Shutting down Guantanamo Bay

[AMDScooter]

Bridges for sale!!! Step right up and get yours now!! Be the first on your block (but probably not the last if you huddle closely together like most "like minded individuals") to own the Brooklyn bridge!!

In related news... the administration is like totally gonna close GITMO.

Holder: Hey, we’re still totally going to close Gitmo

They just cannot say how or when. But if you reelect them they will like totally promise to close it again.

Suckerz....

[Dutchcedar]

...if you reelect them...

Makes ya wonder if they really think that might just maybe kinda sorta could ever happen.

They might believe it.

They're idiots.

[AMDScooter]

Soo the third anniversary of the SCOAMF's EO to shut down GITMO comes and goes without so much as a wimper from our forums libs. Guess the joint no longer "damages our national security interests" or is a "tremendous recruiting tool for al-Qaeda". Funny how much things "Change(D)" by not changing at all.

[AMDScooter]

In case the libberals that protested so vehemently under GWB have forgotten... the joint is still open for business. Don't wear yourselves out not protesting guys... I knew your feigned indignation was bullsh*t from go.

A not-friendly reminder to the Activist Left about Gitmo.

In three parts:

The current President of the United States campaigned on a platform that included the closing of the prison for international terrorists at Gitmo.
Gitmo is, in fact, still open. But they’ll get to it Real Soon Now (SPOILER WARNING: they won’t).
The Right noted at the time that Gitmo was going to remain open. On more than one occasion. We, in fact, told people time again and again and again and again that Barack Obama was not going to close Gitmo. Which means that nobody really has an excuse for being surprised.

Why am I mentioning this now? Isn’t it obvious? Because I’m trolling, that’s why! There’s a lot of people out there who are even now trying to pretend that President Obama ran on closing Gitmo, that the Activist Left pounded the tables and shouted about closing Gitmo, that closing Gitmo was supposed to be the central moral dilemma of our generation… and that the issue of Gitmo was quietly garroted to death in a narrow, dusty room* because it became an embarrassment to the Democratic Establishment. Better and better (from the Right’s point of view): the Activist Left has to pretend that this sort of thing is just fine with them. When we know that it’s not.

Not that it really matters whether the Activist Left is happy, of course. They are, after all, commodities whose utility begins and ends with how much money and underpaid labor they can contribute to the Democratic establishment – or, as the Democratic establishment itself probably puts it in private, ‘their betters.’ And it is a measure of their degradation that progressive activists will simply swallow their bile and go on with trudging in circles. It’d be almost pathetic, except that pity is mostly wasted on people who voluntarily choose to abandon their dignity and all sense of self-respect.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: So why did I bring this all up? – Because it’s my job as a conservative blogger/New Media activist to highlight these sorts of things. Plus, as noted earlier I am a bit of a troll. Or at least I am to trolls what wolfhounds are to wolves…

*Literary reference.

[SteveW]

^^^^^ Wonder where Cindy Sheehan is these days - haven't seen any pictures of her with Hugo Chavez lately - maybe she's in Syria carryiing on with her tireless work......

Not that she was ever used as a tool by the ultra left leaning main stream media.

[AMDScooter]

Still open and now doing the military tribunals the messiah tried to turn into show trials in NY.

Credit Where It's Due

They will never receive any credit, but George W. Bush and his advisers deserve our lasting thanks for deciding to hold terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, and conducting their trials through military tribunals, instead of a federal courtroom.

The wisdom of this approach was on display yesterday, during the arraignment of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9-11 attacks, and two other senior Al Qaida figures. According to The New York Times (and other media accounts), the proceedings were a study in confusion and obfuscation, as the defendants did their best to delay and disrupt the arraignment hearing:

"Khalid Shaikh Mohammed fingered his long, henna-dyed beard and stared down in silence on Saturday, pointedly ignoring a military commissions judge asking in vain whether the self-described architect of the Sept. 11 attacks understood what was being said and whether he was willing to be represented by his defense lawyers.


Minutes later, Ramzi bin al Shibh, another of the five detainees arraigned on Saturday as accused conspirators in the attacks, stood, knelt and started praying. Later, he shouted at the judge that he should address their complaints about prison conditions because “maybe you are not going to see me again.”


“Maybe they are going to kill us and say that we have committed suicide,” he added.

One defendant, Walid bin Attash, was wheeled into the courtroom in a restraint chair for reasons that were not disclosed.

Amid disruptions both passive and aggressive, the government’s attempt to restart its efforts to prosecute the five defendants in the long-delayed Sept. 11 case got off to a slow and rocky start in a trial that could ultimately result in their execution."

After hours of jostling over procedural issues, all five defendants deferred entering a plea. The judge set a hearing date for motions in mid-June; the trial is not likely to start for at least a year.


Now, imagine this little tableau taking place in a federal courtroom in lower Manhattan, before a phalanx of reporters, with dozens of TV live trucks and huge crowds clustered outside. It would be a made-for-the-media spectacle, dominating the headlines for days. Every outburst, every contrived comment from the defendants would be instant gist for the pundits and analysts, giving Al Qaida a free platform they have long craved.

And, lest we forget, this was how the Obama Administration planned to try terror suspects until a rare moment of common sense intervened, and the White House decided to stick with military tribunals. Instead of a global stage, KSM and his fellow killers will have to make due with pool coverage from a handful of reporters at Gitmo. Instead of a battery of ACLU lawyers, they have a small defense team which they may (or may not) cooperate with. And instead of a federal judge trying to ride herd over a legal circus, the Al Qaida defendants have a no-nonsense military judge, Colonel James L. Pohl.

Of course, the antics that unfolded yesterday at Gitmo were utterly predictable. We've often stated that the long trial of the so-called "20th Hijacker" (Zacarias Moussaoui) was a template for court proceedings against other Al Qaida figures. It took the federal government almost four years to convict the defendant, amid proceedings that were, at times, both frustrating and bizarre, reflecting Moussaoui's attempts to frustrate the legal process.

Because Moussaoui was captured by U.S. agents on American soil, his trial in federal court was dictated by law. But KSM and the terrorists at Gitmo were nabbed overseas, and with their designation as combatants, military tribunals became the most viable option. The prosecution of Al Qaida terrorists at Gitmo will likely drag on for years, but without the media circus that terrorists crave and in a secure environment. Security costs for a trial in a New York federal court were pegged at $300-500 million a year, with the interruption to normal traffic and commerce costing millions more.

President Obama, who "officially" launched his re-election bid this weekend, has tried to blame his predecessor for everything that's wrong with the country. It would be refreshing (and completely uncharacteristic) if he would--just once--give George W. Bush credit for making the right call. On the issue of trying terror suspects, Mr. Bush was correct in opting for military tribunals, and the wisdom of that approach will be affirmed in the months and years that follow.

[jimzinsocal]

Agree^^. That said I hope the actual trial..next year goes better than the start.

.
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/20...-modestly?lite

[AMDScooter]

Agree^^. That said I hope the actual trial..next year goes better than the start.

.
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/20...-modestly?lite

The real rub for me is the fact that before the SCOAMF promised these scumbags a nice show trial they were all going to plea guilty. Now we (and especially the victims families) have to live/suffer the consequences of his piss poor attempt to please the extremes of his base.

This is the kind of crap I'm talking about..

Final insult of Qaeda clowns
9/11 plotter & henchmen raise a ruckus at Gitmo

A whining five-fiend circus opened in Guantanamo Bay yesterday as 9/11 ringmaster Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four co-conspiring clowns made a mockery of the military tribunal trying them on 2,976 counts of murder.

In court for the first time in more than three years, Mohammed — who says he personally beheaded Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl — refused to speak, stood up to pray and even removed earphones providing Arabic translations of the proceedings.

The terror fiend and his four cohorts did all they could to defy the court, delay the proceeding and cause anguish for family members of victims watching the hearing.

In perhaps the most brazen act, suspect Ramzi Binalshibh ended the 13-hour day by giving a mocking thumbs-up and a smile to two 9/11 victim relatives who were staring daggers at him through a glass partition from the area reserved for people who lost loved ones.
The taunt caused one of the heartbroken 9/11 family members to exclaim “mother f----r.”

In another sick and tasteless gesture, defendant Walid bin Attash made a paper airplane out of a piece of legal paper and placed it over his microphone. A guard soon confiscated the cruel reminder of the attack.

Mohammed, who in 2008 vowed to plead guilty so he could be executed and become a martyr, frequently gazed downward in stony silence, as if he were sleeping. At other moments, he moved his head to watch the courtroom maneuvering. At other times, he smiled and chatted with his terror pals.

As prosecutors read the charges and a description of the horrific hijackings, Mohammed paid no attention and stared at his lap, apparently reading.
Adding to the hearing’s circus-like atmosphere, Mohammed — who wore a white turban and gray beard streaked with red dye — and three of the accused randomly stood at various times during the hearing and bowed in prayer.

Later, while bin Attash’s lawyer was speaking with Army Col. James Pohl, the tribunal’s president, bin Attash removed his shirt in an effort to show scars he claimed came from abuse by guards. It was not clear if he actually had any marks on him.

At one point, two of the terrorists passed around a copy the Economist magazine and skimmed it.

Despite the disruptions and Mohammed’s refusal to speak, Pohl said the hearing would forge ahead whether Mohammed and his pals liked it or not.
“One cannot choose to not participate,” Pohl said.

The arraignment hearing is the first step in what is expected to be a lengthy trial, described by Pentagon spokesman Todd Breasseale as “the Nuremberg of our times.” The suspects are due back in court June 12.

Mohammed, captured in Pakistan in 2003, has said he engineered the 9/11 attacks “from A to Z,” along with 30 other terror plots.
Yesterday, he tried to engineer a farce at the hearing.

When Mohammed removed his earphones, his four cronies followed suit — and the chaotic proceedings could only resume after an interpreter’s translation was aired loud enough for the entire courtroom to hear.

Bin Attash had to be put in a restraint chair because he had earlier refused to come. He was later released.

His lawyer, Cheryl Bormann, showed up in conservative Muslim garb and asked the court to order all women present to wear similar clothing.
She and the other defense lawyers complained that their clients couldn’t wear civilian clothes of their choosing and about their location in the courtroom. They also complained they lacked the resources to defend their clients.

Cmdr. Walker Ruiz, a lawyer for alleged conspirator Mustafa al-Hawsawi, questioned Pohl’s authority to even open the proceeding — but Pohl slapped him down.

Out of nowhere, at around noon, Binalshibh began shouting. “Maybe you’re not going to see me anymore . . . It’s about the treatment at the camp . . . Maybe they are going to kill us!”

[jimzinsocal]

Good reading

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...pinion_LEADTop

Add from CNN yesterday how one of the defendants thought it was funny to perch a paper airplane on his microphone.
And we worry about their rights.

in this article here (from linked post)

The real fault lies with the terrorists, who hope to put American justice on trial instead of themselves. The defendants refused even to look at Judge James Pohl, much less to answer questions or wear headsets to hear the simultaneous translation into Arabic. There were unscheduled prayers and a paper airplane. Ramzi bin Al Shibh commented in English that "Maybe they will kill us and say we have committed suicide."

More here

http://blog.american.com/2012/05/911...aper-airplane/

[AMDScooter]

^^^ I can just imagine the circus it would have been had bamma and his wonder twit pal holder given these terrorists exactly what they wanted with show trials. History is going to continue to vindicate the policies GWB set after 9/11 and show the folly of the left.

[jimzinsocal]

Strange way to close a prison...with cable and other stuff

http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_ne...-upgraded?lite

Perhaps the notion is to remake the facility into a special hotel or something

cable television in a communal living quarters and “enriching your life” classes for detainees, which include instruction on learning to paint, writing a resume -- even handling personal finances.

[AMDScooter]

Forum libs have not even uttered the word GITMO in over a year AFAICT.... rank hypocrites are a fickle sort. Hopefully when repugs take back over they will "pull the plug" on all the niceties and expand the joint for new arrivals.

[SteveW]

Interesting twist - reminds me of a Kerry/Edwards Flip-Flop. After all the heartfelt election rhetoric back in 2008 - liar? Naw......

[AMDScooter]

Senate votes to affirm club GITMO is going to stay open for business.

Senate approves measure to prevent transfer of terrorist detainees to US

[Lewis2005]

I thought Guantanamo Bay didn't exist, isn't it North Korea and Russia who don't respect human rights?