Obama moves to reshape U.S. policy by closing Gitmo

Friday 23rd January, 11:08 AM JST

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yabits at 06:56 AM JST - 24th January

Yes, buddha4, just as it's easy for some ignorant slug to be influenced to shout "Death to America," it is all too easy for so many ignorant, American slugs to be influenced to adopt the same mentality.
Taka313 at 07:56 AM JST - 24th January

It never fails to amaze and amuse me how much these self-deluded right-wingers pretend to understand the minds of Islamic fundamentalists.

I don't know...I've always thought of them as different sides of the same coin, with the Islamist fundamentalists just having a better work ethic.

Taka
apecNetworks at 06:05 PM JST - 24th January

Gitmo and the policies behind it will not strengthen security in the US. The security of the US will come within, not without. It will be the local cop or fire fighting personnel who will have hundreds of citizens serving as eyes and ears to maintain local security because the people know and trust them. It is the FBI who will coordinate at the national level the info collected from hundreds of thousands participating to ensure domestic tranquility. It is the Intelligence services to do the same overseas. Gitmo intensifies hatred on all sides and is a death spiral for all participants. There are better options, but always keep your powder dry and forever vigilant.
OhioDonna at 12:03 AM JST - 25th January

Big mistake!
johancohen at 12:32 PM JST - 25th January

hold on a precious moment here, just who's exact idea was it to close this jewel of a great facility Gitmo? expansion plans were hitting it on the projected budget, and assured security was getting better and superior all the time.
Wottock_Hunt at 12:11 AM JST - 26th January

Let's not forget -these people are so incontrovertibly dangerous that they've been held and tortured for years and the Bush Stasi didn't even find enough to charge them with.

President Obama was apparently sincere when he took his Oath of Office, swearing to protect the Constitution. There's a bit in there about Due Process being an inaliable right. Bush thought he didn't need to uphold that part. But then, to be fair, he is on record as having called the Constitution "Just a goddamned piece of paper".

But it's always fun to see the last of the Kool-Aid drinkers foaming at the mouth when a new and validly-elected president starts to put the pieces back together.
OhioDonna at 04:31 AM JST - 28th January

A couple of former prisoners have been seen in al Qaeda videos. Something to think about.
Blue_Tiger at 10:49 PM JST - 28th January

I like how people say that these captured terrorists -- apprehendedi n battle from the battlefield -- have been "held without being charged". The USA held thousands of German, Italian, and Japanese combatants sixty-plus years ago, too, without charges being laid at their feet. The reason they were held? THEY WERE TRYING TO KILL AMERICANS DURING A TIME OF WAR!!!!!!!!!!

What is the "charge" that is laid at these Terrorists' feet at Guantanamo Bay? THEY WERE TRYING TO KILL AMERICNAS DURING A TIME OF WAR!!!!!!!

That's why POWs are called "POWs" - they are captured durign a time of war. The USA is currently engaged in a war agaisnt Islamic Terror. The terrorists being held in Gitmo, Cuba, are POWs. They are and have been charged with one thing, and the only thing that should keep them in Gitmo until the War on Terror is over: they are enemy combatants who tried to kill Americans, captured on the field of Battle.

Mr. Obama, with a swipe of his pen (the pen is mightier than the sword?), has made it easier for enemy combatants in a time of war to kill Americans.....
cleo at 10:58 PM JST - 28th January

Blue Tiger -

Didn't the Bush administration swear blue that the people in Gitmo were not POWs?

A lot of them were not 'apprehended in battle on the battlefield', they were sold to the Americans by bounty-hunters. They have been charged with nothing yet.
Blue_Tiger at 11:34 PM JST - 29th January

And I'm sure, cleo, you have some sort of reference or proof to back up your claim that these weren't POWs? As far as I've heard, President Bush said nothing of the kind....
cleo at 12:10 AM JST - 30th January

Blue Tiger -

After a discussion with his top national security advisers, President Bush said Monday (Jan 28 2002) the detainees being held at the U.S. naval base in Cuba "will not be treated as prisoners of war."

http://edition.cnn.com/2002/US/01/28/ret.wh.detainees/ The White House announced Thursday (Feb. 7 2002) that Taliban fighters among the Afghan war detainees would be afforded the full protection of the Geneva Conventions but would not be classified as prisoners of war.

http://edition.cnn.com/2002/US/02/07/ret.bush.detainees/

he ruled out giving the men POW status, arguing that they were "killers" and "terrorists" who did not belong to a recognised army. "We are not going to call them prisoners of war," Mr Bush said

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1788062.stm

Mr Rumsfeld, who has been an outspoken defender of the base, said there would be no question of the Bush administration reversing its decision on the detainees. "They are not POWs, they will not be determined to be POWS," he said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/jan/28/september11.afghanistan2
loltehinterwebs at 07:42 AM JST - 30th January

Close Gitmo. Let them loose in US cities and let the people take care of them.
Blue_Tiger at 07:07 PM JST - 30th January

Well posted, cloe, and thank you, but the detainees there are and were still classified as "enemy combatants" by the Bush Administration and those media outlets you listed, as well as others. Though Former President Bush may have denied that they were POWs, the fact tremains that these Gitmo Inmates are exactly that: Captured Enemy Combatants (read: POWs)....
Nessie at 08:22 PM JST - 30th January

but the detainees there are and were still classified as "enemy combatants" by the Bush Administration and those media outlets you listed, as well as others

So why haven't they been tried accordingly, instead of under Bush's kangaroo court rules?
cleo at 10:49 PM JST - 30th January

the detainees there are and were still classified as "enemy combatants" by the Bush Administration

The same administration that swore blue there were WMDs in Iraq, Saddam was only minutes away from nuking Europe, and his balsa-wood-and-duct-tape unmanned drones were about to spray mainland USA with biological and/or chemical agents. Why would you give credence to any claims put out by a bunch of proven liars?

Bush tried every which way to make out that 'enemy combatant' did not mean 'POW'.

the fact tremains that these Gitmo Inmates are exactly that: Captured Enemy Combatants (read: POWs)

Because Bush sez so? Not so.

Recent official data shows that only 5 per cent of prisoners at Guantanamo were captured by US forces. The rest were sold by Afghanistan and Pakistan.

http://www.newstatesman.com/200610090029

They knew Americans were looking for Arabs, so they captured Arabs and sold them — just like someone catches a fish and sells it,” he said. The detainee said he was seized by “mafia” operatives somewhere in Europe and sold to Americans because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time — an Arab in a foreign country.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8049868/