Obama to order Guantanamo Bay prison closed

Obama to order Guantanamo Bay prison closed

edition.cnn.com

President-elect Barack Obama plans to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay as early as his first week in office to show a break from the Bush administration's approach to the war on terror, according to two officials close to the transition.

(visit the link for the full news article)

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[edit on 12/1/2009 by Mirthful Me]

This is something that needed to be done years ago, as soon as the torture scandal was released to the public.

I know this is from CNN so its only partly true, but i do agree with his standing on the matter, close it, do it constitutionally and have the people who have actually commited crimes, tried and punished under law.

Any Thoughts?

edition.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Mod Edit: Breaking News Forum Submission Guidelines – Please Review This Link.


[edit on 12/1/2009 by Mirthful Me]

All I have to say is - it's what he said he would do. It's the right thing to do. And it's awful quiet in here...

My thought is that just this weekend I heard him say, from his own mouth, exactly the opposite.
www.washingtontimes.com...

President-elect Barack Obama said Sunday that some of his campaign promises will have to wait - domestic-policy changes may be on hold because of the dire economic situation, and legal and national security concerns have postponed his promised closure of Guantanamo Bay.

This was Obama speaking directly and concisely on Sunday's 'This Week' program.

My thoughts also are that, as has been the case since day one, Mr. Obama's message changes like the wind and never settles in one place or remains constant enough for anyone to know exactly what he's doing. I guess it's as good a way as any to try and make everyone like him... don't care for his message today? Wait until tomorrow and I'm sure he'll get around to you.

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
All I have to say is - it's what he said he would do. It's the right thing to do. And it's awful quiet in here...

6 minutes, BH. Would have had my post up sooner, but I had to search a link to make sure my response was backed up with evidence.

reply to post by burdman30ott6


hmm i read that story as well, it is intriguing, but then again, what presidential candidate hasn't pulled back his promises after election?

This has become the norm among our elected officials, even though i think that Obama will follow through with most of those, he's not really giving us the hope he did when he was elected.

reply to post by tothetenthpower


The problem is, one day after he himself said that Gitmo's closure will most likely have to wait, we have his talking heads making a big to-do over how it will likely be closed "within Obama's first week" in the office. Either his lines of communication between himself and his aides is faulty, he's changed his message in 24 hours, or the message of whoever's pulling the strings behind the scenes is getting crossed by the different sides of the cube... take your pick.

BTW, they may want to wait until after the Gaza conflict before closing Gitmo and releasing it's inhabitants. After all, I'm sure it would make for great headlines if 95% of the released enemy combatants were killed in downtown Gaza after an IDF mortar struck their staging grounds.

Someone's giving conflicting information.

Sorry about the 6 minutes, I didn't realize it was a new post.

Here's the text of the Interview

STEPHANOPOULOS: You also agreed on Guantanamo when you say you want to shut it down. You say you're still going to shut it down. Is it turning out to be harder than you expected, will you get that done in the first 100 days?

OBAMA: It is more difficult than I think a lot of people realize and we are going to get it done but part of the challenge that you have is that you have a bunch of folks that have been detained, many of whom who may be very dangerous who have not been put on trial or have not gone through some adjudication. And some of the evidence against them may be tainted even though it's true. And so how to balance creating a process that adheres to rule of law, habeas corpus, basic principles of Anglo American legal system, by doing it in a way that doesn't result in releasing people who are intent on blowing us up.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So not necessarily first 100 days.

OBAMA: That's a challenge. I think it's going to take some time and our legal teams are working in consultation with our national security apparatus as we speak to help design exactly what we need to do. But I don't want to be ambiguous about this. We are going to close Guantanamo and we are going to make sure that the procedures we set up are ones that abide by our constitution. That is not only the right thing to do but it actually has to be part of our broader national security strategy because we will send a message to the world that we are serious about our values.

I think the cnn story is wrong. A leak that isn't true. It's all over the internet, though... It's still what he said he'd do.

what about the rest of the secret prisons secreted about the world in places such as romania?

without them also being aknowledged and closed the same cycle will continue for theres a reason for them being in romania,illegal practices.

Well, we haven't had an attack on this country since 9-11. They must be doing something right.

Originally posted by MBF
Well, we haven't had an attack on this country since 9-11. They must be doing something right.

This is off topic, but if they were doing anything right in the first place there never would have been a 9-11.

On topic, I don't care what message he sends out or what his aides say, I just hope he closes that prison. It's a symbol of our oppressive imperialism, and most of the world despises us for it. It's our version of the Hanoi Hilton.

Australia was asked to take the prisoners.

Australia rejects Guantanamo inmates

Australia will not take any former inmates of the US' Guantanamo Bay detention centre, acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard says.

Ms Gillard said the federal government had advised the US - on Friday, US time, Saturday, Australian time - that Australia would refuse the American request.

It was the second request from the US.

"Early in 2008, we received a request from the US government to consider resettlement of a group of detainees,'' Ms Gillard told reporters in Melbourne on Saturday.

"That request was denied by the Australian government.

"In December 2008, we received a second request.

"We have considered that request and last night Australian time, Friday US time, we advised the US government that we would not be agreeing to those resettlement requests.

Rightly so, we refused the request.

Closing Guantanamo is going to be a face saving transfer.

Those people, innocent or guilty will never see a fair trial.

They know to much!

I oppose the use of torture with every bone in my body never the less closing Guantanamo is not a good idea by any means . No One in there right mind would want the detainees housed anywhere near there backyard including those who support the closing of Guantanamo . Letting the detainees go free is hardly a sane notion . Really the US allies who have taken part in the War on Terror have gotten a good deal out of Guantanamo . Take Australia and New Zealand for example neither country has had to worry about housing detainees in the same way they did Axis POW during WW2 .

I oppose the use of torture with every bone in my body never the less closing Guantanamo is not a good idea by any means . No One in there right mind would want the detainees housed anywhere near there backyard including those who support the closing of Guantanamo . Letting the detainees go free is hardly a sane notion . Really the US allies who have taken part in the War on Terror have gotten a good deal out of Guantanamo . Take Australia and New Zealand for example neither country has had to worry about housing detainees in the same way they did Axis POW during WW2 .

the reason it is being closed is most of the inmates are actually innocent of any wrong doing , there is zero justification for keeping them there.
they are not giving them trials as there is no evidence for any crimes.

the nature of the closure pretty much clarifies that gauntanimo was full of innocent people who were used for propaganda purposes.
there probs were those that were guilty but its looking like it was one big charade.

[edit on 13-1-2009 by mesaX]

To clear up the confusion at the beginning of the thread, it seems Obama intends to issue the order right away, but it will take time (perhaps a year) because some of the detainees are charged and must have trials. And some are fearful to return to their countries.

These comments sparked questions as to whether Mr Obama would keep his campaign promise on Guantanamo, so his advisers are now letting it be known that he intends to act quickly, says the BBC's Jonathan Beale in Washington.

However, the Obama administration will have to work out where the remaining inmates will go and where to try those detainees the US believes have committed terrorist acts, our correspondent says.
...
In broad terms, the idea seems to be to abandon the military tribunals authorised under the Military Commissions Act 2006, setting up a trial procedure in the US instead.

BBC

Originally posted by xpert11
Letting the detainees go free is hardly a sane notion .

No one is suggesting that the doors be opened and everyone run free.

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
And it's awful quiet in here...

You gave it an entire 3 minutes after the OP posted to say that.

Originally posted by burdman30ott6
Mr. Obama's message changes like the wind ....

Yep. It'll be interesting to see what he decides next week.

Do they get trials? If so, they have to be housed somewhere. So where will that be? Are we back to keeping GITMO open for a long while? Will he stick them in federal prisons? BAD MOVE. Will he send them overseas? No body wants to import terrorists.

There is no magic wand to wave saying 'GITMO is closed now'.
Some expect that is what will happen. (take a look at the DU sometime!)
But It's complicated.

He is just going to keep making excuses why he can't close it yet. he is doing it to make himself look good with the people nothing more. Same reason he wont talk about gaza he is trying to preserve his image.

Face it its never going to close, more empty promises.


(Just my OPINION)

reply to post by xpert11

I oppose the use of torture nevertheless closing Guantanamo is not a good idea by any means. No One in there right mind would want the detainees housed anywhere near there backyard including those who support the closing of Guantanamo .

How about sending them all to Crawford, Texas? That’s were this nightmare began. It would be appropriate (and just) to end it there. Appoint Dumbya to be the Honorary Warden!

Letting the detainees go free is hardly a sane notion. Really the US allies who have taken part in the War on Terror have gotten a good deal out of Guantanamo. Take Australia and New Zealand for example neither country has had to worry about housing detainees in the same way they did Axis POW during WW2.

I suppose we are talking about 300 or so prisoners at Git-mo. The real problem for America is that on half the detainees we don’t have evidence that would pass judicial review. And for various reasons we will refuse to produce the evidence on the other half of detainees. We seem to lack faith in the very system we claim to be protecting at the expense of our own rights not to mention those universally accepted rights we have denied to the detainees.

That is the predictable consequence of BAD leadership to the n-th degree!

Close Git-mo on January 20. Bring the inmates to the Federal Maximum Security Prison at Marion, Indiana. Allow 90 days for prosecutors to bring charges or release the inmates HERE! In the US of A. Land of the Free, Home of the Brave. It’s our fault. WE must pay the price. If we had followed the LAW all along we would not be here today.

That is the inevitable outcome of BAD leadership to the n-th degree!

[edit on 1/13/2009 by donwhite]

reply to post by burdman30ott6

This was Obama speaking directly and concisely on Sunday's 'This Week' program. My thoughts also are that, as has been the case since day one, Mr. Obama's message changes like the wind and never settles in one place . .

The Washington Times (Dr Sun Moon's propaganda sheet) is equal to or worse than FOX News (Rupert Murdoch's propaganda channel) and I avoid wasting my time by NOT reading or watching either just as I would avoid Typhoid Mary were she alive today.

A closed mind? No, not at all. I just choose not to fill my mind with trash.

[edit on 1/13/2009 by donwhite]