Guantanamo Bay prison 'must close' - UN rights chief

It is so infuriating that one of the promises of our Liar in Chief while he was campaigning before the 2008 election was that he was going to close Gitmo.

I have seen the documentaries. It makes me sick to my stomach. You have human beings that have never been charged with a crime, some have even been exonerated and have orders for their release; they sit there years after the adjudication. There are men that have sat there for 10 years with no habeas corpus rights whatsoever. It is a crime against all humanity.

Now there are approximately, depending on the source, 100 men participating in a hunger strike. You know what they do there down in good ol gitmo???? They shove tubes up their noses against their will to provide them with sustenance so that they might not die.

I am gonna tell you straight up: This is not in my name. I am ashamed, bewildered, and mortified.

The UN human rights chief, Navi Pillay, has urged the US to close Guantanamo Bay, saying the indefinite detention of many inmates there without charge or trial violates international law.

Ms Pillay said about half of 166 prisoners had been cleared to transfer either home or to third countries.

She also said she was "deeply disappointed" that the US was not honouring its pledge to close the camp.

It opened in 2002 to hold terrorism suspects after the 9/11 attacks.

President Barack Obama moved to close the facility at the US naval base in Cuba, but his plans to try suspects in US civilian courts were blocked by Congress.

reply to post by GrantedBail

I am gonna tell you straight up: This is not in my name. I am ashamed, bewildered, and mortified.

I guess you are not a U.S taxpayer then, since they are the ones making sure the charade can go on by paying taxes. It does´t really matter what you say on the matter, for or against it, if you still pay those taxes funding these transgressions.

Nice democracy you got there by the way. But i guess most other countriess are the same kind of "democracies", which means, not really a democracy, since the rulers do what they want without listening to the people that pay their salaries much, if at all.

reply to post by NeoVain

The people running this show don't really need our taxes to do anything. The taxes are just lighter weights for the "non-prisoners".

This situation has been a global scenario long before the United States existed. It's on all of us.

The whole topic is meaningless for you to be distracted by.

Originally posted by GrantedBail
They shove tubes up their noses against their will to provide them with sustenance so that they might not die.

They did the same thing to patients in mental health facilities and probably still do. Only a few people complained and it was decades before a period of deinstitutionalization began.

It baffles me why we have a president, who happens to be a Nobel Peace Prize winner, in support of keeping this hell hole of torture open.

Originally posted by GrantedBail
It is so infuriating that one of the promises of our Liar in Chief while he was campaigning before the 2008 election was that he was going to close Gitmo.

So in a dictatorship...I am with you.

The President has repeatedly tried to close Guantanamo, but the GOP has repeatedly blocked him and hammered him in the press...bringing terrorists to our shores! No US trials! No terroists in US Prisons.

So we try and convince middle eastern countries to take back those prisoners...very few have agreed and only with those prisoners that appear the most innocent.

Yes...some of those prisoners are not a threat...and some of them definetly are.

So what is your suggestion? Release them all? Where? How?

To infer that Pres. Obama hasn't tried to close Guantanamo is not supported by reality...

Executive Order to close Gitmo

Updated: Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 | By Robert Farley

On his second full day in office, President Obama issued an executive order to review the disposition of prisoners being held at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and ordered that the detention facility be closed within a year.
www.politifact.com...

Congress balks at Obama's plan

Updated: Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 | By Catharine Richert

www.politifact.com...

From there it has been a battle ever since...

reply to post by Indigo5


Yea this is pretty much the fact of the matter.

The GOP blocked Obama's attempts to close Gitmo but he did try. This one you can't really pin on him.

As bad as it sounds there, it will house as many of us as it can when the time comes. I'm going to pray for them, cuz one day i might be with them.

Originally posted by Hopechest
reply to post by Indigo5

 

The GOP blocked Obama's attempts to close Gitmo but he did try. This one you can't really pin on him.

Obama is the Commander in Chief and Gitmo is completely a US military operation, so he has final say. He could close it down tomorrow and release the innocent "detainees", i.e. prisoners/victims, and send those that are security to risks to US military stockades anywhere else.

This "the GOP congress is stopping Obama from closing Gitmo" is a total fabrication.

its a human rights disgrace..

shame on America..

1st: Where are we supposed to release these people back to? Most of their home countries don't want them back and there's nowhere in the United States that we can put them.

2nd: As another poster pointed out, Obama tried to close Gitmo, however it was blocked by the GOP. Again, NIMBY ruled the day and we can't put these people anywhere.

My prediction is that many if not all of these people will die in jail. Never getting a trial, or being released anywhere.

It's not right, it's not fair, but that's life I guess.

Originally posted by MrInquisitive

Originally posted by Hopechest
reply to post by Indigo5

 

The GOP blocked Obama's attempts to close Gitmo but he did try. This one you can't really pin on him.

Obama is the Commander in Chief and Gitmo is completely a US military operation, so he has final say. He could close it down tomorrow and release the innocent "detainees", i.e. prisoners/victims, and send those that are security to risks to US military stockades anywhere else.

This "the GOP congress is stopping Obama from closing Gitmo" is a total fabrication.

WTF are you talking about...I am all for varying opinions, but the President signed an Executive Order to close Guantanomo and the GOP PASSED LAWS forbidding the transfer of "those that are security to risks to US military stockades".

So no offense, but that claim is disputed by facts, reality and law.

Congress Bars Gitmo Transfers
online.wsj.com...

Originally posted by Taissa
It baffles me why we have a president, who happens to be a Nobel Peace Prize winner, in support of keeping this hell hole of torture open.

Its the Pentagon and CIA who decide these things not the president.

Originally posted by NeoVain

I am gonna tell you straight up: This is not in my name. I am ashamed, bewildered, and mortified.

I guess you are not a U.S taxpayer then, since they are the ones making sure the charade can go on by paying taxes. It does´t really matter what you say on the matter, for or against it, if you still pay those taxes funding these transgressions.

We pay the tribute the federals demand to avoid the violence of their enforcement agents -- violence against our person, our families, our property.

Ignoring government crimes to secure a few minutes, days, months of peace does not mean we support these criminals willingly. It just means we are either brain-dead stupid or cowards in the face of overwhelming, naked, lethal force.

At least that's the case so far. That could all change in an instant. We can hope.

reply to post by GrantedBail


While I totally agree that GITMO should have been closed long ago, I'm sensing a little ambiguity in your OP.

Specifically, this opening statement;

It is so infuriating that one of the promises of our Liar in Chief while he was campaigning before the 2008 election was that he was going to close Gitmo.

Just to be followed by this quote from your source article for which you didn't provide a link;

President Barack Obama moved to close the facility at the US naval base in Cuba, but his plans to try suspects in US civilian courts were blocked by Congress.

President Obama is not a dictator and he never promised to become one once elected. Once elected, he did everything in his power to see that the prison got closed but as usual, congress blocked his every effort.

I happen to agree with the UN rights chief regarding GITMO, but unfortunately he's gonna have to wait until we can replace a few more members of congress before we can make it happen.

reply to post by ispyed


So what you're saying is that the Pentagon and the C.I.A. run the country and there's nothing we or The President of The United States of America can do about it. Is that your position?