On his second day in office, President Obama took a bold step away from the Bush administration and signed an executive order to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp within one year while suspending all military tribunals for six months.
Obama said that the United States was sending the world a message that the "struggle against violence and terrorism" would be fought "in a manner that is consistent with our values and our ideals." Each day that Guantanamo remains open is another day that U.S. troops are put in further unnecessary danger.
One U.S. military officer wrote in the Washington Post that he "learned in Iraq that the No. 1 reason foreign fighters flocked there to fight were the abuses carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo." Obama has taken the first crucial step in shutting down this stain on America's reputation.
As the Center for American Progress has outlined, the next steps -- including arranging for trials in federal or military courts, finding homes for detainees who can't return to their native countries, transferring detainees who will stand trial into the United States, and establishing a lawful military detention regime for the small number of remaining detainees -- won't be easy, but they're not impossible. Nevertheless, conservatives are coming up with a number of inaccurate -- and often outright ludicrous -- excuses for why Guantanamo needs to remain open. The Progress Report debunks some of the most ill-informed myths.
MYTH #1 -- GUANTANAMO IS A GREAT PLACE TO BE: Conservatives often try to argue that life at Guantanamo is just fine. Reacting to Obama's executive order, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said that detainees there receive "more comforts than a lot of Americans get." In December, Vice President Cheney argued that Guantanamo "has been very well run." Neither of these claims are true. The Washington Post recently revealed that the top Bush administration official in charge of deciding whether to prosecute detainees concluded that Mohammed al-Qahtani was tortured by the U.S. military at Guantanamo. The detention center was so poorly run that Obama administration officials are now finding out that Bush officials never kept comprehensive case files on many detainees.
MYTH #2 -- DETAINEES ARE TOO DANGEROUS TO BRING INTO THE UNITED STATES: This myth is the one that conservatives cite most often. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) has said that transferring Guantanamo detainees to U.S. soil "will endanger American lives." Yesterday on NBC's Meet the Press, Boehner said that it would be "irresponsible" to transfer these "terrorists who have attempted to kill Americans." This morning, Fox and Friends took pictures of various terrorists and went around to Pennsylvania residents and asked them if they wanted these people living in their "backyards." However, U.S. federal prisons are already home to dozens of the most dangerous terrorists the world has ever known. As Salon's Glenn Greenwald has written, "Both before and after 9/11, the U.S. has repeatedly and successfully tried alleged high-level Al Qaeda operatives and other accused Islamic Terrorists in our normal federal courts -- in fact, the record is far more successful than the series of debacles that has taken place in the military commissions system at Guantanamo." In fact, there have been 145 terrorist convictions in federal courts since 9/11. Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (D) has said that he wouldn't necessarily oppose transferring detainees who are convicted terrorists headed to trial to the state's "Supermax", a role that the prison is already playing and that CAP recommended in its report. Rep. John Murtha (R-PA) has also expressed a willingness to bring some detainees into his district, stating, "I mean, they're no more dangerous in a prison in my district than they are in Guantanamo."
MYTH #3 -- DETAINEES WILL RECEIVE ALL THE BENEFITS OF U.S. CITIZENS: One of the most absurd myths has come from Rep. Steve King (R-IA), who asked last week, "What happens then if another judge grants him asylum in the United States and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is on a path to citizenship?" King added that they could then "tap into welfare." Yesterday on CBS's Face the Nation, Vice President Biden addressed these ridiculous claims. "If they are not a U.S. citizen or if they are not here legally, then, even if they were released by a federal judge, they would not be able to stay here in the United States," said Biden. "They would be sent back to their country of origin. They would not stay here." CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen has also noted, "When terrorists have been tried in the United States, they go away forever. The embassy attackers in '98 who blew up two American embassies, they are in prison for life without parole."
MYTH #5 -- 61 RELEASED DETAINEES HAVE RETURNED TO THE BATTLEFIELD: One conservative talking point that has been especially effective at making its way into traditional media reporting is that 61 "of the people that were incarcerated at Guantanamo and then released have returned to the battlefield, have engaged in further terrorist activities," as CNN's Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr said yesterday. The Associated Press has made a similar claim. But in fact, as Media Matters has reported, "according to the Pentagon, the 61-detainee figure includes 43 former prisoners who are suspected of, but have not been confirmed as, having 'return[ed] to the fight.'" Bergen has also noted that "returning to the fight" could simply mean writing a negative op-ed. Mark Denbeaux, Director of the Seton Hall Law School Center for Policy and Research, has been tracking the Bush administration's claims. He told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, "Their numbers have changed from 20 to 12 to seven to more than five to two to a couple to a few -- 25, 29, 12 to 24. Every time, the number has been different. In fact, every time they give a number, they don't identify a date, a place, a time, a name or an incident to support their claim."
MYTH #6 -- WE SHOULD JUST HOUSE THE DETAINEES AT ALCATRAZ: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has been a vocal supporter of closing down Guantanamo. Therefore, conservatives have retaliated by proposing that she take the detainees. "Let our good friends in San Francisco deal with these deadly combatants," said Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO). Boehner and Rep. Bill Young (R-FL) have suggested Alcatraz prison, which sits in the middle of the San Francisco Bay. This proposal is a joke. Alcatraz shut down as a federal prison in 1963. It became a national historic landmark in 1986. Apparentlty, conservatives are unwilling to house detainees in maximum security federal prisons but are happy to put them up in a tourist attraction. As Pelosi said yesterday on ABC's This Week, "Alcatraz is a tourist attraction. It's a prison that is now sort of like a -- it's a national park."
~ The Progress Report
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Comments: 35
These idiots don't know what they talking about. Of course it must be closed. If the prisoners there are guilty, charge them, sentence them, and put them in jail. If not, they should be free to do whatever they want.
The problem is that this is not a war and so the can't be pows. If guilty they are criminals and as people from another country are not elegable to be tried in American courts since their crime was committed in another country. The trial sould be held in the international court.
I don't see any other way to do this but to close Gitmo. I don't buy the idea that it's a "War on terror", so since the war will never end, you get to lock them up without trial until the die of old age. If you have evidence, try them. Otherwise, let them go. The Bill of Rights applies to everybody, or nobody. Which is it?
Myth #2 - That's saying that our prisons are not secure. Like you said, we house many dangerous people in them. We can handle it.
Myth #3 - Ridiculous!
Myth #4 - ??
Myth #5 - If they can't be convicted, we can't keep them forever! I agree that some of these people could be dangerous, but we can't keep them if we can't convict them!
Myth #6 - Ridiculous! Why not just put them in Alaska (just kidding)!
That's a great myth, here in Illinois at Marion we had John Gotti, Manuel Noreiga and Jeff Fort founder of the most notorious Chicago street gangs ever. If Jeff Fort can be housed on US soil in prison anyone in Gitmo can because Jeff Fort is the worse of the worse and baddest of the bad.
My son, Marc Allen Lee, gave his life in Iraq to protect America and keep terrorists from further attacks on the homeland. Now that he's been sworn in, the some of the first things President Obama has done were to halt the trials of terrorists being held at Gitmo and sign an Executive Order to close the prison.
This is a dangerous plan that makes the anti-military Code Pink crowd happy and maybe even some of our weak-kneed European allies, but it is at the cost of Americans' safety and national security. Not to mention, it demoralizes our troops who are risking their lives capturing these murderous killers. We have to rally Americans to oppose this move by President Obama.
President Barack Obama today signs a foolish and ill-conceived Executive Order to close the detention camps at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba where we hold violent terrorists bent on destroying our entire civilization. As you may have seen in my emails from my visit to Gitmo a few weeks ago, these are truly the most despicable human beings on earth, including the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.
Why President Obama is trying to appease our enemies is beyond me, but I can tell you it is the wrong choice and hazardous to our country. It is an insult to our military men and women, especially those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice like my son, to close down the prison because of liberals claim that our troops mistreat the prisoners.
These terrorists incarcerated at Gitmo provide vital intelligence that allows us to keep hunting down terrorists overseas and capture or kill them lest they bring their jihad to our shores again. But when detainees are released, they often return to the battlefield and kill US troops, our allies, and innocent civilians. It's important that you contribute today so we can do everything possible to keep terrorists at Guantanamo Bay where they belong.
If President Obama gets his way and Gitmo is closed, what is going to happen to these terrorists? A US federal judge has already ruled that terrorists must be released in Washington DC! Fortunately, the appeals court has put a stop to the release until further hearings.
There's no plan for the almost 250 detainees currently held at Guantanamo, and there's no easy answer either practically or legally. The RIGHT answer is to KEEP GITMO OPEN, keep dangerous jihadists in a prison that's safe and secure, and maintain the intelligence community's access to information that can save the lives of troops in the field and prevent future plots against civilians.
As time goes on President Obama will confront many of the facts and realities that stand in the way of his foolish decision, but if we don't fight hard and build a backlash fast, anti-military zealotry may be given more weight than sound judgment and even basic safety.
The military is engaged in a war with Islamic extremists who use senseless and unscrupulous violence as their primary tools and hide in civilian populations in the most remote places on earth. But our troops are winning that war and frequently killing high-level operatives of major terror groups. Our troops' ability to neutralize these monsters is what keeps us safe.
What President Obama doesn't seem to understand is that we are able to target and kill these terrorist leaders BECAUSE our military and intelligence community is very good and getting information about their location, activities and contacts. Valuable information comes from those we are able to interrogate.
Yet instead of congratulating or rewarding our military and intelligence agencies for the amazing things they have achieved, Obama would to make their jobs even more difficult, putting you and me in danger of terrorist attack. Here is a list of just a few of the terrorist leaders that have been killed recently thanks to good information on where we can find them:
Rashid Rauf
Mastermind of the 2006 trans-Atlantic airline bomb plot.
Architect of the liquid bomb plot.
Killed by Predator drone in Alikhel, North Waziristan.
We have this crackpot to thank for making bottled water a hot item at airport security.
Abu Zubair al-Masri
Egyptian al-Qaida operative.
Killed by a Predator drone in Alikhel, North Waziristan.
Abdullah Azam al-Saudi
Main link between al-Qaida senior command and Taliban networks in the Pakistanti border regions.
Killed by Predator drone in the Bannu district of Pakistan.
Hajii Hammadi
Senior al-Qaida in Iraq leader.
The emir of Karmah in eastern Anbar Province, Iraq.
Led al-Qaida in the ferocious second battle of Fallujah.
Killed by Task Force 88 hunter-killer teams, which is our crack special ops unit.
Abu Qaswarah al-Skani
Al-Qaida in Iraq's second in command.
Killed during a raid in Mosul.
Abu Ghadiya
Al-Qaida's senior facilitator and logistics coordinator for foreign fighters entering Iraq.
Killed by a bold US daylight raid into Syria.
Abu Ghazwan
Senior commander in the regions north of Baghdad.
Killed by Iraqi soldiers and U.S. trained Sons of Iraq.
These are all major objectives achieved in the war on terror. Unfortunately, you see little in the media about our successes in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Pakistan, but it's real and does not occur accidentally. It is possible because our military and intelligence agencies are very good at getting information - especially from enemy combatants such as those held a Guantanamo. We must keep tracking down and killing terrorists overseas before they can bring their fight to our shores.
Detainees Released from Gitmo Return to Terrorism
At least 61 people who were released from Guantanamo Bay have returned to terrorism. Here are the cases of three of them and the victims they would not have been able to attack if they were still locked up. What will they wreak if we let President Obama release more Gitmo inmates?
Abdulla Mehsud had spent 25 months at Gitmo until his release in March 2004. He returned to South Waziristan where he rebuilt and led a Taliban cadre estimated at 5,000 foot soldiers and conducted cross-border raids into Afghanistan attacking coalition forces. He killed himself with a grenade to avoid being re-captured.
Maulavi Abdul Ghaffar spent 8 months at Gitmo before being released in 2002. He returned to Afghanistan to become Taliban commander of Uruzgan and Helmand provinces. He attacked American troops until he was killed by Afghan troops in 2003.
Abdullah Salim Ali al Ajmi spent 3 years at Gitmo before his release in 2005. He went to Iraq just last year to become a suicide bomber and killed himself along with several innocent bystanders.
The Implications About Our Troops
Here is where this crazy plan ADDS INSULT TO INJURY. The argument for closing the facility is that some sort of misconduct has been perpetrated there. That has no basis in fact or reality, and it's a tremendous insult to our heroic men and women and the superbly professional work they have done to keep us safe. We were there last month to bring gifts and cards to our troops. While there, we talked to them first hand and privately and got the real story.
These men and women of the military are stunning. They demonstrate sterling character, honor, duty, and respect even as they are bothered by how well we treat these lunatics who would be happy to kill every single American. For President Obama to take action that impugns the integrity of our troops in this way is simply outrageous and thoroughly objectionable. He is essentially saying that he believes the terrorists rather than our own troops. For the military's Commander-in-Chief to do this is truly shameful.
Don't let more terrorists who we have in our custody return to kill againsts; it's needless death and destruction to have terrorist returning to the battlefield. We must act now to stop President Obama from carrying out this radical plan.
The biggest threat to the security of this nation are from within and many are those we actually pay to provide our intelligence and protect us. Our military intelligence went south during the Ford Administration at the hands of Cheney, Rumsfel and Wolfowitz. Just because they are now out of office doesn't mean they've don't have any more say. Even during the Reagan years Cheney was very instrumental in security and foreign matters. Everything they had done since the Nixon years have proven to be nothing more than outright lies.
The only people "eligible" to be tried in any international courts would be those running or working at the facility because these courts only try war crimes. Members of Blackwater and such would be tried in the country they committed the crimes in.
Now that Bush and Cheney no longer hold an office any person who has taken an oath to uphold the constitution can arrest them and don't need to rely on congress or formal impeachments. It will never happen as long as the propaganda machine keeps pumping. Most media corporations are owned by the same people who own the defense contractors.
While I'm sorry for her loss and honor her son's service *her conclusions* are way off the mark, she offers no proof of her claims, and such a long article does not belong as a comment on Gather.
We are done with fear and hand wringing, just as surely as we are done with Bush. Get over it, Republicans. We are moving into a new era which could not possibly put us in any more danger than Bush's attack on Iraq, and his bungling as Commander in Chief of our search for bin Laden in Afganistan, and his raping of the US Treasury for his oil and financial chronies.
President Obama has my support in cleaning up our country and I'm sure I speak for the majority in that statement.
Kudos on the Obama decision.
Her conclusions are way off your mark but not way off the mark, and she doesn't need to offer proof for her claims. If you'd care to challenge her, I'm sure if you wrote to MoveAmericaForward.Org they would be happy to relay your claims.
President Obama has my support in cleaning up our country and I'm sure I speak for the majority in that statement.
I'm sure you speak for the majority of you in that statement, also. But you don't speak for the majority of people, and you do not speak for me.
such a long article does not belong as a comment on Gather
If you aren't going to comment on the article then the article is going to comment here.
Get over it, Republicans
Get over what? And who are you referring to as Republicans?
So basically, I believe, it's been acknowledged that more than half of those guys are innocent of just about anything but (something like) being business competitors for Afghan drug lords who got rid of them by turning them over to the Americans, others rather than being al-Qaeda, were fighting what they believed to be an illegal invasion -- these guys fit the line from this post: "One U.S. military officer wrote in the Washington Post that he "learned in Iraq that the No. 1 reason foreign fighters flocked there to fight were the abuses carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo." Adding to this; studies carried out by Saudi and Israeli governments based on information from captured fighters concluded that most foreign fighters in Iraq went to help "their Arab brothers" after seeing images of Abu Ghraib on TV, and they were urged by Muslim clerics to do so -- the same Muslim clerics who condemned 9/11. They saw us as an occupying force, killing and capturing their Muslim brothers and subjecting them to what they considered atrocities in Abu-Ghraib and Guantanamo -- and they ended up there themselves.
Sure there are some bad guys in Guantanamo, and if there is evidence they committed a criminal act that evidence should be acknowledged in court and they should be held in whatever prison until trial, just like anyone else indicted for a crime.
The whole problem with this is the fear, mixed with the patriotism and propaganda. There is no "war on terror" other than as a slogan. Terror is a tactic. Wars are declared on nations. We ought to look at this like the Europeans, and most of the rest of the world, do, with terrorism as criminal acts that are investigated by criminal law enforcement agencies. Applying military force to an enemy with no tanks, air force, or army is just a sham way of extending imperial control.
My view? NO WAY. We didn't imprison them. We didn't maltreat them. Their own countries appear to deny repatriation demands. If they are considered too dangerous to be jailed in mainland USA.... why on earth would be want to accept them? They will be a drain on resources for many years to come, including medical treatment.
All those irrational myths being spread by those, still of the Rovian mentality just goes to show, we need to stay ever vigilant, or they'll take back over. They never stop trying to spread fear, and terrorism into the heats and minds of the public.
We should put them is the same jail as " the braineater guy".
Exactly my point. We have a pretty good record of successfully containing very dangerous people in our maximum security prisons. Like the license plate holder and the tee shirt say, "Expensive but worth it." :)
Part of the problem is that there were some innocent people there and they were just being kept there indefinitely without a hearing.
As far as returning to terrorism...well, if you were treated the way that these men were treated you might have such hatred in your heart that you would do the same thing. That is pure speculation of course.
Yet the practice of inhuman acts by any human is still inhumane. This done under the Stars and Stripes does not for whatever reason change the fact that torture is wrong, and two wrongs never makes it right.
The curse of reason base on revenge will not serve the dove of peace nor the children who suffer under the horrors of war that never ends, and offer only the illusion vengence as a solution and death as the final answer.
"And they tortured the wrong man and now they want your forgiveness because they were only following orders."