Analysis on 7th Guantánamo Anniversary Shows Status of Detainees Largely Based on Nationality. Government and Commentators Overstate Difficulty in Closing Prison Camp

Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) NEW YORK - January 12

Today, attorneys for Guantánamo detainees held a conference call to discuss their report on closing Guantánamo, including the newest and most comprehensive numbers and lists of detainee status by nationality. The three simple steps are: 1) send those who can go home home, 2) secure safe haven for those who cannot, and 3) charge those who can be charged and try them in ordinary federal criminal court.

Said Vincent Warren, Executive Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, “On the seventh anniversary of the arrival of the first detainees it turns out the single most important factor in determining who still remains at Guantánamo is nationality— whether we're talking about the approximately 60 men who cannot be returned home and need other countries to take them in or about which countries have had the clout to get their people home. Closing the place down is not the great challenge it’s being made out to be. Let us close Guantánamo without delay and close this shameful chapter in our nation’s history. Let’s do it and be done with it.”

Yesterday on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” President-elect Obama called closing the infamous prison camp “more difficult than a lot of people realize,” yet the attorneys who filed the first cases on behalf of the detainees and are more knowledgeable about the issue than most disagree.

“One of the most important things President Obama can do is shut down the fatally flawed military commissions on Day 1,” said Lieutenant Commander William Kuebler, U.S. military defense counsel for Canadian juvenile Omar Khadr. “If he does not act in the first six days of his administration, he will be the first president in U.S. history to preside over the trial of a child soldier for war crimes.”

Discussed during the call were three simple steps to closing the prison camp and an overview of the landscape the next president will inherit next Tuesday. Attorneys described the ways President Obama will need to resolve issues related to:

· The approximately 200 men who are in indefinite detention due to stalled negotiations with their home countries and the government’s refusal to embrace a charge or release policy;

· The 17 Uighurs ordered by a federal judge to be released into the US;

· The more than 40 other men who cannot be released to their home countries for fear of torture or persecution;

· The pending military commission processes, such as the imminent military commission trial of an alleged child soldier;

· The status of the habeas and appeals court litigation; and,

· The debilitating conditions for the hundreds of men still detained at Guantánamo.

For a copy of the report, click here http://ccrjustice.org/learn-more/reports/report%3A-closing-guant%C3%A1namo-and-restoring-rule-law.

CCR has led the legal battle over Guantánamo for the last six years – sending the first ever habeas attorney to the base and sending the first attorney to meet with a former CIA “ghost detainee.” CCR has been responsible for organizing and coordinating more than 500 pro bono lawyers across the country in order to represent the men at Guantánamo, ensuring that nearly all have the option of legal representation. CCR represented the detainees with co-counsel in the most recent argument before the Supreme Court in 2007.

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/01/12-9

Your comments pretty much illustrate what I was saying. Someone writes something you don't like, (or understand, because it was a response to someone else) and you dismiss it as "blather"---and then wax on (and on) about your own opinions, secure in your knowledge that you would never blather.

I'm sure this will probably earn me another nasty comment from you, but really we should probably just ignore each other. Find someone else's face you can get into.

Kitt (who misquotes me in his response) here's just the first hit that comes up about Iran and nuclear deveopment:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7336089.stm

It's really not that hard. There's this wonderful tool called "google."

For all you others: You need to stop you denial and face the facts that everyone thought Saddam had WMD as far back as 1998:

"Saddam's goal ... is to achieve the lifting of U.N. sanctions while retaining and enhancing Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs. We cannot, we must not and we will not let him succeed." -- Madeline Albright, 1998

"Iraq made commitments after the Gulf War to completely dismantle all weapons of mass destruction, and unfortunately, Iraq has not lived up to its agreement." -- Barbara Boxer, November 8, 2002

"There's no question that Saddam Hussein is a threat... Yes, he has chemical and biological weapons. He's had those for a long time. But the United States right now is on a very much different defensive posture than we were before September 11th of 2001... He is, as far as we know, actively pursuing nuclear capabilities, though he doesn't have nuclear warheads yet. If he were to acquire nuclear weapons, I think our friends in the region would face greatly increased risks as would we." -- Wesley Clark on September 26, 2002

"What is at stake is how to answer the potential threat Iraq represents with the risk of proliferation of WMD. Baghdad's regime did use such weapons in the past. Today, a number of evidences may lead to think that, over the past four years, in the absence of international inspectors, this country has continued armament programs." -- Jacques Chirac, October 16, 2002

"The community of nations may see more and more of the very kind of threat Iraq poses now: a rogue state with weapons of mass destruction, ready to use them or provide them to terrorists. If we fail to respond today, Saddam and all those who would follow in his footsteps will be emboldened tomorrow." -- Bill Clinton in 1998

"In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including Al Qaeda members, though there is apparently no evidence of his involvement in the terrible events of September 11, 2001. It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons. Should he succeed in that endeavor, he could alter the political and security landscape of the Middle East, which as we know all too well affects American security." -- Hillary Clinton, October 10, 2002

"Saddam Hussein's regime represents a grave threat to America and our allies, including our vital ally, Israel. For more than two decades, Saddam Hussein has sought weapons of mass destruction through every available means. We know that he has chemical and biological weapons. He has already used them against his neighbors and his own people, and is trying to build more. We know that he is doing everything he can to build nuclear weapons, and we know that each day he gets closer to achieving that goal." -- John Edwards, Oct 10, 2002

"The debate over Iraq is not about politics. It is about national security. It should be clear that our national security requires Congress to send a clear message to Iraq and the world: America is united in its determination to eliminate forever the threat of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction." -- John Edwards, Oct 10, 2002

"I share the administration's goals in dealing with Iraq and its weapons of mass destruction." -- Dick Gephardt in September of 2002

"Iraq does pose a serious threat to the stability of the Persian Gulf and we should organize an international coalition to eliminate his access to weapons of mass destruction. Iraq's search for weapons of mass destruction has proven impossible to completely deter and we should assume that it will continue for as long as Saddam is in power." -- Al Gore, 2002

"We are in possession of what I think to be compelling evidence that Saddam Hussein has, and has had for a number of years, a developing capacity for the production and storage of weapons of mass destruction." -- Bob Graham, December 2002

"Saddam Hussein is not the only deranged dictator who is willing to deprive his people in order to acquire weapons of mass destruction." -- Jim Jeffords, October 8, 2002

"We have known for many years that Saddam Hussein is seeking and developing weapons of mass destruction." -- Ted Kennedy, September 27, 2002

"There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein's regime is a serious danger, that he is a tyrant, and that his pursuit of lethal weapons of mass destruction cannot be tolerated. He must be disarmed." -- Ted Kennedy, Sept 27, 2002

"I will be voting to give the president of the United States the authority to use force - if necessary - to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security." -- John F. Kerry, Oct 2002

"The threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real, but as I said, it is not new. It has been with us since the end of that war, and particularly in the last 4 years we know after Operation Desert Fox failed to force him to reaccept them, that he has continued to build those weapons. He has had a free hand for 4 years to reconstitute these weapons, allowing the world, during the interval, to lose the focus we had on weapons of mass destruction and the issue of proliferation." -- John Kerry, October 9, 2002

There's way more where that comes from.

Get your heads out of the sand and stop being such mindless Greenwald sycophants.