Okay close Gitmo, then what? - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Botnst · #1 01-25-2009, 08:19 AM

On Gitmo Detainees: Send 'Them Home or to Another Country'
Responding to the president's executive order this week to close the detention camp at Guantanamo, Cuba, Pelosi, the longest serving member on the Intelligence Committee, suggested detainees be sent to their home country or a third country.

"If you look very carefully at what President Obama did this week, it was really brilliant," she said. "It's our first responsibility to protect the American people, as elected officials. And what the president puts forth was very wise. He said he's going to close Guantanamo, take the time to do it. You can't just go down there today and say, everybody out and lock the door. They're going to review the cases, narrow it down, and then go from there."

Pelosi also dismissed a suggestion put forth by Rep. Bill Young, R-Fla., of the Defense Appropriations Committee, that the detainees be housed at Alcatraz, in Pelosi's own district.

"Perhaps he has not visited Alcatraz," Pelosi said. "Bill Young is a great member of Congress and I have a great deal of respect for his opinion. Alcatraz is a tourist attraction. It's a prison that is now sort of like a -- it's a national park."

http://www.abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/Story?id=6724864&page=4

Medmech · #2 01-25-2009, 08:37 AM

and more....

SANAA (Reuters) - Yemen said on Saturday it expected the repatriation soon of 94 Yemenis held at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay prison camp, and vowed it would make sure they did not rejoin the ranks of Islamic militants.
The remarks by Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh came as two men released earlier from Guantanamo appeared on an al Qaeda video posted on Islamist websites to say they had become commanders of the group in Yemen.
The Pentagon said this month that 61 former detainees from its camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, appeared to have returned to fight alongside militants since their release.
Saleh said the United States was expected to release within about three months 94 Yemenis who would undergo "rehabilitation ... to rid them of extremism."
"Security bodies have been instructed to prepare a center for their rehabilitation with a school, health and appropriate facilities and housing so their families can live with them," Saleh told military and security officials in a speech.
A government official said Saleh's speech was based on contacts with U.S. officials before President Barack Obama took office, but that Yemen expected the releases to go ahead under Obama, who has ordered the closure of Guantanamo within a year.
"Imprisonment made us more determined in our conviction ... and today God has blessed us with immigration to the land of jihad (holy war), Yemen," said Said al-Shihri, identified as Guantanamo prisoner number 372, on the video. It said he was a deputy commander of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula group.
The video also showed Mohammed al-Oufi saying he was Guantanamo prisoner 333 and now a field commander of the group.
Yemen, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's ancestral home, joined the U.S.-led "war on terrorism" after the September 11 attacks on U.S. cities in 2001. Continued...

dynalow · #3 01-25-2009, 09:07 AM

The Castle in Kansas.
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/us-military-death-penalty

Speaking of which......

Freedom looms for convicted terrorist

Man behind 1973 N.Y. bomb plot to be released Feb. 19

AP file Khalid Duhham Al-Jawary, 63, is in federal custody, convicted of building a trio of powerful bombs that were part of a 1973 plot to destroy Israeli targets in New York.
updated 3:02 p.m. ET, Sat., Jan. 24, 2009
NEW YORK - In 1973, a young terrorist named Khalid Duhham Al-Jawary entered the United States and quickly began plotting an audacious attack in New York City.

He built three powerful bombs — bombs powerful enough to kill, maim and destroy — and put them in rental cars scattered around town, near Israeli targets.

The plot failed. The explosive devices did not detonate, and Al-Jawary fled the country, escaping prosecution for nearly two decades — until he was convicted of terrorism charges in Brooklyn and sentenced to 30 years in federal penitentiary.......................
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28828003/
PRESUMABLY deported....

Why did we waste all that money on this POS.

POS · #4 01-25-2009, 09:27 AM

I like Gitmo and I like the roll that it plays, but I think at some point you have to start processing what's down there. It doesn't say too much for America and our process of law to jail all those guys then just leave them down there for the next 60 years. Eventually, something has to be done to process them, but I have no idea what a proper solution is.

tyl604 · #5 01-25-2009, 10:26 AM

POS - you are exactly right. We needed to catch these guys but it is not right to keep them in prison forever with no trial. I am not sure how we do it but each of them deserves a day in court and soon. One of the things I did not like about Bush's approach was the failure to give these guys a day in court. I fear giving them access to our US judicial system so I believe a military court is the correct forum; if it is good enough to serve our soldiers, it should be good enough for the Gitmo prisoners.

Honus · #6 01-25-2009, 10:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by POS

I like Gitmo and I like the roll that it plays, but I think at some point you have to start processing what's down there. It doesn't say too much for America and our process of law to jail all those guys then just leave them down there for the next 60 years. Eventually, something has to be done to process them, but I have no idea what a proper solution is.

Same here. I am not clear why they can't fix Gitmo. Why do they need to close it? My guess is that it has become an international symbol for American arrogance, or something.

Botnst · #7 01-25-2009, 12:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dculkin

Same here. I am not clear why they can't fix Gitmo. Why do they need to close it? ....

Campaign promises.

LUVMBDiesels · #8 01-25-2009, 01:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tyl604

POS - you are exactly right. We needed to catch these guys but it is not right to keep them in prison forever with no trial. I am not sure how we do it but each of them deserves a day in court and soon. One of the things I did not like about Bush's approach was the failure to give these guys a day in court. I fear giving them access to our US judicial system so I believe a military court is the correct forum; if it is good enough to serve our soldiers, it should be good enough for the Gitmo prisoners.

Isn't that exactly what they were doing at Gitmo?

QUOTE: "
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba – The Guantanamo Bay war crimes court came to an abrupt halt Wednesday as military judges granted President Barack Obama's request to suspend proceedings while he reviews his predecessor's strategy for prosecuting terrorists.
The judges quickly agreed to a 120-day suspension of the cases of a Canadian accused of killing an American soldier in Afghanistan and five men charged in the Sept. 11 attacks. Similar orders are expected in other pending cases pending before the Guantanamo military commissions."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090121/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_guantanamo_sept11_trial

It is amazing how political perceptions have colored what is really going on there...

I am sure that when we send these prisoners back to Afghanistan and Yemen they will be treated much nicer than we treated them. Afterall getting penned up in an old cargo container is much better then an airconditioned cell in Cuba...

tankdriver · #9 01-25-2009, 01:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dculkin

Same here. I am not clear why they can't fix Gitmo. Why do they need to close it? My guess is that it has become an international symbol for American arrogance, or something.

They need to close because they send whoever they want there for whatever they want and leave them there until they feel like getting around to them.

I don't know how the Al-Jawary article applies, according to the article, he was convicted, served time, and his release has nothing to do with Gitmo. I don't know why they are letting him go, but it doesn't apply here.

It seems to me the expedient thing to do is sort through the files and release to their home countries those least likely to have been terrorists (and hopefully haven't been turned into terrorists by unlawful imprisonment). Exert pressure on said home countries to take those who are of questionable guilt and police them, by themselves or with our aid/intervention. The great friends of the Bush family, the Fahds, shouldn't have a problem with that. The Jordanians already tightly control religion in their country. Others can too. Those we have a case against should be moved to US courts and be tried, and if convicted sent to prisons they won't last very long in.

Hatterasguy · #10 01-25-2009, 02:56 PM

Personaly if I were in charge, I would line all the Gitmo prisoners up and shoot them. If they are dead they can't come back to haunt you and you don't have to feed them either. Kill them all and let God sort them out.

I guess its a good thing I'm not in charge.

POS · #11 01-25-2009, 04:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hatterasguy

Personaly if I were in charge, I would line all the Gitmo prisoners up and shoot them. If they are dead they can't come back to haunt you and you don't have to feed them either. Kill them all and let God sort them out.

I guess its a good thing I'm not in charge.

I'd have voted for you, but I would have feared you'd do the same to the US citizens you didn't like.

LUVMBDiesels · #12 01-25-2009, 04:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by POS

I'd have voted for you, but I would have feared you'd do the same to the US citizens you didn't like.

I for one would only do that to Congress

cudaspaz · #13 01-25-2009, 05:01 PM

In a cunning, yet liberally correct move, Obama could ship the detainees back to Taliban land on one big boat.
Now if the boat mysteriously sinks from a natural storm at sea, oopsie!!!!

Thats 94 dudes that no longer will live to kill again.

I don't think anyone would complain.

Fitz · #14 01-25-2009, 05:05 PM

Israel has been throwing Palestinians into prison and holding them without trial for years. George Bush never could distinguish between his own country and Israel.

Emmerich · #15 01-25-2009, 06:22 PM

Your plan will take effect in a way. Our soldiers will no longer make an effort to take anyone alive, knowing there is no place where they will sit and not be able to come back into the war.

And I wonder exactly why Pelosi thinks Obamas decision has made anyone safer?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hatterasguy

Personaly if I were in charge, I would line all the Gitmo prisoners up and shoot them. If they are dead they can't come back to haunt you and you don't have to feed them either. Kill them all and let God sort them out.

I guess its a good thing I'm not in charge.