spot on.
May 24th, 2009 at 12:52 pmThanks Jane. And here’s the rub.
Guess what states housed these prisoners?
From 1942 to 1946, over 400,000 Nazi prisoners from Germany, Italy and Austria were housed over 500 camps in the United States. The states that housed these prisoners included Ohio, Mississippi Arkansas, Oregon, Georgia, Texas and …wait for it….wait for it……NEBRASKA.
That’s right. Senator Nelsons state.
:|
I guess Nebraska’s Senators were more courageous back then.
May 24th, 2009 at 12:58 pmGame of Life I love your concept. We shouldn’t even call them Republicans anymore just Teabaggers. After all they don’t know how to say Democratic any more and want to change the name even more. Screw the. I might not always be a Democrat but I will never be a Republican, not ever.
May 24th, 2009 at 1:03 pm“I guess Nebraska’s Senators were more courageous back then.”
Yeah, well, Nelson certainly has been acting pretty wussy. Hell, that road-kill rug on his head tells me he’s even afraid of being bald!
May 24th, 2009 at 1:06 pmBushCo is so brazen and evil. Enhanced Interrogation was first coined as Verscharfte Vernehmung by the Gestapo in 1937 so as not to be held liable for torture. BushCo is allied with the Nazis in the War on Language.
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/05/verschfte_verne.html
May 24th, 2009 at 1:07 pmNelson obviously wants something from the administration that he isn’t getting. He’s bargaining for something. Perhaps killing the reforms on student loans as the lenders are headquartered in his state? Talk about putting country LAST.
May 24th, 2009 at 1:07 pmWhen, for gods sake, is the Democratic party going to do something about Ben Nelson. There are plenty of ways they can censure him and it’s about time they do so. Either that or revoke his membership in the Democratic party.
I wonder how the people in Nebraska feel about this turncoat. If they had wanted a Republic to represent them, I’m pretty sure that’s who they would have voted for. Can they recall Nelson?
May 24th, 2009 at 1:18 pmI just saw Cheney’s speech at the AEI.
I’m sorry but Cheney cleaned Obama’s clock lol.
YES it is true that some racist and ruthless elements of our foreign policy has created some problems and this should be changed. But when it comes to terrorism, ALL options are on the table.
I don’t know if you guys will admit this, but I am a Democrat who feels SAFE when Republicans are running our national security.
After 9/11 (if it wasn’t inside job), these terrorist should be lucky that they weren’t tortured FOR REAL!
Waterboarding on a couple of terrorist by trained professionals is torture?
Oh Pooooolease
May 24th, 2009 at 1:20 pmReparations4TheBlackHolocaustNOW Says:
I just saw Cheney’s speech at the AEI.
I’m sorry but Cheney cleaned Obama’s clock lol.
Is it possible you only saw it and didn’t actually listen</em to it? Because if you did listen, and if you were aware of the facts, you would know that Cheney lied many times during that speech.
After 9/11 (if it wasn’t inside job), these terrorist should be lucky that they weren’t tortured FOR REAL!
And, hypothetically, what if 9/11 actually was an “inside job”? BTW, if you had done to you what Bush and Cheney ordered done to the terrorists, I have no doubt in my mind whatsoever that you would call it “torture”. Simply put, and as politely as possible, you have no Earthly clue what you’re talking about.
May 24th, 2009 at 1:28 pmtom Says:
I have to admit that I have changed my opinion about Gitmo. Little Newtie just said that 14 percent of the detainees released from there have “returned to the battlefield”.
Except that this is not true. The Bush Crime Family has changed the number of supposed “recidivists” on numerous occasions and people looking into the allegations have shown that they are “cooking the books” on the numbers. They consider a detainee who was released, who participated in a video on illegal detention, to have “returned to the battlefield”.
Here’s an article debunking this meme.
http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/blog/torture/2009/02/debunking-vice-president-cheneys-myths.asp
May 24th, 2009 at 1:28 pmReparations4TheBlackHolocaustNOW Says:
I don’t know if you guys will admit this, but I am a Democrat who feels SAFE when Republicans are running our national security.
You know, the great thing about the Internet is that you can claim to be anything you want. But if you think that we believe you, I have a bridge to sell you.
Torture is a crime, PERIOD.
May 24th, 2009 at 1:31 pmReparations says:I don’t know if you guys will admit this, but I am a Democrat who feels SAFE when Republicans are running our national security.
Yeah, the German people felt safe under Hitler, too.
May 24th, 2009 at 1:33 pmThis is just more typical fodder for Fox! How can you have a serious, if not legitimate debate with opposing views, if the two sides aren’t technically opposed? This is not honest; then again, Fox is not exactly an entity who is filled with any honest virtue.
May 24th, 2009 at 1:34 pmIf liberals want to protect terrorist, Trust me, the last place a terrorist needs to go is to one of these back woods maximum security U.S. Prisons.
You thought Abu Graib was bad???
Those dumb redneck prison guards are going to RAPE(with objects), SODOMIZE(with objects), KILL and torture the hell out of them!
May 24th, 2009 at 1:35 pmWAYNEBRO Says:
Please add Ben Nelsons name to the list of “expendable” in the upcoming elections.
Unfortunately this won’t happen until 2012. But, can the people of Nebraska recall him? If so, they should get started. If they had wanted a Republic as their Senator they would have voted for one.
What I don’t understand is why he is turning into a Republic now. His past voting record is fairly liberal:
http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/ben_nelson.htm
I’m thinking that he’s feeling rather irrelevant in his party at this time and maybe wants to be courted by the Republics. I say that the Democrats should revoke his membership in the party.
May 24th, 2009 at 1:36 pmReparations4TheBlackHolocaustNOW Says:
Those dumb redneck prison guards are going to RAPE(with objects), SODOMIZE(with objects), KILL and torture the hell out of them!
I guess I’m not so sure how this would be any different than how they are being treated now? You did leave out cutting their scrotum with a scalpel.
I am quite sure that wherever they are housed in the US, people will be paying attention to how they are treated. There’s an empty maximum security prison in Montana available. The people in the town near the prison support bringing the detainees there. They are not pissing their pants at the thought of a supposed “terrorist” being housed near their town.
May 24th, 2009 at 1:39 pmReparations4TheBlackHolocaustNOW Says:
If liberals want to protect terrorists….
And right there is where you show your true colors. Have any of these people been proven to be terrorists? If not, how do you know that they are, in fact, a terrorist? Most of those remaining in detention were purchased by the USA for $5,000. None have been tried, much less convicted of any acts of terrorism.
May 24th, 2009 at 1:41 pmI’ve had it with this bum! He even has that republican ‘look’ about him. You know, old angry white guy that looks like he likes to hit the bottle a bit.
May 24th, 2009 at 1:42 pmReparations4TheBlackHolocaustNOW Says:
I don’t know if you guys will admit this, but I am a Democrat who feels SAFE when Republicans are running our national security.
I am an Unaffiliated registered voter who’s liberal-libertarian in my views. I think that if you concentrate on reality an facts, you would find that the Republicans are the ones who have been making us less safe. The only reason that I can think of for why you think you feel safer under Republican rule is that you believe people who say (without factual support) that republicans can keep us safer. The Republicans ignored all the warnings about the impending 9/11 attacks out of ideology, not fact-based intel.
The truth is that you are in far more danger when Republicans are in charge of your national security. Their primary concern is that private corporations profit off national defense, not whether or not you are actually made safer. Would you want KBR to install your showers on a no-bid, cost-plus contract? It didn’t work out too well for our soldiers overseas.
May 24th, 2009 at 1:47 pmCheney’s speech was taken straight out of the Nazi Germany handbook, and was the speech of a coward who hid from active duty when his time came to serve.
Here’s what a decorated combat veteran from Viet Nam and former Navy Seal had to say about the snibbling coward that is Dick Cheney.
May 24th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
So you admit to being a coward as well?
A snibbling coward who needs to “feel safe”?
:|
Go figure.
May 24th, 2009 at 1:52 pmBilbo Hussein Baggins says:
“I am quite sure that wherever they are housed in the US, people will be paying attention to how they are treated.”
Yeah sure… Like the same way they pay attention to prison abuse and misconduct against Americans? Lol.
May 24th, 2009 at 1:56 pmBen Nelson is the epitome of “spineless Democrat.” That weak-kneed wuss needs to retire. We don’t need any appeasers in the Democratic Party – there are enough of them in the Teabagger Party already.
GET LOST, BEN!! YOU SUCK!!
May 24th, 2009 at 1:57 pmMy primary concern for who is “in charge of our national security” is that they be competent and that they act within the law. Beyond that, I really couldn’t care less what party they’re in. And, for the record, I do not believe that putting our national security in the hands of private corporations will keep us safer.
May 24th, 2009 at 1:58 pmYou see apparently the detainees are really some alien race that can break through walls and kill everyone with their laser beams!!
Really this argument is rediculous. Have a little faith in then men and women who work in corrections and our supermaxes.
May 24th, 2009 at 2:00 pmIt’s time for everyone not cowering under their beds with the republicans to start labeling the republican party and their followers what they are.
Cowards.
Moral Cowards.
Cowards in war time.
Cowards all around.
Cowards just like those in Germany who bought into the fear and hype about “Polish terrorists” and cowards who tolerated all manner of evil from their government in the name of “keeping safe”.
Germany turned to “Preemptive war”, and did it “keep them safe”?
Germany turned to “enhanced interrogations”, and did it “keep them safe”?
Germany turned to authoritarianism and domestic spying, and did it “keep them safe”?
It’s time for America to stop suffering cowards and fools and on this Memorial day we should all honor and embrace the standards of courage and patriotism our parents taught us just a mere 60 years ago.
We faced a much greater enemy in WWII than we face now.
The problem is is that men like Cheney, and the spineless worms who worship him don’t possess the courage our parents had to face these enemies with.
May 24th, 2009 at 2:01 pmPresident Nelson, together with President Collins, decided what stimulus package you got. Why wouldn’t he decide what your rights are?
May 24th, 2009 at 2:02 pmWayne Ant Schneider Says:
“The truth is that you are in far more danger when Republicans are in charge of your national security. Their primary concern is that private corporations profit off national defense, not whether or not you are actually made safer.”
Well sir, apparently Obama and his handlers disagree with you. They’re flip flopping and keeping Bush policy while watering it down to give the appearance of “change.”
The Democratic congress and the O team have done so much unbalanced demonization of the Bush administration that they look like hypocrites.
May 24th, 2009 at 2:12 pmIm with you kdgamegirl, Have faith in the men and women in corrections.Also everyone working in these prisons will know who the terrorists are. Im sure the CO`s will scrutinize every move the terrorists make. Theres also a good chance most of them will be in lockdown anyway. They wont be able to use the toilet without being watched. This is just another BS ploy by wingnuts to undermine everything President Obama does.
May 24th, 2009 at 2:13 pmWayne Ant Schneider Says:
“The truth is that you are in far more danger when Republicans are in charge of your national security. Their primary concern is that private corporations profit off national defense, not whether or not you are actually made safer.”
Well, the corporations that you speak of and they’re WORKERS tend to live in AMERICA and in other democracies. So if they want to protect that interest in an ethical way. I say GO RIGHT AHEAD!
May 24th, 2009 at 2:19 pmI wonder if Nelson voted for Obama.
May 24th, 2009 at 2:23 pmProtect you from what?
Most of us aren’t “afwaid of the terrorists” like you guys.
You big talking republicans are just a bunch of snibbling cowards who’d sell your own mother to keep your fat precious mini van driving assess safe.
Real Americans don’t live in fear and hand over their morality and American ideals for “safety”.
Real American understand that courage is required to live in a free and open society that upholds the standards of common humanity, and on this Memorial day when we honor those who went before, we all should take a moment of silence as we bow our heads in shame at the cowards like you who shame us all with your fear and spineless morality.
May 24th, 2009 at 2:28 pmReparations4TheBlackHolocaustNOW Says:
Well sir, apparently Obama and his handlers disagree with you. They’re flip flopping and keeping Bush policy while watering it down to give the appearance of “change.”
No, what they are doing is leaving current policies in place while they try to untangle the mess that Bush made of this country and it’s policies. The whole “detainee”, “enemy combatant”, Guantanamo situation is uncharted territory. Bush did things no other President has ever done. So, President Obama is taking his time to find the right way to get us out of the mess that Bush got us into.
Personally I would rather have a President who takes his time to do things right than a “shoot first and ask questions later” president like Bush.
May 24th, 2009 at 2:42 pmsscncturn64 Says:
Im with you kdgamegirl, Have faith in the men and women in corrections.Also everyone working in these prisons will know who the terrorists are. Im sure the CO`s will scrutinize every move the terrorists make. Theres also a good chance most of them will be in lockdown anyway. They wont be able to use the toilet without being watched. This is just another BS ploy by wingnuts to undermine everything President Obama does.
Would you PLEASE stop calling them “terrorists”. Call them detainees, because that is exactly what they are. None of them have been charged with much less convicted of an act of terrorism. A large portion of the detainees left were purchased by our country for $5,000. I believe that 30+ have already been determined to be innocent victims.
So, please don’t perpetuate the right wing talking points by calling these detainees “terrorists”. That’s as bad as progressives calling us the Democrat Party.
May 24th, 2009 at 2:44 pmSupreme Court Justice Robert Jackson
May 24th, 2009 at 2:44 pmChief Prosecutor, Nuremberg War Crimes Trials, Nuremberg Germany
Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska is a coward.
That’s not my opinion. That’s a historical fact.
Nazi Prisoners On American Soil
Prisoner of War Camps in America During World War II
© Laurie McLaughlin
Jul 17, 2007
–
Read more: “Nazi Prisoners On American Soil: Prisoner of War Camps in America During World War II | Suite101.com” – http://militaryhistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/nazi_prisoners_on_american_soil#ixzz0GS2RwfGw&A
May 24th, 2009 at 2:49 pmNelson is from the fascist wing of the party, I think.
May 24th, 2009 at 2:53 pmJust a small point about U.S. soil………
When John McCain was born in Panama. On a U.S. base there. John was considered an American citizen based on the fact foreign U.S. military installations are treated as U.S. soil.
If someone gave birth at GITMO, for arguement a U.S. female military person. That child would be considered an American born citizen because Gitmo is a U.S. military base even though it is not in or on actual U.S. soil.
So Senator Nelson should should note that GITMO is considered U.S. soil…………..! For all intent and purposes.
May 24th, 2009 at 3:02 pmReparations4TheBlackHolocaustNOW Says:
Those dumb redneck prison guards are going to RAPE(with objects), SODOMIZE(with objects), KILL and torture the hell out of them!
May 24th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Now the troll is “concerned” about the poor alleged terrorists, and wants to protect them from American prison guards — whom the troll deems to be as bad or worse than the alleged terrorists.
I wonder if the troll knows those terrifying American prison guards go home every night — and might live next door to him?
May 24th, 2009 at 3:04 pmRead more: “Nazi Prisoners On American Soil: Prisoner of War Camps in America During World War II | Suite101.com” –
“But these aren’t prisoners of war, as such,” will be the shaky rebuttal.
May 24th, 2009 at 3:21 pmReparations4TheBlackHolocaustNOW,
Please tell me sometihng. What is it that you are so afraid of?
May 24th, 2009 at 3:26 pmYeah sure… Like the same way they pay attention to prison abuse and misconduct against Americans? Lol.
We’re referring to the Red Cross.
The Democratic congress and the O team have done so much unbalanced demonization of the Bush administration that they look like hypocrites.
So, you’d prefer a Fox News-like, artificial balance, full of half-truths and outright lies?
Not surprised.
May 24th, 2009 at 3:26 pmPlease tell me sometihng. What is it that you are so afraid of?
Hello? Did you miss the name? He’s scared of blacks, and it manifests as outright disgust, hence the absurdist handle.
May 24th, 2009 at 3:31 pmWell, technically they are since they were picked up “on the battlefield”.
But it’s an irrelevant argument here.
The issue being argued by the republicans (and Senator Nelson on their behalf) is not whether they are prisoners of war, but how “dangerous” they are.
And since no one can argue that they are more dangerous than the Nazi’s, who looked just like us and who many spoke perfect English, (hence they could blend in if they escaped), it’s clear that it’s a matter of cowardice, plain and simple.
We held the Nazi’s, who making up the Axis killed 61 MILLION allies.
That’s SIXTY ONE MILLION.
Million with an M.
These “terrorists” have killed roughly 3000 Americans on US soil, and another 4000 or so in Iraq thanks to Bush’s idiotic plan to invade and occupy a country where they could “get at us”.
So total less than 10,000 “allies” have been killed by these “evil doers” in the last 10 years, whereas in just half that time the real “Axis” managed to kill over SIXTY MILLION of us and our friends.
So the only answer to not wanting these “terrorists” on US soil is cowardice. Plain old cowardice.
Ben Nelson is a coward, just like Rush Limbaugh, Dick Cheney, and all the rest who are sooooooo afwaid of them.
The truth is there only “terrorists” if you’re terrified of them.
If you stand up to them, then they’re just men, like any other enemy combatant, and can be dealt with accordingly.
May 24th, 2009 at 3:43 pmThe “mess” of Gitmo and other prisons is compounded by the whole approach that Cheney et al took to the “war on terror.” If terrorism had been treated as a law enforcement issue, we wouldn’t be having this debate right now. Murderers would have been tried, and when found guilty, convicted. In some states that means possibly executed. Instead, we’re stuck with a mob of maybe-terrorists who have been tortured and denied habeas corpus, a military courts system that can’t seem to convict anyone, and the American people have been denied justice. Plus, we wouldn’t have fed into the radical Islamist “holy war” ideology with our own “crusade.”
I’ve been trying to make sense out of this madness for a while now on my blog “The Scary Files.” For more on this topic, and took sort the wheat from the chaff, check out this recent post:
http://scaryfiles.bentzine.net/2009/05/closing-gitmo-detainees-torture-and-terror-take-back-seat-to-politics/
May 24th, 2009 at 3:51 pmNelson thinks America doesn’t have to be part of the deal. We hold convicted terrorists now, but the uncharged detainees are something more to fear. Just broad-brush ‘em all because maintaining uncertainty under a protective film of fear-mongering is a lot easier than getting down to the truth (i.e., Are these detainees of any value to the intelligence community in the first place to be held indefinitely? What are there associations? Are they criminally culpable? Is there any evidence?).
When the 9/11 plotter (Zacharias Moussoi — my spelling is off) was convicted in Alexandria, Va. federal court, could the judge have sent him off to another country to serve his time? Of course not — that would be legally bizarre.
May 24th, 2009 at 4:14 pmI don’t know if you guys will admit this, but I am a Democrat who feels SAFE when Republicans are running our national security.
Guess someone took Colbert’s suggestion to call the Democrats Republicans to its logical solution…
May 24th, 2009 at 4:19 pmWayne Ant Schneider Says:
Please tell me sometihng. What is it that you are so afraid of?
Answer: Hmmmmmmmmm a nuclear or biological weapon taking out a whole city or state.
Your not afraid of that???????
May 24th, 2009 at 4:44 pmNope. Because most nuclear or biological weapons capable of portability wouldn’t be able to take out a city block, much less an entire city. It takes a pretty large device to take out an entire city pinhead, or don’t you remember Hiroshima?
And since I grew up during the Cold War, during the “Duck and Cover” years where we lived in constant threat of REAL Nuclear War from the Soviet Union, I like most Americans learned to live with that threat.
Just like we live with the threat of cancer.
Just like we live with the threat of crime.
Just like we live with the threat of being hit by a bus.
Just like we live with the threat of old age.
Death comes to us all little boy.
Only a coward lives his life in fear filled circle of “what if’s”.
May 24th, 2009 at 5:10 pmI guess it’s really true what they say about cowards dying a thousand deaths.
Cowards like you clearly have died many times over already, and will continue to die each day you live.
:|
Until you learn how to live with at least a modicum of courage.
May 24th, 2009 at 5:12 pmAs Franklin Roosevelt so aptly admonished us, the only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.
Fear is what the SA and SS used to subdue an entire nation.
Fear is the enemy of liberty, and the tool of despots and dictators.
Little men like you try to use fear to manipulate the masses, as if driving a herd of frightened cattle or sheep.
But most Americans fortunately know that America cannot be destroyed by terrorism, only by terror.
Our real enemy does not come from the outside our country, but from within.
That those that fearful men like you call “terrorists” can kill some of us is not in doubt. But they cannot kill us all. They can do little damage in the long run. The real damage is from the spreading of fear and cowardice by weak men like you.
They’re not terrorists, unless you’re terrified of them.
They’re just criminals and murderers, and America’s dealt with plenty of them before.
May 24th, 2009 at 5:48 pmNelson is an ill-informed, ignorant dolt. Not only that, he’s saying U.S. prisons are useless. What an insult to all the hard-working people who have jobs in prisons. Maybe Nelson should apply? I doubt he’d last a day.
May 24th, 2009 at 6:07 pmLiberals ask how they lost gun, Guantanamo votes
Frustrated liberals are asking why a Democratic-controlled Congress and White House can’t manage to close the Guantanamo prison or keep new gun-rights laws from passing.
Thank Rahm Emanuel’s DNC. Obama’s chief of staff continues working his magic from the Oval Office.
May 24th, 2009 at 6:21 pmWayne Ant Schneider Says:
Please tell me sometihng. What is it that you are so afraid of?
Reparations4TheBlackHolocaustNOW Says:
Answer: Hmmmmmmmmm a nuclear or biological weapon taking out a whole city or state.
Your not afraid of that???????
Like Waynebro, I am not afraid of that happening. Especially the nuclear weapon part. I find it highly unlikely that anything like that would happen. Same for foreign terrorists using a biological weapon. Probably never going to happen. And if it were to happen, it would most likely be the work of a religious zealot trying to end the world “according to God’s plan” (or some such nonsense.)
But unlike you, I do not live in fear of terrorists. And the main reason that I don’t fear them (like you do), is because if I live my life in fear, they have won. They don’t have to do another damn thing if I continue to live in fear. If everyone reacted like you and Dick Cheney did, then the terrorists have already won. Is that what you want?
Be brave. We liberals will keep you safe.
May 24th, 2009 at 6:46 pmProfessionals all over the world have been working on reducing the threat of nuclear terrorism for quite some time, and they’re still at it. Since they don’t have to campaign for their jobs, they don’t make a lot of noise in the media machine.
May 24th, 2009 at 7:16 pmBen Nelson=Dinosaur
He’s so 19th century.
May 24th, 2009 at 8:00 pmHis time has passed.
Reparations4TheBlackHolocaustNOW Says:
Wayne Ant Schneider Says:
Please tell me sometihng. What is it that you are so afraid of?
Answer: Hmmmmmmmmm a nuclear or biological weapon taking out a whole city or state.
Your not afraid of that???????
WTF? I live in the NYC area which along with D.C. is the most target rich area in the U.S. and all I can say is:
WHY DON’T YOU TRY LIVING LIKE A MAN AND NOT A LITTLE PUSSY WHO’S CRAPPING IN HIS OWN PANTS WITH FEAR.
Who’s knows, it might make you feel better.
May 24th, 2009 at 8:10 pm.
What are we fighting for? We already agree with the terrorists. We acceded to all their demands. We’ve torn up our Constitution and joined them in terrorizing the Middle East. We torture and kill innocent civilians for purely political purposes. What else can we do to destroy everything America used to stand for? Tell, us please, Republicans & DINOs!
“Happy” Memorial Day, from warriors who came over to the Light Side: MEMORIAL MUSIC.
May 24th, 2009 at 8:30 pm.
Sen. Nelson is clearly a wolf in Democrat’s clothing.
May 24th, 2009 at 8:46 pmjjm Says:
Nelson obviously wants something from the administration that he isn’t getting. He’s bargaining for something. Perhaps killing the reforms on student loans as the lenders are headquartered in his state? Talk about putting country LAST.
May 24th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
hmmmmm… ver-ry interesting… and logical too…
May 24th, 2009 at 8:50 pmReparations4TheBlackHolocaustNOW Says:
Wayne Ant Schneider Says:
Please tell me sometihng. What is it that you are so afraid of?
Answer: Hmmmmmmmmm a nuclear or biological weapon taking out a whole city or state.
Your not afraid of that???????
May 24th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
No. You’re a wuss.
May 24th, 2009 at 9:23 pmdzinn1264 Says:
Sen. Nelson is clearly a wolf in Democrat’s clothing.
May 24th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Hey, wolves have much higher morals than Nelson or Republicans!
May 24th, 2009 at 9:24 pmNebraska has two Senators that believe in Torture.
May 24th, 2009 at 10:16 pmThank you Jane! :=)
May 25th, 2009 at 12:57 amkyle and mc war are both from my state.
how sad to have two war mongers from your own state.
hey the sun always shines.
america is an imperialist country
700 military bases around the world and americans think it is for our defense and freedoms.
we will even torture to defend those freedoms.
few in the world very few understand the control the industrial military complex has on america.
they run the show. the media, many universities, and most of all the politicans with lobbyists.
america is a failed state that keeps on running with chinese and printed money.
capitalism must self destruct
even while it is self destructing americans want more of it.
how is that for paradigm paralysis?
May 25th, 2009 at 2:20 amBen Nelson is one of those people who prove that Democrats can be idiots too.
May 25th, 2009 at 2:38 amWhat I want to know is…..is saying “enhanced interrogation techniques” the same thing as saying “performance enhancement drugs” instead of saying “steroids”? Huh. I wonder.
May 25th, 2009 at 7:53 amWould it not be preferred that the detainees in question be imprisoned here in this country so that we can know their status?
May 25th, 2009 at 9:40 amIf we send them off to other places, how will we have such certainty?
Kay,
May 25th, 2009 at 9:42 am“enhanced” seems to be the latest buzz word, a semantic tactic used by all who have broken the law.
Democrats won the last two election cycles (2006, 2008). We control the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the White House. But George W. Bush is still in control thanks to Democrats like Ben Nelson and Evan Bayh.
If we had 100 Democrats and 0 Republicans in the Senate, Bush and Cheney would still be in control.
sigh…..
May 25th, 2009 at 10:27 amSadly, I have to sigh along with you on that one delafield.
sigh….
May 25th, 2009 at 1:37 pmReparations4TheBlackHolocaustNOW Says:
I don’t know if you guys will admit this, but I am a Democrat who feels SAFE when Republicans are running our national security.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Then you are an idiot because Republicans tend to be STUPID about security. They trump up threats that dont exist and ignore threats that DO exist. They sell fear to the stupid and apparantly you are buying.
May 25th, 2009 at 2:56 pmIs the United States safer due to the Cheney/Bush administration? This administration ignored the intelligence and work done by the Clinton administration. The intelligence they choose to us was politically doctored up to fit their neo con game plan. In the process of conducting the Iraq war, they failed to secure Military munitions of the Iraqi military, this fell into the wrong hands causing untold death and a serious security problem. Afghanistan and Pakistanwere relegated to side shows and what do we have now?
May 25th, 2009 at 9:53 pmBecause of the overextension of our military, it is exhausted and depleted. The financial system has been ruined and that has put and extraordinary strain on our country. If you were to ask me, I would tell you that George Bush played into the hands of the terrorists and we lost.
No, I do not feel safer with the Republicans in control. The Republicans have made me very nervous and sick to my stomach. The country was not handed to them in this condition!
“Torture” for Sen Nelson is getting his toupee on straight every morning.
May 25th, 2009 at 11:05 pm