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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
From Salon: The War Room
Monday, Jan. 12, 2009 15:25 EST
Obama will order closure of Guantanamo prison
On Sunday, Barack Obama told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos that it probably wouldn't be possible to close the infamous U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay within the first 100 days of his administration. Some observers immediately took this as a sign the president-elect was backing away from his campaign promises on the issue, and that he wouldn't make the closure a priority. Naturally, this engendered some predictable crowing from the right.
In what certainly seems like a response to the response, on Monday Obama advisors told the Associated Press that an executive order ordering the facility's closure "is expected during Obama's first week on the job -- and possibly on his first day."
Now, that doesn't mean the prison will actually be closed immediately. The AP notes that "Obama's order will direct his administration to figure out what to do with the estimated 250 al-Qaida and Taliban suspects and potential witnesses who are being held at Guantanamo." That's likely to be a complicated job, and various solutions will surely meet with opposition.
― Alex Koppelman
You are correct Mr. Greenwald, Obama is backpedalling away from many of his campaign rhetoric and pledges. I first noticed a chink in the armor when he voted for telecom immunity.
Whenever I hear the President Elect and his staff of devotees talk about the need to look forward I cringe. The base upon which Obama is going to build his legacy rests on the unstable rubble of 8 years of deception, subterfuge and flagrant violations against U.S. & Intl. citizens and the Constitution.
It is cowardly, unpatriotic, unethical and lacking in character to ignore the documented abuses of the law by the outgoing Administration. This isn't fibbing about oral sex with an intern -- no, this is serious stuff about what REALLY happened on 9/11; the Patriot Act [how was it produced so quickly]; the anthrax attacks; the intelligence leading up to the Iraq War; the torture of detainees in secret prisons around the world; contractor misconduct in Iraq & Afghanistan; warrantless wiretapping and illegal surveillance by our Government and U.S. citizens; the response [or lacktherof] to Hurricane Katrina; the complete capitulation to Big Business and how we let Wall Street run wild and now is being bailed out; etc.
Obama does not have the courage to speak out against the abuses. The sad thing is he does not have to any heavy lifting. All he must do is put his support behind Conyers and appoint a Special Prosecutor with subpoena powers and let them go crazy.
Let us have a reckoning. A cleansing. Anything else is denial and complicity.
Thanks, Mr. Ash I was too busy picking my jaw up off the floor.
Life, liberty, our Wheels of Fortune and our sacred Your Honor!
Am-Fm, Fm-Am and factory air-conditioned from our own air-conditioned factory. I can tell by the cut of your tie; you're an American, well, So'm I! Hi there, Howdy, How-d-ye-do? And while we're on the subject, how's the Old Wazoo?
Wazoo? What's that all about?
within a week of being sworn in, but that the actual closing will take longer:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g5EsdlkX6j-O1i9hoC58QVubvgagD95LQ4C80
Advisers say Obama preparing to close Gitmo
By LARA JAKES – 16 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — Advisers to President-elect Barack Obama say one of his first duties in office will be to order the closing of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay. That executive order is expected during Obama's first week on the job — and possibly on his first day, according to two transition team advisers. Both spoke Monday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Obama's order will direct his administration to figure out what to do with the estimated 250 al-Qaida and Taliban suspects and potential witnesses who are being held at Guantanamo.
It's still unlikely the prison would be closed any time soon. Obama last weekend said it would be "a challenge" to close it even within the first 100 days of his administration.
Also, to those who object to the criticism of Obama, while my temptation is to tell you to just stuff it, I'll instead remind you that vibrant criticism is essential to a well-functioning democracy, and that Obama, being a grown up, not only can handle it, but welcomes it, not to mention needs it. He said so himself on numerous occasions. The man himself is a lot tougher and more mature than some of his supporters appear to be.
So, just to be clear: on what evidence do you base your contention that KSM is in fact the 9/11 Mastermind?
Mostly from a book I read once called The 9-11 Commission Final Report. You may have heard of it. It was independent, and often critical, of the Bush administration.
That, and I tend to believe the report from a military judge that contends that KSM and his co-defendants sent him a note saying they would like to confess and plead guilty.
But I suppose this could all be a grand conspiracy to dupe me. What do I know? What do any of us really KNOW, you know? Isn't reality just a subjective concept?
Lad, I think your heart is generally in the right place, but could you come down off your high horse a bit? And try to blow not quite so hard?
Look if you wanted James Earl Jones or Sidney Poiter, that's who you should have voted for. Barack Obama is who won.
I know I shouldn't be, but I nonetheless am amazed at how many people think that Obama should never be criticized, and that anyone who does so, regardless of the merits of the criticism, is being bad.
He should have an air-horn blasted beside his ear every time he engages in the kind of weasel-wording he does here.
He should be legally directed to speak to every family that looses a member in Iraq and Afghanistan between January 20th and whenever he finally orders the withdrawl of US troops, and be forced to explain exactly what the deceased died for.
His family should be moved to New Orleans and have to live in the Ninth Ward, sans either Secret Service protection or basic services, until the city and rest of the Gulf Coast is restored and fully rebuilt.
At the very least.
He must not be spoken ill of -- ever. Even if you praise him one day for something, if you criticize him for something else the next, that is blasphemy.
Personally, I'd cuff him upside the head rather than shake his hand, just to remind him he's still human and isn't my cultural or ethical superior. Of course I'd do the same to the Bishop of Rome if we were to ever meet.
I honestly find it nothing short of creepy, really.
For me, its just disheartening. Even moreso than the frankly insane exchanges in the comments about Gaza.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
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