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Bush Decides to Keep Guantánamo Open

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posted on Oct, 21 2008 @ 09:08 AM
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Bush Decides to Keep Guantánamo Open


www.nytimes.com

WASHINGTON — Despite his stated desire to close the American prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, President Bush has decided not to do so, and never considered proposals drafted in the State Department and the Pentagon that outlined options for transferring the detainees elsewhere, according to senior administration officials.

Mr. Bush’s top advisers held a series of meetings at the White House this summer after a Supreme Court ruling in June cast doubt on the future of the American detention center. But Mr. Bush adopted the view of his most hawkish advisers that closing Guantánamo would involve too many legal and political risks to be acceptable, now or any time soon, the officials said.

The administration is proceeding on the assumption that Guantánamo will remain open not only for the rest of Mr. Bush’s presidency but also well beyond, the officials said, as the site for military tribunals of those facing terrorism-related charges and for the long prison sentences that could follow convictions.

The effect of Mr. Bush’s stance is to leave in place a prison that has become a reviled symbol of the administration’s fight against terrorism, and to leave another contentious foreign policy decision for the next president.
(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 21-10-2008 by grover]



posted on Oct, 21 2008 @ 09:08 AM
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Why doesn't this surprise me one bit?

For a man who is supposedly "saved" and "born again" he certainly has a tortured history with the truth much less with simple human decency.

He is an embarrassment and a shame to this country.

He couldn't be honorable or decent if you held a shotgun to his head.

I fully expect bush minor to slither away into the sunset never to be heard from again unless it is before the International Tribunal for war crimes.

What charity would want him?

www.nytimes.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 21-10-2008 by grover]



posted on Oct, 21 2008 @ 09:32 AM
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Thanks Grover!


Both presidential candidates, Senators John McCain and Barack Obama, have called for closing Guantánamo and could reverse Mr. Bush’s policy, though probably not quickly since neither has spelled out precisely how to deal with some of the thorniest legal consequences of shutting the prison.


I find it almost amusing that the 'decision' could keep Mr. Bush's hospitality center open "well beyond" his departure..., at Mr. Cheney's insistence.


I suspect that at least ONE of those detained at the facility have real dirt on the administration. Or perhaps the fact is that we shouldn't be detaining these people at all. They don't want it found out that this is a facade, meant to give the public the impression that the "war on terror" is anything other than the defense-contractor's money pit that it truly is. Just like the "war on drugs."


Mr. Cheney and his chief of staff, David S. Addington, have made it clear in the internal discussions this year that keeping Guantánamo open under a new president would validate the administration’s decisions dealing with terrorists, the officials said.


So the decision requires 'validation' at the cost of human rights. I guess maybe war-crime trials are called for here.


Closing Guantánamo would most likely mean abandoning prosecutions against some detainees and risking the release of others who still pose a threat to the United States and its allies.


Awww, they wouldn't get to play kangaroo court anymore; poor babies. After 7 years, and all the conditioning they've been through. After dissecting their lives, their psyche and their place in the world 'of terror' they would get out and STILL be a threat? Gee boys, what then ARE you accomplishing by violating human rights codes and vilifying the American people to the world?



posted on Oct, 21 2008 @ 09:35 AM
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Usually presidents are paid 200k to speak, after they leave office. I just wonder how much this pres will be paid to speak after he leaves office. Maybe chavez can get him to speak, up for socialism, lol.

[edit on 10/21/2008 by andy1033]



posted on Oct, 21 2008 @ 09:37 AM
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But those people are terrorist combatants in those camps!



It is pathetic that the reality of the situation is so obvious, and yet the situation is still allowed to continue. What is scary is that those who 'watch' the prisoners all seem to buy into the bull# completely.

I was playing CS: Source the other day with some guys posted down in Gitmo the other day. I said "man, that sucks", and they all replied that it didn't suck because they got to watch all those terrorists.

I can not say it speaks for everyone posted there, but those guys in the game and others (6 others) I have spoken to who are posted there are all under the impression that they are guarding nothing but guilty men.

Don't try and tell them otherwise...or you should be there too in their opinion. Does the posting breed ignorance, or do you post the ignorant?

Once again, I realize this doesn't speak for the entire military or even all of those stationed in Cuba...god, I shouldn't have to 'de-rail' protect my postings.



posted on Oct, 21 2008 @ 09:40 AM
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Do they not know that alot of people that where tortured by america, where just people taht where grassed on for nothing more, than someone did not like them. It had nothing to do with them being terrorists.

I whole system is bull. The people that should be in those camps, are the ones that made up to america, about alot of the innocent people being tortured by america now.



posted on Oct, 21 2008 @ 09:41 AM
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Unfortunately, this is yet another example to the world of American hypocrisy. Public statements of higher principal, followed eventually by private amorality, relying on the amnesia of the media's 'eternal-now' to hide the disconnect.

Shameful. I agree with Maxmars: we must question the motives. I find his hypothesis now more plausible than the statement that "they're all potential terrorists".



posted on Oct, 21 2008 @ 10:48 AM
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These people could just as easily be held in one of the supermax prisons we have... but the issue the bush minor administration had with that was that they did not want due process to apply to them.



posted on Oct, 21 2008 @ 10:55 AM
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Don't sweat it too much Grover. I am sure Obama will walk in and close it. Then he will move the terrorists onto mainland and give them their day in court and all of our constitutional rights.



posted on Oct, 21 2008 @ 10:58 AM
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If were are as we claim, a nation ruled by laws, then yes they deserve to be given a fair hearing. AND if they are found guilty punished accordingly and if found innocent, freed.

Being held indefinitely violates the constituition on several levels.



posted on Oct, 21 2008 @ 11:13 AM
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I don't see the need to close this facility. The actions have already been brought out before the public and they are now in the spotlight. Everything that has happened there, dose not now and will not just due to the fact the this facility is under the spotlight.

Even if they did close the Guantanamo facility what difference would it make? All the prisoners would be shipped off to other prisons as well as the workers and the Guantanamo facility would be closed. It's a huge waste of time and money, good call Bush.







 
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