Posted on 08/20/2015 5:52:45 PM PDT by Citizen Zed
Pentagon chief Ashton Carter issued a strong statement Thursday in support of closing the United States military prison at Guantanamo Bay.
At a press conference at the Pentagon, Carter said the military prison in Cuba should be closed before President Barack Obama leaves his post in 2016.
“This is not something, in my judgment, that we should leave to the next president,” Carter said, according to AFP.
The defense secretary's reasons for wanting to close Guantanamo — something Obama made a cornerstone of his campaign back in 2009 — are manifold.
"As long as this detention facility remains open, it will remain a rallying cry for jihadi propaganda," Carter said. "It's expensive. ... And not something the president wants to leave to his successor."
Congress has previously opposed measures to transfer detainees to the US mainland.
"Our responsibility is to provide [Congress] with a plan that they can consider that is a responsible one so that people ... can make up their minds," Carter said.
If and when Guantanamo does close, some of the remaining prisoners are to be transferred to other countries while others will likely be headed to US soil.
Carter said the most promising transfer sites on US soil include the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and the naval brig at Charleston, S.C.
"That does not mean those sites will be chosen," he added, according to USA Today.
(Excerpt) Read more at globalpost.com ...
Hope you are right Mr. Mosby. (If Obama can get Congress to approve the Iran deal, he surely can get it to dissolve a treaty with pre-Castro Cuba?)
That's the best idea that I have heard yet!!
Says the newbie self righteous “we are better than that”.
First off— these are not citizens, they are classified as
“Enemy combatants”. You savvy that? They are enemy combatants in a..... war. They meet criterion under the Geneva Convention— of which, by the way, al-Qaeda is not a signatory.
They are therefore just like those who advance the civilian war in WWII. Terrorists IOW.
Gitmo is very American. You might make an argument that “rendtion” pushed the limits. But gitmo is a f’n country club. And it is no longer a rallying point for the jihad. They have that in abundance from their mullahs, without our help.
While we are on the subject of human dignity, please define the continuing group beheadings, shootings and blowing to smithereens with buried bombs.... of “apostates” by the ISIS continuing partnership of al-qaeda conducts. Without benefit of trial or consideration of human dignity or rights.
No, the standard is... kill them. Because they have fatwas that say they may kill us because scripture says they can.
About which, see... and READ about Thomas Jefferson and the Barbary Pirates. These are the same people— who want to bring the world into the 6th century.
Torture and medical experimentation on human beings is not consistent with the morals of any America I know. Even on enemies.
Excuse me but what “torture” and “medical experimentation” are you talking about. Please be specific, so the moderators of this board may understand.
The US has done neither. Utterly specious “Occupy” type of accusation.
What we did do is expose and ferret out entire networks of al-qaeda operatives around the world— this from the interrogation of the enemy combatants.
Very interesting; you couldn’t be more transparent.
Is “Gitmo is an offense to human dignity” an unspoken red line here?
And hell, if you want to know about Al Qaeda networks across the world, just ask Obama and Hillary who openly allied us with AQ in multiple theaters (Libya, Syria). Someone who has been in Gitmo since 2002 or even 2008 isn’t going to know squat about their operations now, that’s a ridiculous excuse.
We respect human dignity even for the most evil of people, even for sworn enemies, because we respect the uniquely divine aspect of humanity placed in all of us by God. There is a standard beneath which we dare not go, not only out of respect for our own humanity, but out of fear of God.
No. Again, please cite the “medical experimentation” and “torture” facts behind your claims.
The legal establishment of the status of the “enemy combatants” was and is conclusively supported by the United Nations joint commission, (with the exception of the human rights commission formerly headed by Quadaffi and Libya) and the treatment of the prisoners is in concurrence with the Geneva Convention. They are not citizens of the US to be accorded jury trial under US law. They are under military jurisdiction and being tried under international law. JUST as the national socialist criminal thugs of Germany were subject to military tribunal, judgement and execution, for crimes against humanity. So this is in complete agreement with many other world wide military tribunals of terrorists and criminals (Bosnia, Serbia, Egypt, Japan, Germany, Italy... the history is quite long- do a little reading).
You think the interrogation is held in clear? In no position to know what networks have been compromised and rolled up, or which continue to be usefully penetrated, from these interrogations. Whether the islamofascists in the WH and the former SecState have chosen or directed to act on them— that is subject to their agenda, which INCLUDES shutting down the Guantanamo facility. When we finally see the SecState’s “private” emails perhaps we will get a better picture. Closing GTMO is an agenda which useful idiots support with phrases like “un-American”. Call up whoever is in charge, after your lead underwear stops glowing from an Iranian or Hamas nuke stateside.
The issue is they are not being tried at all. As you noted, the Nazis were tried by war tribunal and jailed or executed pursuant to the sentence given. In Gitmo, there are no charges and no trials.
The status of the “enemy combatant” is either that of a spy or a pirate. While they are not given access to civilian courts, neither one is subject to indefinite detention without charges or trial.
This may be of interest to you. Make of it what you will.
http://harpers.org/archive/2010/03/the-guantanamo-suicides/
5.56mm
>Closing GTMO is an agenda which useful idiots support with phrases like “un-American”. Call up whoever is in charge, after your lead underwear stops glowing from an Iranian or Hamas nuke stateside.
Seriously? LBJ “Daisy” scare tactics?
Either you are incredibly disrespectful in expecting me to be persuaded by that, or incredibly sad to be consumed and ruled by fear.
That mentality is absolutely un-American and I have zero bones in calling you out on it.
“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
- Benjamin Franklin
Ben is talking about you. You have lost to the terrorists because they have dictated your thoughts and your options, limiting them to barbarism and despotism.
I will not lose to them no matter how much you insist I must cower in fear to the phantoms that have conquered you.
Furthermore... if you understand the first thing about the Islamic way of war, which you clearly do not, it would be plain that the primary method by which they conquer enemies is not physical but psychological. They are cowards by nature; by the time the hordes descend, the enemy is already beaten.
They beat their enemy through psychological warfare, reducing them through acts of savagery to unthinking, reacting, desperate brutes, who alienate all allies and are thus disunited and without assistance when the final stroke arrives. The fear reflex, being one of the strongest impulses in the human mind, is the tool they use to break their enemies down into abandoning everything that makes one strong against them.
The mindset that you have is that of an already-defeated enemy, just waiting for the end. You have completely abandoned the standards of the civilized man, the very standards against which the otherwise flaccid Islamic creed would be impotent, and revealed as the doctrine of savages. Having ceded the moral high ground, all you can think about is survival against an enemy which has cowed you.
They OWN you. They own your mind. And so you have lost. You have adopted the mentality of defeat, and against you they may strike at their leisure. You cannot act appropriately because the intensity of the fear they have drilled into you overrides your ability to think logically and strategically.
If you think you are some warrior holding the line against Islamic conquest, think again. You are fodder waiting to be overrun. They have dictated the terms of the engagement and you have willingly accepted them.
Charles Martel would spit on your cowardice. Try acting like a civilized man and respect your own humanity and the traditions and culture which make us stronger than them, and only then will you find the resolve to truly repel this enemy.
Snap out of it, boy. If you’re an American, act like it, and start honoring the legacy of freedom which you were privileged to receive.
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