Obama Seems Intent On Finally Closing Gitmo For Good

[Political Junky]

Write a letter demanding the prisoners be kept near you.

How many terrorists have ever escaped a high security prison in the US?

Answer: None.

How many are kept on our soil?

Thirty-three international terrorists, many with ties to al-Qaeda, reside in a single federal prison in Florence, Colo., with little public notice.

39

kept in a supermax

You wanna pony up the dough to have them all in a supermax?

you willing to risk your life by keeping them all near you?

B/c I saw the special on where they were planning on putting them, and it was NOT a max prison.

The cost to house a captive at Guantánamo Bay is $800,000 per year, far in excess of other federal or state lockups.

BY CAROL ROSENBERG
[email protected]
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- Guards get combat pay, just like troops in Afghanistan, without the risk of being blown up. Some commanders get to bring their families to this war-on-terror deployment. And each captive gets $38.45 worth of food a day.

The Pentagon detention center that started out in January 2002 as a collection of crude open-air cells guarded by Marines in a muddy tent city is today arguably the most expensive prison on earth, costing taxpayers $800,000 annually for each of the 171 captives by Obama administration reckoning.

That’s more than 30 times the cost of keeping a captive on U.S. soil.

It’s still funded as an open-ended battlefield necessity, although the last prisoner arrived in March 2008. But it functions more like a gated community in an American suburb than a forward-operating base in one of Afghanistan’s violent provinces.

Read more here: GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba: Guantánamo: the most expensive prison on earth - Guantánamo - MiamiHerald.com

 

[Rozman]

Obama has a full plate right now.

He is going to personally call every gay person in the USA to thank them for being so courageous.
So that might take a while...

 

[Amelia]

 

[Lakhota]

I think he will?

Do you think he'll succeed?

Do you want him to be successful in that endeavor?

I also think he will - if Congress doesn't block him again.

That place is shameful - and a recruiting tool to breed more terrorists.

Sadly, the only way the detainees could draw attention to this shame was to go on a hunger strike. I'm surprised we were ever allowed to hear about it. Shut it down!

 

[Quantum Windbag]

I think he will?

Do you think he'll succeed?

Do you want him to be successful in that endeavor?

Do you actually believe that he wants to close Gitmo? Are you aware that he actually has the authority to release anyone from Gitmo he wants to, yet he hasn't used it once? He does like blaming other people for his lack of action, and there are a few people that believe him. That list grows smaller every single day.

Dana Milbank actually has the gall to suggest that Obama actually do his job.

Dana Milbank: At Obama?s press conference, a presidential bystander - The Washington Post

Marleen Down even pointed out that what Obama wants to do is transfer them from one prison to a worse one. At least in Gitmo they can get out for more than an hour a day, and talk to each other.

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/01/opinion/dowd-bottoms-up-lame-duck.html?_r=0

But you want me to actually entertain the notion that he is serious because you are too stupid to inform yourself of what is actually occurring.

Did you know that force feeding is a violation of international law? Isn't Obama the supposedly the champion of human rights and international law?

 

[Quantum Windbag]

the point he made for closing the base is to prevent gov't incarceration without formal charges ... an affront to the US Constitution.

Yet he wants to transfer the prisoners to a Supermax prison, and has said he wouldn't release them even if he was ordered to by a court.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

The main question is do YOU support the closing of Gitmo.

Yay or nay?

Is it?

 

[JimH52]

I think he will?

Do you think he'll succeed?

Do you want him to be successful in that endeavor?

The Loons on this board don't want him to succeed in anything, especially closing Gitmo...another gift that W left for us.

 

[dblack]

I think he will?

Do you think he'll succeed?

Do you want him to be successful in that endeavor?

He could've and should've done it on the first day of his presidency. Better late than never, but I sort of doubt he's sincere. Otherwise he'd have done it already.

 

[JimH52]

I think he will?

Do you think he'll succeed?

Do you want him to be successful in that endeavor?

He could've and should've done it on the first day of his presidency. Better late than never, but I sort of doubt he's sincere. Otherwise he'd have done it already.

Congress will not let him close it. READ!

But it is his fault of course...

 

[dblack]

I think he will?

Do you think he'll succeed?

Do you want him to be successful in that endeavor?

He could've and should've done it on the first day of his presidency. Better late than never, but I sort of doubt he's sincere. Otherwise he'd have done it already.

Congress will not let him close it. READ!

But it is his fault of course...

Nonsense. It's executive stuff. If we don't have enough on the 'detainees' to try and convict them, let them go. If Congress doesn't like that, too bad.

 

[MarcATL]

I think he will?

Do you think he'll succeed?

Do you want him to be successful in that endeavor?

Do you actually believe that he wants to close Gitmo? Are you aware that he actually has the authority to release anyone from Gitmo he wants to, yet he hasn't used it once? He does like blaming other people for his lack of action, and there are a few people that believe him. That list grows smaller every single day.

Dana Milbank actually has the gall to suggest that Obama actually do his job.

Dana Milbank: At Obama?s press conference, a presidential bystander - The Washington Post

Marleen Down even pointed out that what Obama wants to do is transfer them from one prison to a worse one. At least in Gitmo they can get out for more than an hour a day, and talk to each other.

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/01/opinion/dowd-bottoms-up-lame-duck.html?_r=0

But you want me to actually entertain the notion that he is serious because you are too stupid to inform yourself of what is actually occurring.

Did you know that force feeding is a violation of international law? Isn't Obama the supposedly the champion of human rights and international law?

Oh really? So you and your RW ilk can turn around and accuse him of being a King?

Site the power that gives him that authority please.

Thanks.

 

[MarcATL]

Well, what, then? If we all agree it can't be in the U.S. because these guys shouldn't have American Constitutional protections, then why NOT Cuba? Good place for a prisoners-of-war camp. Close, but not too close. Ocean around it on three sides.

I think as long as Muslims do this terrorism stuff, Cuba is as good a place to hold them as any. No torture, I agree. But that's for our sake, not theirs. We don't have to turn them loose to kill again as well.

We are a nation of laws, are we not?

Our Courts should be more than enough to put them on trial and get a conviction.

But this endless detention w/o being charged...that's unConstitutional.

It's NOT unconstitutional if they are held on non-USA territory. And if they are not Americans to start with.

That's the whole point.

It's being done in our name. The location is just a technicality.

Is Gitmo considered Cuba? Or is it considered America?

If the former, I'd like to know since when have America and Cuba been partners.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

I think he will?

Do you think he'll succeed?

Do you want him to be successful in that endeavor?

He could've and should've done it on the first day of his presidency. Better late than never, but I sort of doubt he's sincere. Otherwise he'd have done it already.

Congress will not let him close it. READ!

But it is his fault of course...

Not true. The only thing Congress blocked was spending funds on transferring the prisoners to American soil. He actually has the authority to simply release everyone. That, of course, would take both conviction and guts.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

I think he will?

Do you think he'll succeed?

Do you want him to be successful in that endeavor?

Do you actually believe that he wants to close Gitmo? Are you aware that he actually has the authority to release anyone from Gitmo he wants to, yet he hasn't used it once? He does like blaming other people for his lack of action, and there are a few people that believe him. That list grows smaller every single day.

Dana Milbank actually has the gall to suggest that Obama actually do his job.

Dana Milbank: At Obama?s press conference, a presidential bystander - The Washington Post

Marleen Down even pointed out that what Obama wants to do is transfer them from one prison to a worse one. At least in Gitmo they can get out for more than an hour a day, and talk to each other.

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/01/opinion/dowd-bottoms-up-lame-duck.html?_r=0

But you want me to actually entertain the notion that he is serious because you are too stupid to inform yourself of what is actually occurring.

Did you know that force feeding is a violation of international law? Isn't Obama the supposedly the champion of human rights and international law?

Oh really? So you and your RW ilk can turn around and accuse him of being a King?

Site the power that gives him that authority please.

Thanks.

Is Maureen Dowd a right wing conspiracy nut that hates Obama?

It’s true that Congress put restrictions on transfers of individuals to other countries with bad security situations. But, since 2012, Congress has granted authority to the secretary of defense to waive those restrictions on a case-by-case basis. The administration hasn’t made use of that power once. So it’s a little stale to blame Congress at this point.

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/01/opinion/dowd-bottoms-up-lame-duck.html?_r=0

 

[Quantum Windbag]

We are a nation of laws, are we not?

Our Courts should be more than enough to put them on trial and get a conviction.

But this endless detention w/o being charged...that's unConstitutional.

It's NOT unconstitutional if they are held on non-USA territory. And if they are not Americans to start with.

That's the whole point.

It's being done in our name. The location is just a technicality.

Is Gitmo considered Cuba? Or is it considered America?

If the former, I'd like to know since when have America and Cuba been partners.

It is an American Military base, and they are, effectively, prisoners of war.

 

[williepete]

Site the power that gives him that authority please.

Thanks.

This is High School civics:
http://www.usconstitution.net/xconst_A2Sec2.html

Article II Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, the Commander in Chief clause, states that "[t]he President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States."

GITMO is a U.S. military installation. He can move it, close it or transfer the prisoners any time he wants.

Congress 'passing laws' to keep Obama from closing GITMO? More High School level civics:
http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_law.html

 

[rdean]

Funny how selective Republicans are. They point to PEW research until PEW says only 6% of scientists are Republican. Then they hate PEW. A bunch of stinking liars.

Then they say everyone should listen to the Generals, until the Generals say close GITMO, then they are just stupid sheep blindly following the Commander in Chief. Republicans have an answer for everything.

 

[Papageorgio]

Obama has been trying to close it for years.

The republicans fight every effort

How can he be fought?

It's an executive decision to close it and he hasn't. No one can stop him if he really wanted to.

 

[Papageorgio]

I think he will?

Do you think he'll succeed?

Do you want him to be successful in that endeavor?

He could've and should've done it on the first day of his presidency. Better late than never, but I sort of doubt he's sincere. Otherwise he'd have done it already.

Congress will not let him close it. READ!

But it is his fault of course...

It's an executive decision, Congress has no say on whether it stays open or it closes.